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<\/a><\/p>\nA Lucky Cat from Kyushu<\/h2>\n– How did you first meet Muur-chan?<\/h3>\n
\u201cEleven years ago, I found him sitting right in front of the apartment we were staying at during the Kyushu Sumo event. He was tiny, and I thought he must be a stray cat. He was so cute that after spending a night together, I just couldn\u2019t let him go, so I decided to take him home with me to Tokyo. I was at first afraid that the stable boss might not approve, but they\u2019ve become great friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Mugi is his name. He\u2019s up on the third floor right now. I think he used to be a house cat, but was abandoned in the parking out front. We decided to take him in and watch over him until we found a volunteer to take care of him. However, we ended up being that \u2018volunteer.\u2019 Mugi never leaves the wrestlers\u2019 rooms. And he\u2019ll run away whenever a stranger comes to visit. If we\u2019re all gone for a while for a sumo tournament, he\u2019ll treat us like strangers for a bit after we get back. In other words, he has the complete opposite personality as Muur.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Sankichi. Twice daily, wrestlers take turns taking him on walks – once in the morning and once in the evening. Both Muur and Sankichi are getting old and have calmed down a bit, but when they were young, they used to meddle with each other. We also had another dog named Hachi, but he passed away three years ago. So now we have three animals \u2013 all of them male. So that makes me the only woman in the entire stable. (laughs)\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very affectionate and is a very good friend to all the wrestlers. He goes out during the day and hangs out with a stray cat, which we suspect might be his girl friend. He then comes back in the evening to watch over the training. When we have foreign tourists visiting our stable, he\u2019ll be all stretched out with his tummy up, sleeping in the middle of the street. Many tourists take more photos of him than the do the wrestlers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMuur suffered from a urethra stone once, so now we feed him some dried food that was recommended by the vet. However, bonito flakes are his favorite. He goes crazy when we give him bonito for dessert. Well, actually his true love is seaweed, but we can\u2019t give him that because of all the salt in it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019Muur\u2019 is Mongolian for \u2018cat\u2019. Sokokurai, our top-ranking wrestler, is from Mongolia, so he\u2019s the one who named him. We were surprised at first because whenever his Mongolian friends came to visit, they would automatically call him \u2018Muur\u2019 as if they already knew his name. We didn\u2019t know that it just meant \u2018cat.\u2019 (laughs)\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cConsidering he was a stray to begin with, I think Muur gets stressed out if he\u2019s kept inside for a long time. Everyday, he\u2019ll cry out and signal to us by sitting in front of the door. And when he comes back he gives us verbal report on how his day went, with unique intonation. Just the other day, a dog on a walk tried to pick a fight with him, and he ran away. He didn\u2019t come home for a while, so I began to think that I might never see him again. I even cried a lot because I saw his blood on the dog and knew he had been injured… But then three days later, he came back as if nothing had ever happened. I didn\u2019t see any scars on him, so the blood must have actually been from the dog\u2019s wound. So Muur is quite a tough guy, even though he\u2019s calm most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey all love Muur in various ways. Some try to communicate with him using a cat translator app, and some of them take naps with him. You might be surprised to hear this, but Sumo wrestlers are quite delicate. They treat animals with great care and kindness. They never force animals to do anything, so the animals intuitively trust them. Cats must think wrestlers are of the same breed. Muur will just sit on his favorite floor cushion and watch over them all through their training. I don\u2019t know of any other cats who likes watching Sumo training this much. (laughs)\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think Muur is definitely a \u2018lucky cat.\u2019 When we started up this stable, we had so much trouble. But after Muur-chan came, things got better little by little. He\u2019d sit on the boss\u2019s lap in the morning and have him clean his ears and get his fur brushed. In fact, I think our boss is the person who\u2019s most attached to Muur. The wrestlers are his apprentices after all, but Muur doesn\u2019t care who the boss is. He is the only being in this stable that is allowed to be selfish. We\u2019d all miss him terribly if he wasn\u2019t here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n– And you have another cat as well? <\/h3>\n
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\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n– And you also have a dog?<\/h3>\n
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\n<\/p>\n– Can you tell us a bit about Muur\u2019s personality?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n– What do you feed him?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n– Where did you get his name from?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n– Do you worry about allowing him to kind of be \u2018half-stray\u2019?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMuur: Like a boss who watches over training<\/h2>\n
– How would you describe his relationship with the wrestlers?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n– So he\u2019s kind of become an important mascot for the Arashio stable…<\/h3>\n
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