Minnie has been FOUND!

Last night James and I decided to spend the night on Whidbey Island so we could awake and begin the cat hunt. Catie and I spent some of the night trying to figure out things and getting really annoyed witht eh Good Cheer staff for not being very good at helping out a lost kitty. I was telling Catie that I was so worried because even though Minnie can spend the majority of her day outside she wont crap or pee outside. She saves all that for her litter box. Also I was trying to figure out what she would eat. Catie made me realize that the collar I put on Minnie could be the very thing that kills her. Her collar jingles and there is no way she can sneak up on anything. I was truly worried at that point.

The next morning after getting coffee and a muffin James and I went across the street to Dan Porter Park. This park is also across the street from the Good Cheer and where everyone "felt" Minnie would be camping out. James, Catie and Diana have all been around the park calling and calling and looking for her little Minnie self to no avail. James and I try anyway, just because we have dedicated our entire day to looking for her. We park the car and the two of us, with Allie go in separate directions. James goes further into the park while I head for the front of the park. This park is rumored to me to be pretty nasty with people doing drugs, hooking up and whatever bad behavior they can think of. As I walk through tiny wooded trails calling "Minnie, Minnie, Little Minnie Girl!" I am constantly in fear of homeless people and needles. I am also scared of seeing my little Minnie lying on the side of the trail completely mauled by some bird or animal of prey. Whidbey Island is a nice place full of beautiful scenery but it is also a Killer Island. There are Eagles and Coyotes that are waiting for Minnie to escape so they can eat her little feline body. As I walked and yelled all I saw was a sandwich bag with rotten carrots. At one point I took the right side of a fork making what I felt a crucial decision. After awhile I was very close to the street at the front of the park when I almost turned around. I figured surely she would have come out by now and in my heart I felt that I would not find her there. Something told me to just keep going until I could go no further. I thought of her fatigued and helpless lying somewhere waiting and hoping I would find her exhausted body. Instead I heard a mew and turned to look. There was Minnie! She jumped up on a log and we were reunited! I crouched down and called her name so she knew I was safe to approach. She came up and sniffed me and allowed me to pick her up. I gave her some love, told her how dirty she looked and we proceeded back to the car. Interestingly enough as soon as I had her I could hear James calling Allie to come back. He kept calling her to come back to him and as soon as I could yell to him and not freak Minnie out I told him I had her. He wanted to know which her I was talking about and I said Minnie. Then Allie showed up and I told him I had her too. Allie jumped up to say hello to Minnie she was so excited to see her again. She actually jumped up twice. James and I found one another also and we all walked back to the car. Everything was just dandy when Minnie saw the car and squirmed out of my arms and took off back into the woods. I followed her and picked her back up again. When I got back to the car and was about to sit down James asked if I wanted her in the cat carrier. I declined thinking she could just roam the car. But off again she went running further into the woods. James got the carrier and we stuffed her in.

Back at Dianas we thought it would be funny to make them think we had no Minnie kitty. Catie could tell James was lying so he got her out of the car. Diana was so happy she looked as though she may cry. She and Catie got some food and water put together and we let Minnie out of her carrier. James put Minnie in front of the cat food and Minnie sucked it up. The food was gone in a matter of seconds and Minnie was hazily walking around the house. Allie could not let her be and everyone wanted to pet her and make sure she was doing good. Catie kept taking her picture and eventually Minnie climbed up on Bobs chair and went to work on herself. She licked and licked and licked her dirty little paws and then took a peaceful nap.

So Minnie is back and her crazy adventure has dwindled down. We are all still unsure how Minnie got to the Good Cheer. We are quite confident that she did not walk down there because she did not walk back. Also she was not far from the Good Cheer when we eventually found her. We expect sabotage. Our hunches are Bobs care taker, Joy, took her for a Joy ride. Or, that Minnie got into some construction workers truck and was left at the Good Cheer. We are all mystified but quite happy to see her safely back after 3 days of hiatus.

Minnie is MISSING!!

The other day I get a message on my phone from a girl I could barely understand. I know that she says she found my cat but thats about it. The girl spoke so fast I could not tell what number she left me or where she said she was with my cat. I got the message close to 5 and called the missed number. Mary, from the Good Cheer on Whidbey Island, answered my call. Surprised, I said that I was calling because a girl called me from that number stating she found my cat. Mary said " Oh, yes. Those girls were in here HOURS ago!" She didn't know where the girls went or where my little Minnie went to. She gave me another number to call, the store next door to them, but no one answered. So I called the Good Cheer back but no one answered because it was five and they were out the door. Meanwhile, where is Minnie?

I call my Mother in Law because that is where Minnie and Allie are staying. Diana is shocked to hear that Minnie is missing. She just saw her and fed her. I tell her that Minnie was last seen at the Good Cheer which she lets me know is 2 miles from her house. We can not figure out how she got down there, or why she would go that way. It is down a long, long road and there is so much frolicking land she could have chosen to run off into. Why did Minnie choose to go to the best thrift store on Whidbey Island? Diana could not go investigate because Catie had the car in Seattle and the red truck is a broken down POC.

The next morning I call the Good Cheer back. A gentleman answers and I ask him if he knows anything about the cat. He replies that " Oh yes, he spent the night in the clothing store last night and was around but I don't know where he is right now." I clarify that its a she and her name is Minnie. He takes a look around for her but she has escaped. Great. I ask that if she shows up, please call me. I call Diana to let her know but now she is in Seattle and helping Catie move. I don't hear from the Good Cheer all day.

Today I call the Good Cheer and they have not seen her. We will go looking for her sweet self tomorrow.

Minnie Pirate Booty

This cat cracks me up. James and I bought an enormous bag of Pirates Booty, the white cheese kind, and I was sitting in a chair trying it out. Little Minnie jumped up on the chair to be with me and check out what I was eating. Since she is so picky about what she eats I thought she would smell it and jump away on to her next adventure. Nope. She stuck her tiny little head into this huge bag of Booty and ate a Pirate. I was shocked. I quickly realized I had to put it away or make our Dog, Allie, very jealous. Besides, once Minnie likes something, forget it. She has got tenacity along with personality. She may have eaten the whole bag, which she could have easliy climbed into. So there we have it. She doesn't really eat the large basin of catnip we have, she will however eat butter and Pirates Booty. Crazy cat.

Minnie is a Fat Ass

Really she is not. She is a Skinny Minnie. However, she eats a lot. She is constantly standing in front of her plate and just stares at it as if magically, food will appear. She is well fed, I swear, but sometimes she thinks she has to eat RIGHT NOW. Every morning I am awakened from licking. Minnie is either licking away my arm or my hand and once I woke up to her licking my chest. Its her *special* way of letting me know, she's hungry. She will scavenge her dried up wet cat food crumbs discarded around her plate. Today she really went too far. I was cleaning out our "pantry" which is really our Junk closet. I found a bag that was chock full of random things like lipstick, tools, loose change, sand paper and old dry cat food. It was spread out all over the floor and somehow it did not occur to me that she may eat it. She loves that closet, loves to climb all over it and through it and suddenly I realized she was not exploring, she was mackin' on some old cat food! I couldn't drag her out because she had squeezed her skinny ass into a spot I could not pull her out of. Before I knew it, it was all gone and she was frantically looking for more. This cat is crazy.

Butter

Miss Minnie has a secret love for butter. Forget salmon, turkey, bacon, anything, all she wants is butter. Sometimes I forget to put the butter away and I wake up in the morning and there it is, oddly textured. You can make out her kitty tongue grooves imprinted onto the butter stick and you stare in amazement. Butter? Really? Who would have thought?

Ah Ha Moment

I just had a moment of genius with Minnie Moore. There I was in the bathroom, brushing my teeth and in comes Minnie. She somehow found a piece of silver string in the bathroom, although I just cleaned it and has been playing with it for many days now. She likes to toss it and throw it into the air. Tonight I watched her get up on the toilet and fling the string into the toilet, only to paw it back out. Gross! Often I come into the bathroom and sitting in the bottom of the toilet bowl is a random Q-tip. I stand above it, staring and wondering how that Q-tip got there. The toilet it often appears in is far from any Q-tip. I wonder, "How the hell did that end up there?" I just now figured it out. Minnie probably gets it out of one room, tosses it, paws it, carries it around and finally concludes her fun by depositing it into the toilet and fishing it out until it sinks from water log. She is strange.

Meet Minnie

Minnie Moore is now our cat. She was my step parents cat for a long time, like 5 years. She had a brother but he died; not under my watch and of male kitty circumstances.

My step mom got an internship out in D.C. and my step father stayed here in Seattle. A year later he was bound for Iraq to help rebuild. He got rid of and packed all their possessions while moving out of their condo. All that was left was little Minnie. I knew that no one wanted her, she's scary. FOR REAL. No one could pet her without being hissed at. No one could play with her without walking away with massive scratches. She had slapped my mom in the face and hit her in the butt. No joke. She ran up on the bed where my mom was and hauled off and smacked her in the face. The other time she jumped up on a chair and smacked her in the ass. We had a family friend cat sit for a week and she came back with so many scratches and blood on her arms you thought she put them through glass. This cat was crazy and here was my step dad giving me the doe eyes. I said I would take her for the year he was supposed to be gone.

Well... he never went. He came back to Seattle and we all found out that my step parents decade long marriage was not going to make it. At this point we were living on Whidbey Island. Minnie was real good where she was at. She could go outside and stay outside for as long as her kitty heart desired. I kept waiting for the word though, my step dad adored Minnie. The word never came so we kept her. Then we were moving back to Seattle. I told my step dad that he needed to take Minnie back. Then we got the bomb. He didn't want her back. Turns out he and my step mom were both allergic to cats and were taking steroids to handle having her around. He was feeling so much better than he had been and didn't want her back. OMG. I had never talked to my husband about taking Minnie on, I just took her. We already had a dog. Minnie had always been a point of contention in our relationship. She keeps my husband awake at night and she like to puke on his stuff. Worst of all his mom re-upholsters furniture and Minnie loved to sharpen her claws on that furniture. Anytime we butted heads it would always end with, "It's only until he takes her back." Now we were truly stuck with her psycho ass.

Minnie though, bless her crazy heart, keeps us quite entertained and everyday she blows our mind. This little blog is here to keep record of her past and present adventures.