It has been half a year since the "Animal Note" was posted at the entrance of Popai Onsen (Namioka, Aomori City, TEL 0172-62-7515 ).

The hot spring specializing in day trip bathing in the Namioka Shimotogawa district where national highway No. 7 and prefectural highway No. 285 intersect. The name of the hot spring comes from the fact that the nickname of the yokozuna "Takanosato" Seki from Namioka was Popeye. According to employee Matsuko Kamada, she started to keep protected cats from the beginning of the business, and there was a signboard cat in the store.

"Please refrain from those who are not good at animals. We do not accept complaints." (Sic) was posted at the entrance from the beginning of this year. Mr. Kamada says, "I used to post information such as" I have a cat ", but few people saw it, and there were quite a few cases where I noticed a cat after entering the store and led to complaints."

Currently, Popai Onsen has two protected cats, "Koharu" and "Ku". "Koharu" is estimated to be 10 years old. "Ku" protected the place that had collapsed on the prefectural road last September. "Ku was about two months old and was weak because he couldn't use his eyes and nose. He took care of him while attending a veterinary clinic, and now he's completely fine and has grown bigger than he had imagined." Mr. Miss.

It is said that complaints about having a cat have increased since I started to keep "Ku". "Some people called me saying,'The cat smells' and'Call the health center.' We are paying attention to hygiene, and although we do not have kitchen facilities, we have confirmed with the health center. I will keep cats, so I decided that it would be better to keep a distance from people who are not good at it. "

The words in the notice I posted were carefully selected. The reason why I chose it as an animal instead of a cat is because I also keep abandoned turtles in the hall. I asked my child to draw an illustration of a cat in order to soften it even a little. Mr. Kamada smiles, "Some of the customers come to the store not for hot springs but for cats. We would like to welcome people who can get along with the signboard cats."