Maya

Maya is an Iriomote cat (kitten actually) who the girls meet on their class trip to Okinawa on the Iriomote island. Surprisingly he seems to like Sakaki a lot. When Maya's mother dies he searches for Sakaki and eventually finds them and saves Sakaki and Chiyo from Kamineko and his gang. Chiyo then offers to keep Maya at her place until Sakaki moves out and is able to keep Maya at her own place - and Sakaki names the kitten Maya as an abbreviation of 'Yamamaya', a term used by Iriomote natives.

(Image credit: Wikipedia)