Things are going well. I’d better get that in right now, for several reasons. First, when you have multiple cats, something is frequently wrong with somebody. This one is barfing, or that one is limping, and it costs a lot of money to find out why and, hopefully, fix it. If you have older cats…

Kevin-the-contractor finished the catio yesterday, perhaps because I met him on the driveway wringing my hands and wailing. Always effective. Well, it’s 99% done (nothing is ever DONE DONE in home improvement land). Everything is wired, the screen doors are on and latched, the roof panels are attached. And the hole in the house for…

I knew, I KNEW, reintegrating Mingo back into the household would be difficult. Integrating him as a kitten was fraught and he’s not a kitten anymore. His personality is completely unchanged by almost two years growth and two years away: he’s dominant, stubborn, persistent, and he does not share. After Ming disappeared from the yard…

First thing up: Several readers who are not currently owned by cats have suggested I’m not really that fond of Ming. As it is possible to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time, it is possible to love a cat to bits and simultaneously long to whack him over the head…

Mingo returned home last Wednesday. I stuffed him in my back room because the vet asked me to isolate him from the other cats until his stool test results came back. There he received human visitors from his local fan club, graciously accepting homage from the top of the bookcase. I had to put him…

Boulder Creek Veterinary Hospital called at 10:20 this morning. A stray cat had been found (I thought they were looking to place it) and then she said, “We scanned him and found a chip. It’s Mingo.” I cried. I had hysterics. The worst thing, the absolute worse thing, about Mingo disappearing was the uncertainty. Was…

This will be a short post. I’ve put it off for six weeks, because I couldn’t bear to write it. But it’s not getting any easier, so I might as well do it and get it over with. As most of you already know, Mingo’s gone. I let him out into the yard in the…

Yes indeedy, Mingo is now the Great Hunter. Mercifully he is not bringing his prey back to the lair, i.e. my living room or worse, my closet. He passed me on the deck at a fast trot with a tiny foot and a bit of tail hanging from his mouth. It was either a mouse…

Mingo’s 9 months old and he weighs 12 lbs. He’s the same weight as Squeaky, but a completely different silhouette. Squeaky is rounded and, well, cat-shaped. Ming is rectangular, like a furry shoebox. With an 18 inch tail. Since he’s been spending most of his days outside, at his own request, life for me and…

Have I mentioned that I do not do well on sleep deprivation? Well, I’m mentioning it now. Last night was a horrid combo of alternating insomnia and nightmares, punctuated by sporadic bathroom visits to feed the kitten. Apparently my subconscious, that sneaky thing, decided the alarm wasn’t going to go off and so I would…

Okay. Deep breath. Last night I received a series of texts from my yard person, the same yard person who gave me Mingo. I was confused, because she was texting photos of Ming as a kitten. Except of course she wasn’t. She’d found ANOTHER too-young feral kitten by her house. This woman, who reads this…

I haven’t posted much about my two other cats so far. This is The Chronicles of Mingo after all, not the Chronicles of Mary’s Cats. However, as Dumbledore would say, ‘Recent events must be taken into account.’ Ming’s overwhelming thrust to go outside has inspired my sixteen-year-old black cat to do the same. Mingo went…

Mingo’s had an interesting week. One of my neighbors brought over his chihuahua. This dog has been raised with cats, but he only weighs about 6 lbs. and he wasn’t thrilled to meet this huge, furry, aggressive monster. Add to this his heartless, cruel, sadistic** owner dropping his leash and you have the situation below….

I let Mingo go outside from pure self-defense. He’s pushing 12 lbs. in weight, he has an endless supply of energy, curiosity, and limited common sense. He’s like a four-year-old. (This might be a libel on four-year-olds. If so, my apologies.) In the last few days, he’s climbed inside the dishwasher twice, attempted to climb…

When you Google “How much to feed a Maine Coon kitten?” you don’t get answers. What you get is miscellaneous posts of plaintive owners asking the same question. Because the short and accurate answer is “Lots”. Or, as we say in the Coon Verse, a fuck-ton. As of today, Mingo weighs 11.2 lbs. I bought…

Did you know that HDMI stands for Highly Delicious Munchable Interconnect? Well, Ming did. So far, his score is 1 HDMI cable, 2 Apple charging cables, one extension cord, and he’s working on the soon-to-replaced power cord for the kitchen lights. Not mention the random tooth marks on the power cord to Squeaky’s cat bed….

Mingo and I had just had an interesting interaction where I was determined to comb the mats out of his tail and he was equally determined to not let me. I had to scruff him, which he hates, and instead of a nice soothing brush I had to use the grooming comb and work fast…

Obviously I selected a granite countertop color-coordinated with Mingo. Sometimes I want to take my subconscious and give it a good slap.

Probably due to all the construction, the one place Mingo hadn’t climbed onto, jumped up on, or generally messed with has been the kitchen countertop, the bar behind it, and the stove. About two days ago, that changed. No, he hasn’t set himself on fire. It’s still early days yet. I’m making my usual pro-forma…

Despite the Head Cold from Hell, I feed the cats on schedule. (Because if I’m late I’m surrounded by reproachful felines with huge, accusing eyes, that’s why.) So I was crawling out of bed this morning on day 6 of this pestilential cold, and I heard Squeaky yowling on the other side of the bedroom…