In the mid-90s I worked with a lawyer named Mark who had a statue like this on his windowsill (minus the clock). He told us they are common in businesses in Asia, where the cat supposedly beckons the customer to come. Years later, while visiting my employer’s offices in Florida, I saw a beckoning cat in the lobby. Only just now did I realize that this was after we were bought by a Japanese company.
I don’t know if our cat brought us any business. I do remember that one late night after battling with a Telebit router for a few hours, Jamie and I sacrificed a blown ethernet card to the beckoning cat, mostly just to see what Mark would say the next day. And partly because we had been at the office too long.
Anyway, when I saw this little beckoning cat clock in a gift shop in Alaska, I just couldn’t pass it up. He lives in the bookcase next to my desk.
