Meet Mickey-Colony Cat of the Week Part 1

The featured cat of the week is back!  For those of you new to We Live Inspired, I sometimes write about a feral cat colony that appeared in our neighborhood.  For those of you not new, believe it or not there are several cats whose stories have yet to be told.  If you are just joining us and want to browse photos and stories of cats that were featured in the past click HERE.  Today you will get a chance to meet Mickey!  Mickey is one of the 2 mascots for my website, so you may have noticed her before in the photo of kittens in a basket on the main website page.  All photos/videos of her were taken at my parents house (this was before Matt and I became home owners this summer)

 

Mickey’s Story:

Mickey was an unexpected little miracle in my life and although she was adopted from the feral cat colony, she cannot be considered feral since she was born inside and had human contact from birth on.  Mickey’s mother Fluffy was a feral kitten who was already pregnant when I found her (only I didn’t know it then).  Fluffy ran across the yard and jumped in to my lap one 100+ degree Summer day last year.  It was then I realized she was in labor.  She never got very large.  To read the rest of this birth story please click HERE (as it was featured previously).

 

Fluffy had a hard time bringing rambunctious little Mickey in to this world and pretty much screamed bloody murder (which is not typical for a cat giving birth).  In fact all her loud screeching and hissing made me leave the room and when I came back in to try to film I was sort of afraid to approach her as you can tell by this poorly shot video of Mickey’s birth!  All was well soon after though, and a healthy, active little kitten was born.  It was one of the most precious and beautifully joyful things I have experienced in my life so far (believe it or not it was my first time seeing birth).

 

 

 

How did Mickey get her name?

I didn’t give the 2 kittens a name until they were about 4-5 weeks old.  I was trying to identify their gender before I named them, but that didn’t go as planned anyways.  I swear to you I thought Mickey was a boy!  She had a black soul patch under her chin and she didn’t look feminine in the face as much as her sister did.  She also acted hyper and rammy, whereas her sister was delicate and shy.  It is really hard to tell when kittens are small by physically looking to see what “parts” they have down there haha.   Since I had it in my head that the black kitten was a boy and the white one a girl, I decided on naming her Mickey and her sister Minnie.  Isn’t that cute for a pair of black and white kittens?  I thought so. 🙂

 

I had also toyed with a few other names for Mickey..one being oreo (too common I decided) and one being Sinatra (as she is a tuxedo cat and I happen to like Frank Sinatra music).  Even the vet office had her sex marked down as a male, so I am not the only one who misjudged her at first.  When we found out Mickey was female, I kept her name as by then they were this cute Mickey/Minnie pair that I was used to and she is a tomboy anyway.

 

 

What was Mickey like as a kitten?

Mickey was my hyper kitten child.  The only time I was ever able to hold and cuddle her was when she was a newborn, or when she was sleepy and took naps with me.  One of the things everyone who saw her laughed at was the fact that her eyes were always SO wide open.  It was like she never blinked.  They were large and would stare at you and at the world with this wide eyed look of amazement that looked like she was always surprised.  As an adult, she still does this, but it doesn’t look as dramatic as it did when she was a kitten.

 

Look-it’s Mickey Blue Eyes! 😉

 

 

She was always so spunky!!  She made me laugh (and still does).  She would get in to everything.  One of her favorite things to do was get in laundry baskets.  She was born in the laundry room and slept there at night too.  When I would come down to do laundry or shower, a curious Mickey would pop up out of laundry baskets at me:

 

 

She gets pretty in to her playtime as well.  She will sometimes growl if you come near her when she has a toy in her mouth.  When she feels she has “caught” something it is serious business LOL.  You can see her doing that in the video below, or by clicking HERE.

 

She was and still is quite a little piggy too.  She loves to be fed, especially if it is a treat of tuna or some other type of meat.  She pushes her mom out of the way and I have to actually separate the two if I want Fluffy to get a treat too, or Mickey will wolf her food down and then eat her mommy’s food as well.

She was lots of fun , but hard to catch (actually she still is even as an adult).  Here is a rare moment from her kitten years where she let me hold her on my lap (she must have been sleepy):

 

 

Mickey is a joy in my life and she , her sister, and her mama are the 3 colony cats that I adopted as my own.    Stay tuned for part 2 of Mickey’s story.  Next time I will show you updated photos of her as an adult now (she is 1 year and a couple months old) as well as a video.  For now though, won’t you watch this cute little video of a baby Mickey learning to walk her way over to her mom Fluffy?

 

Click HERE if you can’t see video (it will take you to Youtube)