The story of Miss Minnie

Well, actually it was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning when a stray black cat decided she wanted to adopt us as her family.  My wife had noticed a little black cat hanging around the end of our driveway.  Our driveway is 1/3 of a mile long, so we couldn't see her from the house.  After spying this kitty for a third time, she was asked to join us for a free meal.

When my wife drove up with this new cat I immediately stated that we were not keeping her.  I mean seriously, we already have two cats and a HUGE Great Pyrenees dog.  And I am the master of this place... right?  Well, the kitty was a sweetheart, obviously not feral as she had no fear of people and loved being held.  However she wore no tags, and none of our neighbors were missing a kitten.  We assumed that she must have been dumped by some uncaring person.  Anyway, on with my story...

Our daughter decided to name the cat "Miss Minnie" because she was so small.  We guessed that she must have been only 2-3 months old because she was so tiny.  While Miss Minnie was touring my shop/garage, she started to urinate on my workbench and the floor - now that was weird.  Everybody knows that cats are fairly particular how they attend to such things, and this was obviously a people-cat. I figured this might be the reason Miss Minnie found herself abandoned along the road.  I was soon to be proved wrong.

Before long, Miss Minnie gave birth to FIVE babies.  This baby was having babies!  How could this be?  Unfortunately, the litter was premature and her body was aborting a bad pregnancy.  All of the kittens were born with no fur and were not fully developed.  None lived.

The next day we took Miss Minnie to the Vet and learned that she was probably 9 months old.  Truly the runt of another cat's litter, but she was adorable and she had come into our lives when she needed help.  It looked like I was to have another four-legged friend around the place.

We decided to keep Miss Minnie as our outdoor shop cat.  She would live in the garage and hopefully assist with the prairie dog population when they appear next spring.  We are optimistic about her rodent catching prowess as we've seen her capture a couple of mice already.

Be sure to see Minnie's garage cat house...