We Are Not Alone

In 2017, Bob and I were fortunate enough to visit Tokyo to attend the Japanese premiere of the movie of A Street Cat Named Bob .

Away from all the glamour, the most affecting moment came when we were introduced to two The Big Issue sellers, Akira and Shinzo. Shinzo had a cat, too, a stray that he had named Mi. He had been living a pretty simple existence, living off scraps of food and sleeping rough. He’d tried selling The Big Issue , but found it very hard going. He couldn’t attract people’s attention. Mi had changed his fortunes immediately.

‘People were more open to me,’ he said. ‘They stopped and talked.’

Akira had a similar story. He had briefly found a cat abandoned in a park. He had looked after it for two weeks before it was reunited with its owner. In that fortnight, he’d started taking the cat with him to sell The Big Issue outside the main railway station, where he had his pitch.

‘I was no longer invisible. You know how that feels?’ he said to me.

‘Yes, I do,’ I nodded. I told him that it had only been when Bob had come into my life that people had ‘seen’ me.

It was as if I was looking into a mirror. We all think we are unique. That no one can have had it is as bad as us. That is wrong.

No matter how desperate your situation. No matter how isolated and alone you might feel, the truth is you aren’t alone at all. There is someone out there just like you. Going through the same things. It needed Bob to take me to the other side of the world to show me that.