The blanket cats

Next to a conventional pet shop selling purebred kittens is a rental service for Blanket Cats, so called because they "come with their own blanket," from which they must never be separated. These Blanket Cats-- highly adaptable, best-behaved--are available for three days at a time, complete with their own toilet, food, and that ever-important blanket-lined carrier. To facilitate bonding, albeit temporarily, renters are even encouraged to name their kitties. Three days certainly isn't long, but it's enough for seven clients to experience profound changes. Calico Anne disrupts the "immaculate life" of a childless couple stagnating in their rule-driven marriage. Black cat Kuro comes out of retirement to ride shotgun with a woman flush with embezzled funds. Manx Koji witnesses how a 12-year-old boy became a dangerous bully. American Shorthair Ron-Ron helps a granddaughter say goodbye to her aging grandmother. Mixed-breed Mongrel ferrets out unwanted animals from a no-pets apartment building. American Shorthair Tabby (was he also once Ron-Ron?)enables two young children to reunite with worried parents. Russian Blue Meoweth is a (partial) balm for a family in desperate crisis. Amidst a markedly growing genre of cozy feline-themed fiction, Shigematsu's tales, colloquially translated by Kirkwood, noticeably diverge from tidy, feel-good endings. That unresolvedness, however, is what unmistakably enhances the lingering poignancy of these resonating stories.

Japanese author Shigematsu (Knife) offers a touching collection of linked stories about a Tokyo pet store that rents out cats for three-day terms. There are rules to follow: cats are not to be fed food other than the special kind the store supplies, and renters must never wash the cat's blanket--though the penalties for not following these rules remain unclear. In "The Cat Who Sneezed," Norio, 40, who's unable to have children with his partner, Yukie, comes to realize that having a pet is hard, thankless work, after the cat they rented shows no interest in the tower they bought for it. "The Cat Who Knew How to Pretend" follows a woman named Hiromi who rents a cat to stand in for her family's recently deceased pet tabby, a ruse for the benefit of her senile grandmother. Ryuhei, the recently unemployed protagonist of "The Cat Dreams Were Made Of," hopes the cat he rents will keep his children happy as they prepare to move into a smaller home, but the gambit fails miserably. Shigematsu adds depth and intrigue by avoiding sentimentality, so that when a story does contain a happy ending or a moment of comfort for the characters, it feels genuine. Fans of "healing fiction" like Hiro Arikawa's The Travelling Cat Chronicles will find much to enjoy. (Feb.)