We provide personal valet and herding service to four cats whose names are either inspired by my favorite sushi or have a Japanese meaning.

This is Maki, a black & white man of the house cat whose name refers to a sushi roll made of plain white rice wrapped up in a black sheet of toasted nori. He is a handsome tuxedo cat, I especially love the white markings under his nose that look like a lopsided bow tie.

Saba is his sister, a petite gray cat with a curled and rumply tail.   She uses it very expressively, sometimes it whirls like a little propeller

Saba is the Japanese word for mackerel, which has a silvery skin and my grandmother used to make us sabazushi nigiri for a special treat.  She is a brown eyed beauty who is fearless and curious,  and therefore prone to getting into mischief

Saba and Maki are brother and sister and often can be found expressing kitty love.

Zumi is short for Nezumi, which is mouse in Japanese, but also refers to the fact that she zooms around with feline abandon.  She was found in the motor of an abandoned car by a local rescue agency and was fostered by my co-worker and kitten enabler Lee.  This photo was taken when we first adopted her, she was a little scrawny thing with worms and was so quiet that she reminded me of a mouse.  Her coloring (black with some orange and white) is known as tortoiseshell (aka torties) who are legendary for their feisty and challenging personalities.  Her golden eyes are quite intense and riveting but she can also be very sensitive and moody.

Watch out, because this one will hiss, bite and slap you on the head if you aren’t paying her proper attention…

Our baby is called Gogo Kittykat, Go is the number 5 in Japanese, and she was the fifth cat in our house when we got her.  She is another tortie and is a bundle of energy.  She was 8 weeks old in this photo, so adorable!

Here she is now almost a year old, she still looks kittenish but is more cat than kitten.  She is the only cat in the house who will run up and greet strangers.

Outside of the house was a beautiful black cat, who I named Nori, because she is black and glossy like the outside of a sushi roll.  We discovered her with alarming injuries that were definitely caused by her life in the wild, and after bringing her to the Animal Emergency Room for repairs, we brought her inside our home.

When a cat adopts you, you have an agreement that you will provide them with a forever home.  So even when they pass, they live on forever in my memory…

And in this garden, I imagine this little girl out there romping in the sun… My beloved first Tortie named Shiso, who passed away several years ago.

Ika, which is squid in Japanese, was a beautiful gentleman tabby, who passed on late last year.  Ika with shiso is one of my favorite sushi combinations ever, and it is made even better with the memories of these two beautiful felines.