One dog appears in a chapter of Hiro Arikawa’s novel, The Travelling Cat Chronicles. He is not Man’s Best Friend, just one man’s loyal if not too bright companion. Rather, the star of this novel and truly a man’s best friend is a stray cat who acquires the name Nana (for ‘seven’ in Japanese denoting the shape of his black tail) from a young man who befriends him. In the book’s Prologue, the thirty-year-old Satoru finds a cat on the hood of his silver van. He encourages the cat’s trust by leaving him food, caring for his injuries when a … Continue reading His Best Friend, the Cat