A Cat At Last

This is Mickey.

Isn't she lovely.

We first met her seven years ago when Sara brought home a kitten for her children, who I was looking after while she worked.

For some reason the kids, the oldest barely five, decided to name her Mickey, just like Grammie's best friend.

She took a close interest in the activities of the young children in her family.

At a young age she suffered the indignities of the "Cone of shame" as she recovered from her spay surgery.

Over the years as she grew up and her personality developed, Mickey became a neighbourhood legend.  It started with her catching moths and butterflies in the back yard, and rapidly progressed to mice, birds, baby rabbits and even a sizable bat.  She would bring these treasures to Sara and expect her to be grateful for the gifts.  I watched her one afternoon as she patiently tried to teach their other cat, Percy, to hunt, having provided a live mouse for him to practice on.  She was amazingly patient and clever but unfortunately Percy just didn't have the hunter instinct and Mickey finally gave up on him.

She showed Percy that the mouse was hiding in the wheel well
of the plastic truck

but when Percy still couldn't get the job done, Mickey
did it herself

Even non cat lovers like Lloyd finally admitted that Mickey was special, and developed a lot of respect for this independent amazing cat, who had the run of the neighbourhood and would stay out overnight in the dead of winter only to show up a couple of days later, wondering why her people were so worried.

Cold!  Pffft!  It's only -30.

Circumstances changed, as they have a way of doing, and Mickey was left alone so much that Lloyd took pity on her and asked Sara if we could adopt her and bring her to Lethbridge with us.  Once permission was granted we wasted no time bringing her home.  She was an excellent traveller, only meowing a few times as she lay in the cat carrier on the back seat of the car through the five hour drive to her new home.


Not knowing how she would react to her new home, we decided to not let her out for a few days so she would get used to the house and being here with us.  On her third day with us we let her out in the backyard.  She spent fifteen minutes or so exploring and then came back inside.  Feeling confident she was used to the new house, on the fourth day we let her out again and she promptly disappeared.  We searched for her, talked to the neighbours about her, put lost cat notices in mailboxes, on the internet and in the local paper, but to no avail.  Finally, on the fourth rainy night that she had been missing, at 3:30 in the morning, Lloyd heard her meowing outside the window.  We couldn't believe she actually found her way home, cold and wet but none the worse for wear.

Lloyd and Mickey - who's the boss?

After a couple of days, we let her out again and have been doing so ever since and she seems content to stay close to home.  I'm waiting patiently for my first 'gift' from her.

She's a good cat.  I'm glad she's living with us now.