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I have two cats. One is Gil, an orange tabby 7-year-old male cat. The other is Miiko, a black and white 6-year-old female cat. They are not a brother and a sister. Some time after I started raising Gil, Miiko came to the space under the eaves of my house and she didn't go anywhere since then, so I started keeping her, too.

I had never kept two cats at the same time until then. I have heard that a new cat is in a stronger position than an old cat, so I tried not to give Gil stress as much as I can. As expected of a new cat, Miiko was strong and she fought back against Gil's threatening.

Now the two cats are spending their time as they please. That said, this summer is too hot for them as well, so they tried to look for cool places and live as comfortable as possible. (H.S)

Where is a cool place?

Cats like cardboard boxes. If Gil finds one, he always tries to get inside it.

Gil is eating the grass in the garden.

Stairs is one of Miiko's favorite places.

Miiko often lies on her back. It must be a comfortable position. But Gil never does like this.

Usually, they don't care about each other but sometimes get friendly.

The Sea of Japan side was hit by a cold wave this weekend.
In Fukui, the snow accumulation of 70 cm was recorded, the first time in seven years.
Although I am used to heavy snowfall, looking at the snow falling all day,
I was anxious how much the snow would accumulate.
Today, snowing finally stopped and I feel relieved that I can see the blue sky.

By the way, during the New Year’s holidays, I went to see the photo exhibition of Mitsuaki Iwago’s World “Cats” Travelogue held at Seibu department store in Fukui.
Although this is the year of the Dog, people don’t seem to be interested in dogs.
The exhibition was popular.
For reference, there is the year of the Cat in Tibet and Thailand etc.

There were photos of adorable cats taken in Paris, Provence, Sicily, Belgium, Croatia, Norway, Hawaii, Taiwan and Okinawa etc. in the exhibition. Most of the cats have beautiful names such as Praline, Requy, Noel, Nina, Pichoux, Lirou, Isabel and Olga etc. which each features its location.

I was happy to be comforted by cats around the world early in the new year. (H.S)

This is the exhibition’s poster cat, Gazette (female) in Paris.
The pose is well known in its neighborhood.

*Iwago used Olympus OM-D E-M1 to take all of the cat photos.
Of course, while he was filming with a video camera for TV, he also had the camera around his neck. He appreciated it was a high-performance and a small one. And, it was a good thing for cats also.