By Clay
That's not to say people in other parts of the world don't love their pets like crazy too, but in a society with fewer and fewer children, there is lots of love to give to Poochi*. Take for instance the practice of clothing pets. Where I am from, one could occasionally see a dog in a T-shirt at a fun public event, but in Japan, I've started to become a bit surprised when I don't see a dog wearing some kind of clothing. What's more, these clothing items are custom fitted for our furry friends. One particularly pampered pet is Merumo, a dog model. She gets carried around in Luis Vitton bags and wears brand name collars and leashes that cost around six to seven hundred dollars. Cats seem to get a lot of hats (they never seem too thrilled about them). I've even seen bunny clothes.
Speaking of bunnies, they are getting popular to the point where the term うさんぽ has entered the language. It means "bunny-walking", and comes from usagi (bunny) and sanpo (walk). There are people meeting up online to schedule bunny meetings in the park.
People love to blog about their pets too (in fact they prefer it to blogging about themselves). I have an associate who's daughter started a blog about her cat shortly after she got it. It became so popular that she has published a calendar and book based on it.
All this love is well and good, but I do wish I saw more efforts to control the stray population. Besides spaying and neutering, adoption is important. I think far too many people go to the pet store to buy a dog costing thousands of dollars when we have animal shelters with pets that need homes. But that is hardly a Japan-only problem, I'm afraid.
This would be a memorial of some sort to a dog, complete with indigenous-style offerings of flowers and a drink (in the case of humans, there can be water or alcohol offered). Judging from the effigy, it must have been a very happy and somewhat cartoonish dog or a breed I'm not familiar with. It got me to thinking about how, even in the afterlife, lots of people around these parts dote upon their pets to a surprising degree.
That's not to say people in other parts of the world don't love their pets like crazy too, but in a society with fewer and fewer children, there is lots of love to give to Poochi*. Take for instance the practice of clothing pets. Where I am from, one could occasionally see a dog in a T-shirt at a fun public event, but in Japan, I've started to become a bit surprised when I don't see a dog wearing some kind of clothing. What's more, these clothing items are custom fitted for our furry friends. One particularly pampered pet is Merumo, a dog model. She gets carried around in Luis Vitton bags and wears brand name collars and leashes that cost around six to seven hundred dollars. Cats seem to get a lot of hats (they never seem too thrilled about them). I've even seen bunny clothes.
Speaking of bunnies, they are getting popular to the point where the term うさんぽ has entered the language. It means "bunny-walking", and comes from usagi (bunny) and sanpo (walk). There are people meeting up online to schedule bunny meetings in the park.
People love to blog about their pets too (in fact they prefer it to blogging about themselves). I have an associate who's daughter started a blog about her cat shortly after she got it. It became so popular that she has published a calendar and book based on it.
All this love is well and good, but I do wish I saw more efforts to control the stray population. Besides spaying and neutering, adoption is important. I think far too many people go to the pet store to buy a dog costing thousands of dollars when we have animal shelters with pets that need homes. But that is hardly a Japan-only problem, I'm afraid.
Shortly after starting the work on this very post, I ran into a poor cat with five babies, pictured below. The mom stopped me with pitiful mewing for some of the food I was eating. I'm afraid that none of them have much of a future outside of being very hungry and sick.
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*"Poochi" is a common Japanese name for dogs, equivalent to English's "Fido".
*"Poochi" is a common Japanese name for dogs, equivalent to English's "Fido".
Thanks for sharing your informative post. I love poochies as well. Japanese are born to be pet lovers.
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Poochie is just one of many wonderful dogs that get rescued from the pound. Poochie is like a little powder puff. Poochie is my robot dog.
There are classes for animals. If you want them to be properly trained, enroll them to a class. It will surely create a good result for your pets. You have nothing to worry for them even if you will out of the house.