Meows from Mudpie!
Over the last several months we've been telling you about
Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes, an anthology of rescue cat stories compiled by Janiss Garza, who writes the
Sparkle Cat blog. Each author featured in the book has nominated a cat rescue and was assigned a month to promote the book, with a third of the profits from that month going to their rescue.
November's spotlight is Gemini, sister to Chey of the blog
The Cat Post Intelligencer. Gemini met her human as a tiny kitten lost in the rain. She was in no mood to be rescued by a lowly human, and even at a young age had perfected the art of playing hard to get.
I think you'll enjoy meeting Gemini as much as I did!
Mudpie: Welcome Gemini! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today! Could you start by introducing us to yourself and telling us what made your story such a good fit for the Rescued anthology?
Gemini: My name is Gemini and I have been blogging since 2005. I started out on my own blogger blog (which I think is not gone after one of their updates) but then I had to share with Chey, who blogged at My Siamese. Over the years, her name changed to the Cat Post Intelligencer because Ichiro and I became more and more a part of the blog. My Tabby Tuesday posts were always very popular. We haven't blogged much since moving in January of 2015. We remain active on Facebook with over 1,000 likes and we have a twitter account, but mostly that is just repeats of what we post on Facebook. Mama never runs it.
Mama found me as a kitten at her condo the day after she lost her beautiful Siamese who came before, Simone and 10 days after she lost her beloved Iggy Cat so my story was one of a rescue BY HER!
A key character in your story is a cat named Eight Ball...why is he so significant?
Eight Ball was probably more significant to Mama than he was to me. She said this whole time was quite magical. She'd been with her big orange tabby cat, Ig when he died at home, and she felt he'd sent her a message because it was a bit hard for him to go. She was doing the click a day on the animal rescue site and this picture of an orange cat in a cage kept showing up for her. He had an annoyed expression a lot like Ig did and behind him was a water bottle like for small animals and it looked like a halo. For the next week, no matter what she did that photo came up for her. No one else saw it unless she clicked over on her computer to show them. It was like that image was meant for her.
When I showed up and she couldn't find after I left again, she asked Eight Ball to keep an eye out. After she had walked around a few of the buildings looking for where I might have hidden, Eight Ball was relaxing in a new spot, which was right outside the condo courtyard that I was hiding in. She always thought that he led her to me. I felt I had to include his part because it had been so important to her.
Mommy's heartstrings were tugged by the meaning behind your name. What inspired it?
In early May, Mama lost her cat Ig who died at home. He was 16. Not ten days later, suddenly her lovely Siamese, the first Siamese, Simone, crashed. We found she was in liver failure. Although they tried to treat it, she was breathing hard and bleeding through her nose. Mama agreed that it was time to let her go. Simone died in her arms.
That night, she heard the first little mews, which was me.
Dad, at the time, did not live with us, but he came down that weekend and he took all the letters in Ingold Inglorian (Ig's full name) and Simone (the full names of the two cats) and put them in a letter mixer and found all the name combinations that could be made. Mama picked Gemini because it meant the twins. I had the shoes of two cats to fill. And well, she always laughed at how I would hiss at her when she tried to feed me and then I'd find the food and I'd give this really huge purr!
And Dad, he wanted Soiling Demon, but Mama said that cats will live up to their names and she did NOT want that!
The rescue you've chosen to receive your proceeds from the book this month is Purrfect Pals. What important work do they do for homeless cats?
Purrfect Pals is a large no kill cat shelter in Arlington Washington. They have a big FIV room for FIV cats and an FELV area for FELV cats that has a big ramp and a huge catio area with a full yard that's completely covered so no one can escape. They also have a feral area where ferals can live safely. Sometimes local area farmers come by and adopt the ferals to help keep the rodent population down on their farms. They've helped a lot of very sick cats by raising special funds for them to have major operations so that they can go on and have long and happy lives at real homes. This is all in addition to their regular cat adoptions. It's a smaller shelter and relies on donations.
It is a good place, even if Ichiro came from there. He was probably a mistake but Mama says he was homeless and needed help. I just don't know why he had to come to MY home.
What's life like for you today?
I am eight years old now. About three months after she got me, Mama went down and adopted Chey, who was being petted out by a Siamese breeder. Mama really wanted a cat with a Siamese personality because she had loved her Simone so much. Chey didn't like her at all at first but then Chey met me and she got all excited. She was so excited, I was a little worried. She bonded with Georgia really well and was one of the first cats that Georgia didn't mother that she really liked. Because she liked the other cats, she decided to give Mama a try.
About five years ago, Georgia crossed the bridge at 21. She says no one should be sad because she had had a long, long life with more of it good being Mama's cat than being on her own like before. Chey and I had a good couple of years but then we got Ichiro and it has not been so good.
I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina from Seattle. I have a sun room, which I really like. Mama doesn't take me outside as much but I am not as interested here because we do not have big fence (just a little one on one side) and our neighbor has dachshunds who bark at me. I stay in my sun room or in Mama's bedroom mostly. I like the sunshine on my furs and I roll around a lot. Chey is here and sometimes I bop her because she deserves it. Ichiro always deserves it but he is a pill. He is a BOY. I wish we had left him behind, but Mama wouldn't. If not for him, my life would be perfect.
What would you like humans to learn from your story and what do you want your lasting legacy to be?
I would like people to remember that when they hear a mew in the night, it's not really a cat who is just looking to get back into their home! And sometimes we take time being found. Mama said I was semi-feral for a very long time but now, at 8 I am becoming very demanding in my affections. She likes that. I think that everyone needs to remember that cats grow and change just like humans. When we are given patience and love we can become very affectionate cats.
Oh and another thing people can learn from my story, is that people really can talk to cats and we get the message. Mama and Eight Ball really talked to each other about rescuing me. I doubt she would have found me again without his help!
Thank you so much for interviewing me Mudpie! You are very good at this! Gemini.
Photos used with permission: Bonnie Koenig
