[CAT] "Tama the cat: 3,000 attend elaborate funeral for Japan’s feline stationmaster"

[rfmcdonald]

The Guardian's Justin McCurry reports.

In an outpouring of grief usually reserved for the passing of a cultural icon, thousands turned out at the weekend to bid a final farewell to a cat credited with saving an obscure Japanese railway line from financial ruin.

An estimated 3,000 people, including railway officials, attended Tama the cat’s Shinto-style funeral on Sunday, days after she died of heart failure aged 16 – the equivalent of about 80 human years.

Tama quickly became Japan’s most famous cat after she was appointed honorary stationmaster at the unmanned Kishi station in rural Wakayama prefecture, western Japan, in 2007.

Before long, visitors flocked to the station to see the former stray – a custom-made stationmaster’s cap perched on her head – welcome and see off passengers, giving a desperately needed boost to the sleepy, and heavily indebted, Kishigawa line.