Check out “Cat Island”, where the cats outnumber the humans!

You know how there are always stories and accounts from your friends/family members about seeing the “creepy cat lady” next door/above their apartment/walking down the street/at the store loading up on canned cat food?

Well, imagine that, but instead of “lady” use the word “island”.

Tofugu tells the story of this so-called “Cat Island” off the coast of Honshu, Japan. According to this post and Tashirojima’s Wikipedia page, there are roughly 100 non-feline inhabitants on the island.

There are approximately 100 residents on Cat Island, and most of them are over 70. One person is 37, and everybody else is over 60 years old. That’s a lot of old people, but luckily cats are here to save the day.\

You can’t help but feel sad for that 37- year old. I mean, what does he/she do for fun there? Is he/she one of the old resident’s children? Why are they all still there? WHERE DID THE CATS COME FROM? Are there no dogs?

So many questions, thankfully the Wikipedia page helps a bit.

In the past, the islanders raised silkworms for silk, and cats were kept in order to keep the mouse population down (because mice are a natural predator of silkworms). Fixed-net fishing was popular on the island after the Edo Period and fishermen from other areas would come and stay on the island overnight. The cats would go to the inns where the fishermen were staying and beg for scraps. Over time, the fishermen developed a fondness for the cats and would observe the cats closely, interpreting their actions as predictions of the weather and fish patterns. One day, when the fishermen were collecting rocks to use with the fixed-nets, a stray rock fell and killed one of the cats. The fishermen, feeling sorry for the loss of the cat, buried it and enshrined it at this location on the island.

Oh, and of course there’s a cat shrine, to the fallen kitty that perished years ago. The fisherman who had grown fond of the cat build the shrine to honor its memory.

This island looks captivating.

Sure, I’m much more of a YayDogs! type of person, but seeing an island that has clearly gone to the cats seems intriguing. I’d be curious about speaking with the humans living there, to get an idea what it’s like living as the minority species on the island.

I wonder how much plane tickets cost….

(Thanks to Geekosystem for the tip)