A Siberian cat named Mir, given to the governor of the Japanese prefecture of Akita Norihisa Satake by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013, has died in Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported.

It is specified that the cause of the pet’s death was illness. The governor intends to give an extraordinary press conference on this matter on the 9th.

The governor intends to hold an extraordinary press conference on the matter on December 9. Mir was a gift from the Russian leader to the official in response to the Akita puppy Yume.

The cat was born on February 12, 2012 – in two months he would have turned 13 years old. The pet was a return gift from Vladimir Putin to the Japanese governor, who presented the Russian leader with an Akita Inu puppy in 2012.

At a meeting of the heads of state of Japan and Russia, held in Mexico in June of that year, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda informed Putin about the gift from Akita Prefecture. 

The region decided to give Putin an Akita Inu dog as a token of gratitude for the assistance Russia provided to the Northeastern region of Japan, which includes Akita Prefecture, which suffered from a major earthquake and tsunami.

Mir, in turn, went to Japan at the end of August 2012. Following Japanese regulations, the furry creature spent about five months in the quarantine service of Narita Airport and only reached its new owner at the beginning of February.

Norihisa Satake chose the Russian name Mir for the cat, explaining his decision by saying that Putin named the puppy he gave him Yume, which means ‘dream’ in Japanese. 

‘And for dreams to come true, peace is needed,’ said the Japanese governor.

‘Mir is a very beautiful cat. He is simply magnificent. A real presidential cat. He willingly went into the arms of Governor Satake – apparently, he sensed in him a passionate cat lover,’ Jiro Hakamada, a representative of the international department of the prefectural administration, told RIA Novosti. 

According to him, the cat quickly got used to the unfamiliar environment, was in a good mood and was not afraid during the meeting with the new owner. Mir had a large family – at the time of moving to Japan, the Satake couple already had seven cats living at home.

At the end of 2018, Satake said that the pet had no health problems, had learned to understand Japanese, and weighed eight kilograms. 

‘The cat is healthy, has become huge, already eight kilograms. I have seven cats in total, the other six get along well with him. He understands Japanese,’ he said.

The Russian cat in the governor’s family was called Miru-bo – this is how his name sounds in Japanese together with the diminutive suffix. 

‘The cat responds immediately. At six in the morning, he asks for food – he comes up, touches my shoulder with his paw and starts meowing,’ the Japanese official recalled.

Meanwhile, experts spoke about the characteristics of the Siberian cat breed, to which Mir belonged. Thus, an international expert on all cat breeds, president of the Moscow cat lovers club Lyudmila Makarova noted that the Siberian breed is strong and resilient to life.

‘Why did the cat die? Maybe he ate something wrong. Sometimes they chew on foil. For some reason, they like to chew on Christmas tree tinsel. And that’s very dangerous. Maybe he ate something wrong, or maybe he had an illness. But this breed can easily live up to 30 years.

Zoopsychologist and felinologist Yulia Malkova called this breed a true Russian treasure.

‘Healthy, easily recognizable. Because its head is trapezoidal, with small ears. Quite well ‘dressed’, that is, it always has a good fur coat. They are good animals, purebred. Our heritage.

Now they are at the peak of, let’s say, fashion – they are loved, especially in traditional colours,’ the specialist concluded. WHY NOT SHARE A GOOD STORY?

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