It’s not uncommon to meet wild animals every once in a while in Japan.

If you’re hiking in the mountains, you may come across wild boar, monkeys, or even a bear if you’re unlucky.

Although I’ve never seen a stray dog in Japan, I see plenty of cats. In my neighborhood in Osaka, there’s several felines I come across on a weekly basis.

Whether these are actually stray cats or not is up for debate, however. One calico in particular that I always see sitting underneath some car tires in the paid parking lots recently ran home with the old woman who owns a veggie shop when she called out, "Kan-chan, come on, time to go home. Let’s go have some salmon."

Twitter user Toko Akiba (@G_AKB) lives in Chiba, Japan.

She was out for a walk on the beach when she came across a cat. She wasn’t sure if the cat was grooming itself or bent over, but she thought it was cute and snapped a picture

Reproduced with permission from 秋葉東子 (@G_AKB)

As she tried to get closer to her new friend, she was suddenly shocked when she realized her eyes had deceived her.

Reproduced with permission from 秋葉東子 (@G_AKB)

Turns out her new friend was just a rock…

Miss Akiba had a good laugh at herself and after sharing her encounter, a whole lot of Japanese Twitter users got a kick out of it too.

  • It DOES look like a cat. Perfect shape and color to match.
  • I fell down laughing when I realized it was a rock.
  • It’s the kind of place you’d find a cat so I was duped.

Certainly from a distance, the color and shape of the rock can easily trick viewers into thinking it’s a cat.

Poor Miss Akiba, who was looking forward to befriending a new calico. She deserves to find a real cat next time, don’t you think?


By - Mujo.