Post on 04-Apr-2018
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Luciane Patrcia Yano
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About the Authors:
Cat
and
Brazilian Psychologist. M.A. Ph.D. inHumanities and Social Sciences by the
Nagoya City University Japan.
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This is a story about us, the humans, toldfrom Bonos unique perspective. It is a storyfilled with warmth, candor, and anendearing sense of humor.
Bono, with Ms. Yanos help, clearlyexplains complex facets of human emotionand behavior with charmingsimplicity. Although most appropriate foradolescents, this delightful account of Bonosexperiences can be enjoyed by humans of any age and can be read to your favoritefeline as well.
Bono's message to us is that humansand their feline friends have a great deal toteach each other, and by doing so we can alllearn to be better creatures. Perhaps yourown cat will agree.
Louise HaynesNagoya City University - Japan
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Y21b Yano, Luciane Patrcia.Bono memories /Luciane Patrcia Yano. Rio
Branco, AC: Grfica Snia, 2010.35p.
Bibliografia.
ISBN 978-85-911952-0-6
1. Psicologia Memories Cat Japan - Adolescence. I. Ttulo.
CDD 153.10952
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For all those who like animals...
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My name is Bono. Just Bono. My aunt gave me
this name because she has been a fan of an Irish band called U2 since she was 14. Bono is the name
of the vocalist of this band. In fact, until 2006 my
aunt called me Bono Vox, but she discovered that
her idol hasnt used this name for a long time,except in Brazil, where the people still believe that
the rock band star is called Bono Vox. Well, I
dont care about my name. But, honestly, I am
cuter than the human and famous Bono. This year
I will turn 10 years old. Yes, its a long time for a
cat that just lives for about 15 years. I was born in
a city called Belm in the north of Brazil. I am an
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Amaznida, which in Portuguese means someone
who comes from the Amazon Rain Forest.My aunt bought me at the end of November,
1998. In fact, she just chose me because her father
paid for me and gave me as a gift to Beta, my
aunts sister, who here I will call mother.
My mother was a 15-year-old girl and my aunt
was worried about her because she had lived in
Japan for a long time and she wasnt doing well in
school in Brazil, and she was sad, confused and
unmotivated about life, like many humans when they experience a stage of human life called
adolescence.
When my aunt chose me, I was inside an iron
box with my 4 brothers in the pet shop of a
veterinarian. I dont know how to explain that
moment exactly, but the first time that I looked at
my aunt, I felt that my life was beginning to
change.
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I am a typical Siamese cat with blue eyes, dark
brown ears, feet, and curved tail, not so fat and not too thin. Ok, I will confess: I am
a little overweight. The Siamese cat
is famous for talking with the humans. We
Siamese came from Thailand, the old kingdom of
Siam, and many legends about our origin do exist.
But I prefer this one:
Once upon a time, in the old kingdom of Siam,
a beautiful little princess was isolated on an island
by her father because he was a very jealous man.But the gods did not approve of what her father
had done, so they chose a fisherman to marry her.
But the princess and the fisherman didnt know
about the existence of each other. So, the gods
decided to send a cat, a pale cat, to meet them. The
cat swam to the fisherman and told him about the
existence of the princess on the island. As a reward,
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the gods touched the ears, the feet, the tail and the
nose of the cat giving a black color on these points .So, this legend explains why the Siamese cats
love to talk with the humans. For a Siamese cat,
to talk is like a mission. I like this legend, but I
cannot swim. In fact, I have hated baths since I
was born. Anyway, before my aunt chose me, she
didnt know about this story. She just chose a cat
to give to her sister and I started my new life with
this family.
After we left the pet shop, I went to my new home. My aunts father stopped the car in front of
a building and called to my mother, Beta, by cell
phone. My aunt lied to my mother saying,Come
down because I need your help here with some
stuff. My mother came down looking a little
bored and when my aunt showed me to her, she
gave a big smile that I will never forget.
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Since the first day that I went to my new
family, I have felt at home. My new family was living in an apartment located in a middle-class
neighborhood of the city. My aunt
was divorced and she took care of her
sister, her daughter and a cousin who had come
from another area of the state to study in the
capital. My aunts mother was living in another
city in the north of Brazil called Manaus, and she
didnt have time to take care of my mother, Beta,
because she was starting a new job there. So, I went to live in a family of 4 women and soon I
become the center of attention of the house. For
the first time, I showed my new family how well
mannered I was. I never peed outside my litter box,
taking care to make a good first impression, and it
worked.
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I am a very lucky cat because I was found by a
who loves animals. Cats are often
misunderstood. Many people say that we are
selfish and cold. But this is not true.
In fact, we cats are often compared
to dogs. But dogs and cats are different. And after
being in Japan, I realize that differences exist even
among humans. Here in Japan, my aunt calls these differences . But some humans
dont understand these differences, and they
compare the Japanese people to their own culture,
and often they call the Japanese people selfish and
cold. So, I realized that Japanese people are also
often misunderstood, like the cats.
At the first moment when I went to my new
home, I made a behavioral profile for each member
:Dont trust a person who mistreats animals, children or the elderly .
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of my new family. My mother was a teenage girl
who fell in love for the first time with a Brazilian boy. A teenager is what they call a human who is
12 to 18 years old because at this age the human
goes into a stage of their lives called
Adolescence maybe is the most difficult stage of a
humans life because in adolescence some
substances, called hormones, become very unstable
and as a result, they ch ange the human adolecents
behavior so fast. The teenagers sometimes become
angry, happy, anxious and passionate, and sometimes these mood variations happen at the
same time. So, my mother was a teenager but not a
typical teenager. Yes, sometimes she was angry,
happy, anxious and passionate and a little sad, but
she had another problem to deal with. Her father
was living in a city far from Belm and she almost
never saw him. Also, she had lived in Japan since
she was 6 years old until she went back to Brazil
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when she was 13 years old. When she came to
Brazil, she felt a little bit different from other Brazilian teenagers. I realized that the cultural
differences and adolescence were affecting my
mother. So, I soon become her love cat and
confidant, sleeping with her every night.
My mothers cousin was also a teenager at 12
years old. Inside that home, she was the most
difficult human to understand because she was
very shy and she almost never talked at home. But
I remember she laughed a lot. Yes, she really loved to laugh. She was a very cute girl and she was
studying at the same school where my mother Beta
was.
My aunt was a 26-year-old woman. She was a
junior at the college and she was majoring in
Psychology. I didnt understand what exactly a
psychologist is, but she wanted to be someone who
helps others by listening to what the people want
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to say. So this fact made me feel more comfortable
talking with her when I needed something, and soon she became my psychologist. My aunt was
working, studying at the college, and taking care
of my mother, Beta, my cousin and her daughter,
and this situation sometimes made her anxious and
angry. The human calls a person who lives like my
aunts had lived a stressed person. A
person is someone who is taking care of more
things than she or he really can do. For example, I
am a cat and we cats have some daily affairs. My daily affairs include having to eat, to sleep, to talk,
to play, and when some of these daily affairs dont
happen in a good way, or when I have more things
to do than I can handle, I become a stressed cat
and I feel anxious and angry sometimes.
My aunts daughter was a 6 -year-old girl. She
had too much energy and she looked very happy. I
often fled from her because kids like to pull the tail
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of cats and dogs. My aunts daughter never pulled
my tail, but I was always careful about that. My aunt divorced her daughters father 1 year before I
met this family, and her father came to the house
every weekend to take her out for a visit. At home,
often I heard my mother, my aunt and the cousin
calling her an person. An optimist is
someone, especially humans, who looks more on the
good side of events. For example, an optimistic cat
is a cat who thinks that its better to meet a family
like this than to live on the streets.Well, a home with two teenagers, a kid, and a
stressed woman was not exactly what I was
expecting, but in fact, I found my role at my new
home: to make the members of the family feel
happier. And, I also realized that I had become an
optimistic cat.
:If you want to be loved, buy a dog. If you want to learn to love,
bu a cat.
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When I went to my new family, I was a thin
cat and not as cute as I am now. So I started my
diet to grow up as soon as possible, and as I had
imagined, I become a cute and fluffy
cat in six months.
We had been living on the third
floor of a building called San Marco. Sometimes, I
went to the window to look outside, but my uncle
become worried about me. If I had fallen out the window, maybe I would be not here now to tell my
story.
I remember a beautiful and charming girl called
Su who was living in the apartment next door.
Sometimes she came to our apartment to talk with
my mother, and they laughed a lot, telling stories
about boys and parties. Sometimes, Su took care of
me, because my family went to another city for the
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weekend. One day, Su ran to our apartment to tell
my aunt that I was walking outside the window.So, Su saved my life. She continues living in Belm
and I miss her so much.
My routine with my family included spending
almost all my time at home sleeping, playing,
eating, hearing and talking, especially
with my aunt. I really like to talk
with my aunt and some people look astonished
because theyve never seen a cat answering or
talking with a human before.In 1999, my aunt and my mother received a
message that made them very sad. My grandmother
had become sick. That was when I heard for the
first time the name of a disease that often happens
in humans: . Cancer is a disease that makes
a person and her/his family sad, anxious and
sometimes angry, like what happens in the
adolescence, but with more intensity.
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My grandmother moved into our apartment to
receive medical treatment in Belm. So, the family became bigger and this made me a little anxious,
too, especially because I didnt know how my
grandmother would react to my presence at home.
Some humans dont like cats and I knew it.
Faced with the task of winning
the affection of my grandma, I
decided to create a way to approach her by
becoming as invisible as possible at first and
gradually showing to her my presence at home, and so I did. More than I had expected, my grandma
showed a deep affection for me, and sometimes I
went to her bed to sleep beside her. I realized that
I made my grandma happier and this made me feel
secure.
Thinking that my situation at home was
peaceful, I heard other news. Next, my mother
Betas grandparents were coming from a place
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called Japan to stay with us for a while. My
mothers grandpa is famous for his harsh temperament, and what is worse and much scarier
is that I heard that he definitely did not like cats.
On other hand, I had heard good things about my
great-grandma. At home, everybody said good
things about her. But I was so afraid about my
great- grandpa s temperament and I thought that
maybe the time had come to leave that apartment.
This fact made me anxious. But I decided to
try and use with my mother grandpa the same approach that I had used with my grandma. And
so I did it again. I become as invisible as possible
at first and gradually showed to my great-grandpa
my presence at home and it worked better than I
had thought.
One day my great-grandpa was astonished to
see me and my aunt because she was talking to me
and he said, This cat is so funny. He doesnt look
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like a cat. I think it was God Who sent this cat to
this family. And on another occasion my aunt, my mother Beta and I were looking at my grandma
lying in bed,and she looked at us and said, I
think this cat was sent by God for you. Before I
met Bono I thought that a cat could not be so
smart and affec tionate with humans.Then, my
aunt looked at my grandma and said to her: I
think that is because you had a hard life and you
never had the chance to take care of a pet and you
based your opinion about pets on the stereotypes that you had heard. are fixed ideas
about a person or a thing, but which are often not
true.
My grandma and my great-grandpa had a way
of seeing things from a religious point of view and
my aunt by from a scientific point of view.
Anyway, after these two situations, I realized
that through their experiences, humans are able to
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change their way of thinking. My grandma
changed her vision about cats, my great-grandpa changed his vision about cats, and even I changed
my vision about my great-grandpa as well. After
this experience I learned, like the humans, how
important it is to become a better person or
.
My life in the apartment with that family
continued. My great-grandparents went back to
Japan and, unfortunately, my grandma s disease
worsened and she left our family in September,2000.
After my grandma passed away, the house
became sad for a while. This sadness is called .
Grief is a feeling of sadness, especially after
somebody dies. Humans need to experience the
grief, and then they become better again. But even
after a long time, humans never forget their loved
ones, and this includes pets, too. I realized that the
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time that I had spent with this family makes me a
little human,because I was missing my grandma. And for a while, I often looked for her in her room.
But soon, many changes in the family began to
happen.
My mother s cousin, the shy girl, went back to
live with her parents. My aunt married a man that
had been her friend since high school, and he came
to live with us. In addition, my aunt bought a
piano. I like music, and I like to hear my aunt
playing the piano even when she doesnt play very
well. I stayed below the piano, relaxing and
listening to the sound of the music.
: to eat, to sleep, to talk and to eat anman (a Japanese sweet)
: to take baths, water (except to drink),Saturdays (the day when I take a bath)
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In the year of 2001, my mother decided to go to
Japan to work. This news brought me a sense of anxiety. If my mother went to Japan, who would
take care of me? I was too attached to my mother
and I could not imagine a life without her. So, my
mother went to Japan to work as expected. I think
that was a hard experience for her, too, because she
had to leave her Brazilian boyfriend,
and in particular, she had to leave me,
her lovely cat.
After my mother went to Japan, I become very sad for a while. But, my survival instincts made
me draw closer to my aunt and her daughter, and I
become a healthy and happy cat again. But, at the
end of 2002, new changes were coming, which
made me anxious again: My aunt, decided to go to
Japan after her graduation the next year to study
there.
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My simple life in that apartment, with that
family changed so much, and I was not prepared to face those difficulties. I was afraid of becoming a
street cat, lonely and starving, and I was
definitely not prepared to live on the streets.
Sometimes, when my aunt was not at home, I
went to the window to look down at the cats
outside. They looked as free as my favorite song
says*, and at times I felt a little envious of their
freedom. But, I am an apartment cat
and, I dont know how to survive without my familys care.
I was becoming more and more anxious about
that situation. During that time I tried to be as
* My favorite says...Ns gatos j nascemos pobres.Porm, j
nascemos livres (We cats were born poor, but we are free
since we were born...) Chico Buarque Histria de uma gata
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visible as possible, running through the
apartment, making noises, trying to draw everyones attention to me. But nobody, even my
aunt paid any attention to me. My aunt took me
to a veterinarian, and he gave me some painful
injections. I knew that street cats have too many
diseases because one day I heard my aunt say they
have too short a life. So, I thought that those
injections were a way that my aunt found to keep
me strong and healthy and prevent the diseases.
My uncle was leaving for Japan first, and when he had finished packing his things I thought,
H ere comes the time to say goodbye to my
comfortable life. Now I ll have to try to survive as
a street cat. Then, my aunt brought a f unny kind
of plastic cage and put me inside of it. And then
they put me in the car. I was so afraid because I
did not understand what was happening. When
the car stopped, my aunt and my uncle got out.
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They took me from the car and my aunt opened my
cage and, looking deeply inside my eyes, she said, Look Bono, you will go to Japan to meet your
mother. I will give you this medicine and you will
sleep. Dont be afraid. Everything is going to be
alright. Your uncle will take care of you during the
flight. Be a good boy Ok?!
What? I even didnt know anything about
Japan. What is Japan? Where is Japan? What
was she talking about? And she put a bitter
medicine inside my mouth and then, I fainted. After 30 hours inside a noisy
airplane, twenty days of quarantine in the airport,
a horrible cold that I never had experienced before
I finally found what is and where is Japan: A very
small apartment so far away from Belm.
When my mother came to take me from the
animal quarantine section of the airport, I was
very and I showed to her that I was really,
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really angry by making some angry noises and
showing her my teeth. I know angry isnt a good feeling, but I was really feeling angry. The trip
was terrible, and many bad ideas were hurting me.
My mother understood my situation, and she gave
me a hug and a kiss saying in a sweet voice,Its
ok now. We are going home.
After my mother hugged me, I felt really, really
good. The feelings inside me changed so fast, and
this sensation was incredible. Then, I understood
that feelings of anger sometimes arent bad if you just feel them. For example,
I felt angry but my mother understood and
suddenly, the feeling of anger turned into a feeling
of happiness. After that experience, I gave to
myself the right to feel angry sometimes, especially
when living in stressful situations like that.
: to eat, to sleep, to talk, to eat anman (a
Japanese sweet) and the heater.
: to take baths, water (except to drink),Saturda s the da when I take a bath , air lanes and winter
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My mother was living alone and I began my new life in Japan with her. My mother was
working at a factory, and I spent most of my time
in front of the heater alone in that very small
apartment. It was a strange situation to see my
mother so busy because in Brazil she didnt do
much of anything all day. So, the experience of
watching my mother become more
mature about her life made me feel life
was moving on. Living in a small, cold apartment where I couldnt run was hard for me. Besides, I
couldnt make noises because the apartment walls
were so thin, and my mother told to me to not
disturb the people next door with my noises. I
confess I felt a little sad. But I was gradually
getting accustomed to my new life.
But, our lives changed once again. My mother
was in love with a guy that she met in Japan. My
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mother and her boyfriend were alone, deprived of
their families and friends in Japan, and they decided to live together. I felt anxious again
because I didnt know if my mothers boyfriend
would accept me or not. So, we moved into a new
apartment, a little bigger than the place before but
still small and with thin walls. I named my
mothers husband the stepfather. My relation
with my stepfather was cold. He looked like he
didnt like cats but he was trying to do his best.
From my side, I was doing my best, too, to accept him, maintaining a little distance from him. One
day, I realized that my mothers belly was growing
large too fast and sometime later, a new family
member came to enter our house: my mothers
human son.
My brother was so fat and he made more
noises than me. Naturally, my mother turned all
her attention to him because in the human
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, humans need more attention than
animals, including cats. Hierarchy is a system that defines who is more important from highest to
lowest. The hierarchy at my home was like that:
first, my stepfather; second, my mother; third, my
brother and fourth, me.
I found a place at home to stay away from the
baby noises, doing my best not to stress my mother.
Again, the fear of becoming a street
cat came to my head. But this time
stronger because I thought about how hard it would be to be a street cat in a cold place. I was
not used to living without my heater, and I was so
afraid of becoming a street cat in Japan. So, one
more time, I did my best to become as invisible as
possible at home, just turning up at the food time.
When I was doing my best to become an
obedient cat at home, trying to figure out how the
baby was growing up so fast, making fewer noises,
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my mother told me that a new baby was coming.
Oh my god, two babies crying, making noises, pooping and disturbing my sleep? I cannot handle
a situation like that, I thought . And what was
worse, the hierarchy at my home would change
again: first, my stepfather; second, my mother;
third, my brother; fourth, my second brother or
sister and in the last position, me, the cat.
Well, the new baby arrived at our home. There
was a boy again. Could you imagine my future at
home, with two kids pulling my tail and cutting off my whiskers? Could you imagine how
important whiskers are to a cat? Our sense of
direction depends on them. Indeed, my mother had
no time to take care of me, because she had to take
care of two babies at home.
My situation at home became worse and worse.
Sometimes, my mother just forgot my food time or
to clean my litter box. But I was very
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understanding with her. My mother and my
stepfather were stressed. They were too young to handle the responsibility that a human adult life
demands, and I knew it.
One day, my aunt came home to visit us. When
my aunt held me in her arms, I tried to talk with
her, but I was feeling sad. Fortunately, my aunt,
who had been my psychologist before I moved to
Japan, understood my feelings and so,
she made a decision: to take me with
her. My aunt said to my mother, I will take care of Bono. So, from now, Bono is our cat, and I will
carry him with me when I go back to Brazil. My
mother sai d yes, not because she didnt like me,
but on the contrary, because she really loves me,
and she understood that a life with my aunt was
the best thing that she could do for me at that
moment. I realized that in each moment we have
different needs, and I felt hope. is an
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essential human feeling that something might
possibly happen. I was not exactly happy leaving my mother, but I felt hopeful about my new life
with my aunt.
During the long journey to my new home, my
aunt put me on her lap, and I did my best to show
her that I understood the situation. I stayed calm
during the entire journey.
My aunts apartment was a little
bigger than my mothers apartment.As
soon as we got home, my aunt put my favorite cat food in the food dish, and I ate it
making myself at home.
The hierarchy at my new home was very
different: first, me, second, my aunt, third, my
uncle and finally, my cousin. I knew that because
I heard my cousin saying many times that I was
the king of the house , and the king is always
the first. Speaking of my cousin, she had become an
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adolescent. She had grown up so fast since I had
seen her the last time. And now I didnt avoid her because the chances of an adolescent pulling the
cats tail are very low, and I knew it. So, my
cousin became my second choice to ask for food
when my aunt was not home, and my relationship
with her was very good. My aunt bought an
electronic piano, and I relaxed listening to the
music.
My routine at my new home included talking
with my aunt, asking to be with her, asking for food, and staying in front of the heater in the
winter. But in particular, I have to say that a
home with humans who like animals and with no
babies is a privilege for any cat. is a
special advantage that a human or an animal has.
So, I realized how privileged I was to be living
there. I became quite visible at home, and I was
called a pampered cat. I really learned how to do
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things in my own way, so I accepted this adjective,
pampered, with a pleasant feeling.Now, with 10 years of experience in life, I
realize I have learned so many things. And I know
how to deal with each situation in life. I feel more
mature and happier, and now I can really
understood why we cats chose to live with the
humans. It is because the humans li fe is so
emotionally intense. They can learn from their
mistakes. Sometimes they are happy
and sometimes not. Sometimes they can say goodbye but keep their loved ones in their
hearts. Sometimes they can keep a connection with
another even when they arent geographically close.
But more than anything, I think humans are
special because they can project their futures, and
when they project good things, they can gather
good things, too. If I had lived these 10 years as a
street cat, maybe I would have had no chance to
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learn from humans. So, optimistically, now I can
say that I feel I was a lucky cat. And I was right about what I felt when I
looked at my aunt for the first time in the pet shop.
My life with this family has brought us, to them
and to myself, a lot of changes. Over the years, we
have seen so many changes in our lives together
and I hope that I will be able to live the rest of my
short cat life with this wonderful family.
Well, the day
Ill go back to Brazil is coming. I hate
airplanes, but I will do my
best. And sure, I know that
my routine will change again.
But now, I feel more
prepared to deal with
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whatever changes life may bring because I know
deep inside that I will always love my family, and they will always love me.
***