Even if you’re not a cat lover, you’ll surely be moved by the recent story of Tama the cat – elevated from a stray moggy to the status of goddess in Japan after being credited with single handedly (or single pawed) saving a local railway line.
When Tama sadly died of heart failure this month, she was made an official goddess and given a send-off fit for a celebrity. During her lifetime she had become a tourist attraction that brought in visitors from around the world.
Tama began hanging out at Kishi railway station in western Japan over eight years ago and proved such a popular welcoming character that she was given her own jacket and cap and made official station master.
The station had been previously unmanned and the local railway line company was almost bankrupt until the feline’s celebrity status began pulling in the tourists.
A local resident told the BBC: “She was affectionate with people and hard-working.”
A new feline station master named Nitama has since been employed to take over the role.
Maybe we should enlist the help of some four-legged friends to help any failing tourist attractions in the UK. We could have canine mayors at some of our less popular seaside towns, guinea-pig welcoming committees at some of our quieter museums or hamsters encouraging more people to use the buses.
Maybe the Queen’s corgis could do a daily meet and greet at Buckingham Palace, Britain’s Got Talent winner Pudsey could be the welcoming committee at Heathrow Airport and the No 10 Downing Street cat could run for mayor of London.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33306846