A Man & His Cat, book 5, by Umi Sakurai. Square Enix Co Ltd.

In this volume, Fukumaru and Mr. Kanda face the situation that every pet owner fears: Fukumaru gets out the door as Mr. Kanda enters, and doesn’t come back. The book breaks into multiple threads at this point. We follow Mr. Kanda and his friends as they search for days for Fukumaru, while another thread is Fukumaru himself, wandering the city, lost and fearful. There are also a couple of other side threads; Moja, who lived in the cage next to Fukumaru at the pet store is on the streets, too, and Moriyama deals with problems with his band. Interspersed with the heavy stories are one page vignettes of life with cats, including one where Fukumaru starts heaving and Kanda tries (fruitlessly) to get a newspaper in front of the cat before he vomits. We’ve all been there! Five stars, despite a few glitches with the art.