What a surprise to see this while out and about in Tokyo today. I couldn't make out what it was. A handbag sized dog? An exotic cat, since it had the mannerisms that were akin to a cat...? I asked a passerby and she said it was a tanuki. It looks nothing like my image of a tanuki a furry "raccoon dog" according to my dictionary... apparently tanuki in many parts of Japan have become infected with mange... A delight to see a tanuki, but seriously tempered by its poor condition. I'm not sure what, if anything, is being done to remedy the mange in the population...
