Mingus

A friend of mine texted me this picture and told me her friend found it out in the rain. She asked if I wanted it. She said it was really sweet, but they couldn't keep it.

I am a cat lover and haven't had a cat in about 16 years, due to different circumstances. About 5 years ago, Piper asked for a kitten. We were renting our house and Seven was in the crawling stage which would be perfect for him to play in the litter box. I told Piper we couldn't get one at that time. She asked again, but I had Rilian then, who was a baby and would also be tempted to play in the litter box. She occasionally asked and as much as I wanted to get her a cat, there was always an excuse as to why we couldn't get one. We were renting and didn't have a good place for the litter box. You ask, "Well, why didn't you just keep the cat outside?" If you are a cat lover like me and have children who love cats, you know that wouldn't work well. It would be too tempting to bring the cat inside.

At first I told my friend that as much as I would love to take the kitten from her, I would have to decline her answer for now. We already have a snake, a parakeet, 2 fish, a Siberian Husky AND four children. I really didn't want anything else to take care of right now. I am usually the one who ends up taking care of the pet that someone else wanted at the time. I really think that if it weren't for me, some of the pets we have would have died already. 

The next day, my friend posted a picture of the kitten on Facebook and said they couldn't keep it because they already had two cats and those cats didn't like the kitten. She said if no one wanted the kitten, they would have to send it back outside that night. I felt really sorry for the cute kitten. And it was raining! I showed Jeremy the picture that my friend had texted me the day before. I told him, I'd really like to get it, but my downfall was that I didn't know where we would put the litter box.  Jeremy said, "The door that goes out into the garage has a cat door in it." All of a sudden, a light went off! I knew that! I guess I had forgotten about it. We bought a house a couple of months ago and the door leading to the garage has a cat door in it. I guess I got so used to seeing it, that I forgot it was there. Perfect! After debating for awhile, I texted my friend and asked if we could come just look at the kitten, but I still needed to think about it before committing to bringing the kitten home with me. While I was debating in my head about the kitten, I asked Jeremy, "What will we name it?" Jeremy, who is NOT a cat person, immediately answered, "Mingus." 

So, that night, we adopted Mingus! Before going to pick Mingus up from my friend's house, we went and got supplies for our new kitten. My friend and her roommate thought Mingus was a girl, so we got a pink collar for her. Turns out, when we got to their house, the figured out he is a boy, so for a few days, Mingus wore a pink collar. Until somehow he lost the collar in the garage and we couldn't find it, so we bought him a blue one. 

Rilian has always loved cats! So, I knew he would love Mingus! He used to take all of Piper's stuffed animal cats from her room and put them in his room. Then he got his very own stuffed animal cat for Christmas and sleeps with it every night. 

Mingus is not going to ever feel unloved in our home! 

Rilian likes to play with Mingus with the laser pointer. Mingus likes to chase it!

There are quite a few pictures of the kids with Mingus in the garage. Until we knew Tymbre, our Siberian Husky, and Mingus would get along, we kept Mingus in the garage.

While Mingus was getting comfortable with us and his new home, he liked to hide alot. Going out into the garage to spend time with Mingus was like playing "Where's Waldo?" He found several hiding places...on top of some shelves...

 In a crate...he was actually small enough to climb through the holes on the crate! It took me a LONG time to find him here!

 He also hid behind the crate...

Then came time for the big introduction...Tymbre stays inside alot. She is basically a house dog. Tymbre was beyond excited to meet Mingus. Mingus was NOT excited to meet Tymbre! After a couple of days of slowly introducing the two, I was finally able to sit down on the couch with Mingus and Tymbre was calm enough to sit beside me and Mingus. You can tell that Mingus still isn't too fond of Tymbre.

 But Mingus allowed Tymbre to sit there and touch him without any hissing.

 Rilian brought his pillow to the couch because he thought Mingus would like to use it. 

Mingus started to slowly warm up to Tymbre on his own. His curiosity started to grow. By this time, he had accepted that Tymbre will not hurt him, but he still doesn't quite know what to think of Tymbre.

For someone who doesn't like cats, Jeremy sure does look like he is enjoying Mingus!

I was out with some friends one evening and Jeremy texted me this picture. He said Mingus fell asleep like that.

When we went to the store to get some supplies before we brought Mingus home, we decided we didn't have to have a scratching post that night. When I saw Mingus sitting on our firewood, I decided he had found a natural scratching post and we didn't need to buy him one. He has actually been scratching on the wood, too!

Looks like Tymbre thought she could play with Mingus's toy, too. I later found that toy had been destroyed by Tymbre...

A few days had passed and Mingus had finally accepted that Tymbre is harmless. Mingus attempts to play with Tymbre. 

Tymbre just ignores him. Every time I watch this video, it cracks me up! It's as if Tymbre is oblivious to Mingus swatting playfully at her.

After a few days, I was able to leave Tymbre and Mingus alone together. They were laying on separate couches but near each other as I was leaving one day to pick up the kids from school.

Mingus is trying so hard to be friends with Tymbre. I think Tymbre could really care less about Mingus. Tymbre was laying on the couch and Mingus got up there with her.

Tymbre loves laying in this spot under the table between the couches. I call it her cave. Mingus saw her laying there and makes another attempt to play with her.

Once again, Tymbre ignores Mingus's attempts to play with her. So funny. Talk about patience! Perhaps, Tymbre thinks she will get in trouble if she plays with Mingus because we told her to leave Mingus alone when we were introducing them. Poor, Mingus. He wants to play with her so bad! 

Mingus really likes Tymbre and likes being close to her. The table to the right is Tymbre's cave, that I mentioned earlier. Mingus likes to sleep on these blankets right next to Tymbre's cave. 

 At bedtime one night, Tymbre was laying on her bed and Mingus curled up beside her. 

Mingus has been caught more than once like this on our parakeet's cage!  

We have taught Tymbre to leave Fluffy alone. I let Fluffy out the other day to exercise his wings and he was walking around on the ground for a bit. Mingus saw him and came within inches of Fluffy. Fluffy didn't move! I guess he isn't afraid of Mingus because he knows Tymbre won't hurt him. I got scared for Fluffy's life and quickly put him back in his  cage. We need to work on Mingus and Fluffy's relationship still.

That about sums up Mingus's first month with us. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about Mingus in the future. Our pets are a big part of our family.