Category Archives: cats

Hello Kitty!

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If you love Hello Kitty come and take a look at our display in the Library, on show until 15 November. Sonya has kindly brought in some items from her comprehensive collection. Sonya has been collecting the sweet Japanese merchandise since 2000. She tells me that “Hello Kitty was created in 1974 and is a white, bobtail cat with no mouth! The Japanese describe her as Kawaii (which means cute!).”

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Sonya is a keen traveller and while jet setting around the globe she has added to her collection and immersed herself in the world of her favourite character. “Hello Kitty has stores (Sanrio) all over the world and I have visited them in Tokyo, San Diego, Honolulu, Los Angeles and Orlando. I have also visited Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo which is a theme park based on Hello Kitty and her friends. ”

So what is her favourite Hello Kitty piece? She has several of course but Sonya loves to wear her cosy Kitty slippers.

Hello Kitty truly is a modern cultural icon. In 2008 Japan named Hello Kitty the ambassador of Japanese tourism in both China and Hong Kong, where she is incredibly popular with children and young women. UNICEF has also awarded Hello Kitty the exclusive title of UNICEF Special Friend of Children.

You can read some strange and macabre stories about her online but they are not true. Hello Kitty was created by the Japanese Sanrio company in 1974 who manufactured stationery for children. When they first put her picture on a coin purse under the word ‘Hello’, sales were phenomenal.

Hello Kitty leads an active life. Several different animated television series, a webcomic, video games and songs, a Scottish tartan and a sculpture exhibition have been created in honour of her. Sanrio has also stated that Hello Kitty is in fact not a cat, but a cartoon character who is a little girl. She lives in London, attends school and has a twin sister.

There is even a Hello Kitty themed hospital in Taiwan and an airliner decorated on the fuselage and inside the cabin with her image. Like our own Anstey the Echidna, Hello Kitty has even ventured into space. A 1.6-inch tall Hello Kitty travelled about on the Hodoyoshi-3 satellite in 2014.

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Born into a world of cuteness at the Hello Kitty hospital in Taiwan

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Hello Kitty and friends decorate the Taiwanese EVA AIR jet

Way back when, Wednesdays

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Feline stud gets wired for sound

We all know that cats are arguably the most popular animals on the Internet. It seems like the local print media also never missed out on an opportunity to report on an extraordinary feline. On page 10 of the edition dated 2 August 1989, the Leader Messenger featured an article about handsome white Yuri, a show cat who enjoyed listening to music on the radio through his headphones. Yuri’s favourite radio program was the SAFM Morning Zoo. So who was “Max the Stereo Cat”, we wonder?

Yuri

Triple SA-FM was the first commercial radio station to broadcast on the clear sound of the FM bandwidth in Adelaide in 1980. The radio station later changed its name to Double SA-FM and then SAFM and dominated Adelaide’s ratings for many years.
The Morning Zoo was a new style of breakfast show. Lead by radio veteran John Vincent with newsreader Anne Fullwood and Grant Cameron, the Morning Zoo show was a mixture of music, news, absurd comedy segments and crazy stunts. For example, there were no shortage of listeners who signed up to go on the station’s Magical Misery Tours (the title of which was based on the Beatles’ song Magical Mystery Tour). Participants were taken to dubious destinations around Adelaide, including the Bolivar Sewage Treatment Works! The Morning Zoo eventually became the popular breakfast show on Adelaide Radio. SAFM is now called Hit107.

Perhaps Yuri was lucky enough to be listening to his owner’s personal stereo. The 1980s was the decade for being ‘wired for sound’ that is, having your own personal stereo. Before the Ipod, there was the Sony Walkman, technology which changed the way people experienced and enjoyed music. Cliff Richard even released a song and album called Wired for Sound in 1981. The video clip for the song features Cliff Richard on roller skates, listening to music on a Walkman cassette player.

Brazilian-German inventor Andreas Pavel is credited with obtaining the patent for the Stereobelt, in 1977, the original concept for a portable stereo. On 1 July, 1979, Sony Corp. introduced the Sony Walkman TPS-L2, a compact, lightweight, blue-and-silver, portable cassette player with chunky buttons, headphones and a leather case. The Walkman was powered by two AA batteries. It featured a headphone jack but as there was no external speaker you could listen to your music in private. Using a second earphone jack two people could listen in at once (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman).

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Before this time, people had to play vinyl records on a turntable with attached speakers or carry around a cumbersome cassette radio to enjoy music. You could carry the Walkman in your bag and listen to it while commuting. It was just what you needed to help you exercise during the aerobics craze of the 1980s. Or you could clip the device onto your belt when you went walking or running.

During the 1980s Sony added features to its original design, such as AM/FM radio, receivers, improved speakers, bass boost, and an auto-reverse function. You could even purchase a solar-powered or water-resistant Sport Walkman.

Sales of the Walkman were phenomenal. It was known by other names in different countries, as the Soundabout” in the USA, the Freestyle in Sweden, and the Stowaway in the UK. Other companies created their own personal stereos manufactured under brand such as Toshiba and Panasonic. (http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1907884,00.html).

With the introduction of compact discs in 1982, Sony also manufactured a portable CD player (known as a Discman for a short time). Later the company marketed MiniDisc and MP3 players under the Walkman brand.

#waybackwhenwednesdays

 

 

Living with six cats

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Many book lovers are also cat lovers. Work experience student Tayla was over the moon the day she discovered a litter of kittens joined her family – all of a sudden, they had six cats to look after! Here is Tayla’s story, in her own words: 

You never know the moment your life will change forever. It can happen any minute and you wouldn’t know. For my family, we were just returning home from my sister’s Year 7 Graduation. We didn’t become billionaires or win a trip overseas or anything… instead a small, scrawny kitten approached us from the darkness of night. We knew there were a few other cats that lived in our neighbourhood but we had never seen this one before. Either way, we brought it inside and poured it a small bowl of milk to quench its thirst. I can remember how my sister and I were over the moon with excitement, thinking we were going to have a new pet cat! But of course my parents thought otherwise…

It was after all of our begging and pleading that my parents agreed to take care of the kitten and see where things went from there. Little did we know this decision would change our lives forever! At the time we already ‘owned’ one cat, which would come and stay with us whenever it pleased… even though it technically belonged to our neighbours. Of course, our neighbours were fine with ‘Patch’ living with us as long as she was happy too.

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One of my cats, Squizzy

Months passed and after asking around the neighbourhood to see if anyone had lost their cat, we decided it was time to give the kitten a name. Now my family have never been good at naming animals. In fact we usually just stick with the first thing that comes to mind… so we called it ‘Squizzy’. I think it was probably because of the fact its bushy tail resembled a squirrel in some way.

One day we happened to notice something strange about Squizzy. We were petting Squizzy’s stomach and saw it looked bigger than usual. When we felt it there was a small kick that responded. It was from that day onward we concluded that ‘it’ was actually a ‘she’ and Squizzy was going to be a mother! But excitement aside – my parents immediately decided we were to give away the kittens once they were born… but my sister and I didn’t give up hope yet. We had decided that we were going to keep those kittens one way or another!

The day of arrival came at last. My mother came and picked me up from school early that day due to the fact one kitten had already been born! She was tiny, fluffy and was curled up in a small ball in the corner of Squizzy’s basket. Soon after the first kitten, later named ‘Rosie’, was born, a second small ball of fluff popped out and joined her. We called him ‘Badger’. Another hour passed and we were presented with two more beautiful kittens, which we named ‘Panther’ and ‘Navi’. I know, creative names, right? Once we saw them we knew we couldn’t let them go, and thus it was the beginning of how we came to own six beautiful cats!!

My four cats Navi, Badger, Panther and Rosie

Front row: Navi, Badger and Panther and Rosie is the one up the top

Over the years we have been through a lot with our cats. Rosie, our eldest, had to get a bone in her hip removed due to falling out of a tree! It was a tiresome few months for her as she couldn’t walk or move and had to spend her time in a large cage watching cartoons on the TV. She was very quiet throughout the days but after she recovered, she was up and running again like nothing ever happened. We call her ‘our little mechanical girl!’

Another thing that happened the same year the kittens were born had quite an impact on everything. My favourite cat, Badger, had grown quite close to me since he was born. He took an instant liking to me and his younger sister, Navi, and became the happiest cat alive. And the strangest. He would always sleep alongside me at night and before we would go to sleep, he would come up to my face and lick my nose. Badger would also purr so loudly that it was impossible to fall asleep before he did. Whenever the heater was on Badger would go and sit directly in front of it and stare into the flames. He became my best friend in such a short amount of time.

I never knew it would end so soon…

I can remember the day like it was yesterday. Badger had been missing for a few days but seeing as our cats wandered outside, we didn’t think much of it at the time. I was talking to my sister in the living room when my parents told me the bad news. They had found him on the side of the road a few hours earlier and buried him out the back. It felt like my world came crashing down in one night… Of course I was upset but we had a nice funeral for him and buried him with some flowers. His sister Navi seemed to distance herself from the rest of the family over the years, yet she grew closer to me. Badger was only a few months old when he died but I believe he had a great time while he was alive and we made lots of memories. I will forever hold him in my heart and remember all of the good times that we had!

Our cat Leo

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Year 10 student Sophie was with us for a week’s work experience recently, and decided to write about her beloved Leo, her family’s moggy. Read her story below. 

We got Leo when I was four. We never thought we would get a cat as we had just moved into a house which is right next to a busy road but my mum loves cats so much. The first year Mum would always try to keep Leo in at night so he wouldn’t go wondering, but he soon worked it out and started hiding in the bushes, so Mum couldn’t find him to bring him inside. Leo didn’t seem to be going on the road because he would always be back home the next morning, so we started leaving him outside at night.

Leo was mostly in a playful mood. Even though he passed the kitten stage pretty quickly, he would never give up an opportunity to claw something. You would think he was a playful cat, but in fact, he was mostly scared. He was always hesitant walking through the front door or turning a corner – instead he always liked to be hiding under his favourite bush out in the front yard.

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My beautiful cat Leo

When I turned ten, I started getting bored with Leo and I wanted a dog. I would complain to Mum that Leo wasn’t fun and if we had a dog you could take them on walks and on holidays. When I was eleven we got a dog and named her Lizzie, I was so happy. Lizzie didn’t like Leo but Leo didn’t really care. Leo kept out of the backyard and spent his time inside and out the front, away from Lizzie. I played with Lizzie as much as I could after school. I soon realised as I got older that Lizzie wasn’t as great as I thought she would be. Lizzie would smell, but Leo didn’t. Leo loved cuddles, but Lizzie didn’t. My sister started being great pals with Lizzie and I then went back to loving Leo the most.

On the 23 of January 2015 at 9:11pm (I remember it very clearly) we were watching a movie when mum’s mobile phone rang – it was the local vet. The vet said Leo had been brought in because he had been hit by a car. My mum then asked if she could come and get him the next day (thinking he was OK) but the vet then told mum he didn’t make it. Mum told us what happened and we all started crying. I was then crying for the whole night and the next week.  I couldn’t believe he was gone forever and I would never see him again. It really hurt I didn’t get to say goodbye.

My mum spoke to our neighbours about Leo’s death and they mentioned there had been a dead fox on the road. We now think Leo had been chased by the fox onto the road. I had Leo for eight years and I am glad I have beautiful memories and photos of him. We are not considering getting another cat at the moment but when I am older, have a house of my own and live next to a quiet road I would like to have another cat like Leo.