The Cat of the Blue Mountain

At first,

I wondered, “Where are the cats who’ve crossed the Rainbow Bridge…?”
So I started drawing without deciding on a specific destination,

but then I lost track of where the cats were,
and I found myself lost too.

Before I knew it, I’d wandered into the mountains,
and it ended up looking like the cats were
wandering around in the blue mountains.

When I finally finished the drawing
and it was time to come up with a title,
I wondered,
“Is there an idiom involving blue mountains?” and searched online,

which led me to a haiku by Santōka Taneda:

“No matter how far I venture in, no matter how far I venture in, the blue mountains.”

It felt as though this resonated with the cats I’d been drawing while lost—and with myself—
so I used it as inspiration for the title.



No matter how far I venture in, no matter how far I venture in...
Cats playing in the blue mountains