Tonight’s story is another pet story (don’t worry — I promise the rest of the stories this month are not all animal ones, although I do have a couple more animal stories to share that I like). But this one won’t make anyone shed tears (I hope) like the previous horse, cat, and rat stories. In fact, I hope this one gets you to laugh, just as I laughed out loud the first time I read it.

I’m not a cat person, but this story still ranks very high on my list of favorite Mimibukuro stories. Enjoy!

The Strange Cat

There was a certain samurai family living near Banchō who never kept any cats. When somebody asked the master of the house why this was, he told them the following:

“There is a reason for it, but it would not do if it were widely known, and so I don’t talk about it. Yet, since you ask me so persistently, I shall tell you.

“Back in my grandfather’s time, we had a cat that we kept for many years. One day, this cat pounced at two or three sparrows perched on the edge of the veranda. The sparrows flew away immediately, but the cat uttered in a child’s voice, ‘Darn it!’

“Startled, my grandfather jumped on the cat and pinned it down. He grabbed a fire poker and raised it up, then snarled with murderous rage: ‘You are a mere beast, yet you speak! How unnatural!’

“The cat replied, ‘But I never spoke a word until now!’

“My grandfather was so startled that his grip loosened, and the cat leapt away and was never seen again. This incident is the reason.”

From that day onward, it was decreed in this household that nobody would ever own a cat, and to this day they strictly adhere to the ban and do not keep cats.