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the bottled water question

Stroll around any neighbourhood in Osaka and before long you'll stumble across these large bottles of water placed seemingly at random along the roadside, or outside houses. I've often wondered what they're for, so yesterday I asked a bent-over-double oba-san, and through my bad Japanese and her twisted logic, I discovered that they're put out by kind senior citizens for thirsty cats.

It's an understandable gesture, especially on these hot summer nights, though how the cats get the screw caps off is beyond me.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 at 7:45 am. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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On Friday, 01 July, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said:

People, especially elder ladies, leave them out to discourage cats from peeing on their property. Water-filled PET bottles are supposedly a feline repellent. In some parts of the US, people fill used wine bottles with water and leave them on their lawn to repel dogs!

- Justin
http://www.cosmicbuddha.com/blog/  



On Saturday, 02 July, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said:

I tried the wine-bottle-in-the-garden trick once. But whilst it may have repelled dogs, it unfortuantely attracted vagrants.

A couple of the blighters are still there too, and what's worse they appear to have made themselves comfortable.

Still, not a dog to be seen.  



On Sunday, 03 July, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Hi, An English man!
How are you? I am Mari, living in Osaka. I found your blog. It is interesting to listen another country people's idea about Japan.

Yes,Some people believe this bottled idea. is it working??? I don't know. wellcome to Osaka!!!hehehe.  



On Monday, 04 July, 2005, Blogger rockmother said:

I might be wrong but isn't it because cats are seen as especially lucky in Japan? To put water out for a cat in case they were thirsty would be seen to bring you luck for being thoughtful towards them.  



On Tuesday, 05 July, 2005, Blogger The Funky Drummer said:

Funny stuff English Man, you have a flare for story telling.

Do you want to link up sites?  



On Saturday, 09 July, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said:

this is going to sound really boring, but the light reflects off the bottles and scares the cats.

god, I'm getting old.  



On Saturday, 27 August, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said:

I wondered why our neighbor set out 3 water-filled 2 liter bottles at the side of his house. I've seen the cats up poking and playing around with them so I don't think they are scared of them and as far as stopping them from peeing there's is nothing but gravel there, no lawn or flowers too worry about.  



On Friday, 19 September, 2008, Blogger Brian S said:

A little more information on PET Bottles:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20050519wh.html  



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