Imogene Mewler: My Early Birthday Present from God.

  I call Imogene, 'my early birthday present from God.' Ever since I was 4 years old, I desperately wanted a cat. Every little girl needs a cat, right? I extensively researched the different breeds in our encyclopedias and read the Little Golden books we had about cats cover to cover until I could almost recite them from memory. For a while, I was very much obsessed.
  But I never did get a cat of my own until this year.

My dad told me over and over, "We can't pay for a cat, we'd have to vaccinate the thing, no telling where we could find a good cat in West Africa, we'd have to feed it, it'd get sick, what would we do with it while we are on furlough, et cetera and so on,"

"Yes, Daddy, but they're soooo cute!"

...I can't count the number of times we had that conversation, but I dropped it after a while because Dad was right.

 Last month, Tristan and I went to a retreat designed for MKs. I had an incredible time.  Poor Aidan, Christianna, and Jackson were left to their own devices while the cool kids were away 😉
 I remember clearly sitting in the plane with my head buried in my pillow on my lap while Dad was on the phone. I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying to my mom until he said, "No, I haven't told them anything. It will be a surprise."  It was perfect - Tristan and I simultaneously turned our heads to look accusingly at Dad. Both of us knew better than to ask him and we were too exhausted by our awful trip to speculate out loud. Dad merely grinned at us, waggled his eyebrows, and we moved on.

  Aidan and Christianna were asleep, so Tristan and I dumped our baggage in the living room and crawled into bed. It was almost midnight. I slept extremely well.

... for about six hours. I wasn't exactly conscious, but in my sleep I could hear this bizarre wailing, beeping sort of noise that was really, really, REALLY annoying (especially after you've had six hours of sleep, spent the previous day in airports and planes, and have stayed up WAY too late the past week with your buddies; but I digress). At first I thought it was Christianna's alarm, and I rolled over and managed to shake Christianna. Personally, if I am woken up early without any forewarning, I am a downright grump. So poor Christianna was having her brains rattled around by a zombie next to her that she hasn't seen in a week who is moaning, "Turn it o-o-o-ff."

 I fell back asleep for about thirty minutes until a sound that I think can only be described as a cross between a squeal and a siren sounded persistently by my right ear. I rolled over, looking for the offensive object and there, staring at me with titanic eyes and the most innocent expression, was a little kitten - her head was cocked on one side and a  paw rested delicately on the edge of the drawer she was sitting in.

At that precise moment, Christianna opened the door and seeing me, smiled sheepishly.

"We have a - CAT?"  Something more original and diplomatic like, "Christianna, how was your week, your kitten is adorable!" probably would have been better. But no...

  Imogene has trained us very carefully. She has specific meows for:

1. Feed me!
2. I have to go use the potty!
3. How DARE you!
4. Give me attention!
5. Pick me up NOW!
6. PUT. ME. DOWN!
7. Get this - thing - off me!
8. I'm thirsty!
9. Give me your table food!
10. I'm tired...
11. How DARE you wake me up!
12. Get that person away from me!

... and many more. She has a whole system of communication that takes about a week to understand. After maybe five days of sleeping in her box, she learned to climb up the covers on the sides of our beds and sleeps with one of us girls, depending on who kicks her or moves her the most.

  She sleeps in now, but when I first started taking care of her, her Majesty rose at the crack of dawn and demanded sustenance from all her slaves. Fortunately, she is too lazy for that now, and will content herself to sleep on my algebra books during the morning (Bummer...).

My solution to the Algebra problem

We have a range of names for her including, but not limited to:

1. Imogene
2. Mewler
3. Kitty
4. Kittums
5. Putty
6. Putty-Tat
7. Scruffy (when they first rescued her from the trash yard next-door)
8. Scaredy-Cat
9. the cat
10. and CAT! when she is doing something she should not otherwise be doing, like climbing on Dad's favorite chair in the living room during dinner so that she can see what we are eating and clamor for her portion loudly.

  Christianna told me later how they found her. Before I had left, we had discovered a dead female cat in our front yard, which we all assume is the mother. A few days later, Christianna heard a furious mewing coming from the trash yard on the other side of our backyard wall. Immediately she called  Jackson, one of the few brave souls who will enter the horrid place. Jackson put a washcloth over his hand and picked her up. The little spit-fire writhed, bit, clawed, and spat at him pathetically. She was dehydrated, half-starved, and (I am told) stank to high heaven. She didn't act developmentally normal until Tristan and I got back.

The first time I held Imogene

  Now her Ladyship rules the household and has numerous servants that reply to her every beck and call. We took her to get her shots this week and the poor thing was so traumatized afterwards that she hid in the living room and slept for most of the day.

I'm sure Dad would have never thought to himself, "We will have a vaccinated black and white stray cat living in our house." But things change! (I, for one, am glad they did)

Imogene is her own unique cat, but the only cat that I can relate her to is Fat Louie from The Princess Diaries 1 (minus the tiara - Imogene hates having anything around her, especially if it is a flea collar).

  I'm no princess and Imogene is not enormously fat (yet), but in the end we both reign the household, staying up too late playing Sudoku, and poking each other if the other moves in their sleep.



*I had internet issues and responsibilities yesterday, which is why this post is a day late... sorry!