The Mugi Saga

Loving and creepy at the same time.

This ridiculous fathead is Mugi (pronounced "Moogie," more on that later).

For Christmas, Tim gave me a cat. He tried to keep it a secret, but I knew what he was going to do the minute he said, "we should wait and exchange gifts after we get back from Colorado." Cats are a gift that notoriously don't age well in wrapped packages.

Despite the "Christmas" intentions, it took us weeks to actually adopt him because of all kinds of complications, including an upper respiratory infection. Finally the vets called and said, "I think he'll get better faster and be happier at home with you." God, she wasn't kidding. I've never seen such a happy cat.

People are always giving me cats. Maybe there's something on my face that says, "I'm a sucker for anything furry." It could also be that I frequently say things like, "Aggghhhh. I wish I had a cat/dog/hamster/squirrel/lemur, etc."

In high school Trina picked up a cat from a box outside the grocery store and brought her to me as a "surprise." I love this. This type of impulsive behavior is why she's in my wedding party.

Srsly Fat Face.

In college, Tim's sister Carly found two kittens under a truck parked outside of a Chinese restaurant. They were small enough that both of them fit in the palm of your hand at once. It was fun to be a full-time college student with two kittens who were too young to be weaned, one of whom liked to sleep in my hair, suck on my ears and pee on my head.

Still, I'm lucky that these people thought of me when random cats appeared because they all turned out to be hilarious, charismatic cats. Which is not just something I'm saying because I'm crazy cat lady (which I probably am). There is such a thing as a boring asshole cat, I know.

In general cats can be compared to Hollywood celebrities. Don't tell me you haven't looked at your grandma's cat and thought of like, Elton John or Joan Rivers. They're simultaneously standoffish and attention-craving. They can be picky and weird and moody and their contributions to society range from "etherial" to "box of crap."

But some of them totally win.

i'm upside down, showin u my bellies.

Case in point: Mugi.

This cat is like the Johnny Depp of cats. What I imagine it would be like to live with Johnny Depp in real life. If he were a cat.

Mugi likes to slink around the apartment, meow philosophically, and then fall over and roll around.  Rolling around is his favorite hobby.

He also enjoys sitting as close as he can to your face (sometimes on your face) and reaching his ENORMOUS paws out and touching you.

He purrs almost constantly (i.e., right now), and unlike any cat I've ever met, he loves, loovvesss, to have his belly rubbed. He will wedge himself into ridiculously uncomfortable spaces, like a Chilean miner, but he leaves his belly tantalizingly exposed.

I think he might fit.

Basically, he's lived here for about three days and he's already sneezed on everything I own, discovered every hiding place in the whole apartment, lost his collar, made a disastrous mess in the guest bathroom, and established that he is in charge.

If that doesn't sound like A-list behavior to you, then I don't know what does.

Postscript: His name is "Mugi," which was my "Blue Ivy Carter" moment. The shelter named him "Moogie" which is an utterly meaningless name (though it's better than "Pampers" and "Panera," the names of some of the other cats up for adoption). Given the choice we probably would have named him "Huckleberry" or "Thucydides" but my one real superstition is that you can't change an animal's name. However, according to the illustrious Alsn, "Mugi" is the Japanese word for Barley. (I can just hear Gwyneth Paltrow saying those words. Whatever.)  He's definitely a barley kitty, in that he would hide in it and then jump out and love you to death.