Technically this short story is copyrighted. However the author (Bruce Sterling) has generously stated in writing that he won't prosecute posters & translators (to foreign languages). I'll post a link to the short story here (but not the content in this post). I'd encourage the readers to buy Mr. Sterling's novels if you like his short story.
Read the story here:
http://tqft.net/wiki/Maneki_Neko
Buy Mr. Sterling's novels here:
http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Sterling/e/ ... r_dp_pel_1
If you don't know what a Maneki Neko is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneki_Neko