Ming Needs A New Home

We have come to the unfortunate conclusion that the little Ming-a-ling needs to find a new home. With the new addition due to arrive in our family by the end of the year (a non-furry new addition), we can no longer accomodate her special needs. Here is a little background on Ming.

We found her behind our house four years ago. It was around September and it was a rainy night. The Dogfather heard her pitiful wails and recruited me to help find her. It wasn't too difficult to find the loud crying, white kitty in the dark. She suffered a scraped nose in the scuffle but seemed fine. Except she was clearly not someone's pet. She hissed, spat, growled, swiped, and guarded her food with intensity. I remember putting a bowl of food down for her and as her took gulpfuls of food in, she kept one paw on top of the food pile to protect it. She was all of one and a half pounds when she weighed in at the vet's the next day. Her estimated birthdate is 7/25/2003.




As she grew in the following weeks, she stealthly stole food off of our plates and off my chopping board right from under my nose. But the little Ming grew on us, as well as Riley, as she slowly developed into a lovely domesticated cat. We have many pictures of Ming sleeping with Riley, crawling all over his back, and sucking on his fur. The two of them grew up together and kept each other company while we were away at work.
She also took to the oldest cat, Little Li, as a playmate. The two kitties played chase, tag, and wrestled together.




Ming was not welcomed by our other cat, MeiMei, however. MeiMei enjoys the leisurely life of laying in a lap and being petted. No running around. No pouncing. No chasing for this plump girl. She certainly was not amused by any of this new kitten's antics. So she warned her off by growling, hissing, and spatting. This only intrigued Ming more. Ming now realized that she could get a rise out of MeiMei by just walking past her. And thus began the rift between the two. Ming would purposefully go out of her way to annoy MeiMei. Ming would stalk Mei while she was snoozing and viciously pounce on her, sending her straight out of a blissful sleep into a hair-raising screech. The more Mei growled, the more intense Ming's obsession with her became. It finally got to the point where we felt MeiMei's well being was jeapordized. The attacks were becoming more frequent and intense. And quite frankly, I was tired of listening to the growling. It is a very unsettling, deep growl that makes me feel like I have an upset stomach.

Our solution for the past two years is to separate the two. During the day, Ming is allowed to actively roam the house with all the other furkids while MeiMei gets the spare room/Dogfather's office to herself. She has her own bed, window perch, and safety and security. Everyone is out together only for the brief time of eating dinner. Food trumps all other interests here. After dinner, the cats are generally good as they digest their food and do their business. When things start to get a little hairy, Ming is sent to her crate so that MeiMei can have some socialization time with us. Ming then spends the rest of the night crated while MeiMei has the rest of the quiet house to enjoy. In the morning, MeiMei has her breakfast first and is retired to her "office" before Ming is let out. This arrangement seems to have worked out fine for us. Ming tends to do well being crated at night. In the past, if left to roam, she exhibited strange behaviors that could only be described by me as mournful and lonely. She would walk around the dark, quiet house crying and moaning until she found something to play with. This usually involved tossing something down the stairs and chasing it. NOT something we wanted to hear in the middle of the night when we're trying to get some sleep. Early in the morning before we woke, we could also hear her scratching at the bottom of our closed doors, mewing to get in. We finally decided to crate her and it seems to give her a sense of security and a place where she belongs.



The few times we have been careless and left a door open, Ming has clearly shown her jealousy of MeiMei and attacked her. She has also been known to urinate on Mei's belongings or my belongings to clarify her feelings to us. Believe me. It was loud and clear.

With the new family member due to arrive, we will be planning to change the office to a nursery. MeiMei will probably still be allowed to stay, but the door will no longer be kept closed. Therefore, there will be no way to safely separate the two cats.

We are beginning our search early and are willing to take the time to find a good home for our little Ming-a-Ling. Here are the recommendations I would have for any potential adoptive home:

No other cats

Preferrably a dog or dogs in the home for her to play with. She may be quite lonely coming from a home of 5 animals to being the only one and she gets along with dogs wonderfully.

Indoor only. Although she enjoys going out on to the balcony to bask in the sun, the few times she has accidently gotten out (or fallen off the balcony) she was been quite frightened and wanted to be back inside as soon as possible. If you do not live near busy roads, she may eventually learn to love the outdoors and I don't doubt she will be a fantastic mouser.

Minimal vaccinations. Again, she has been a indoor cat all of her life. She has had all basic vaccinations and is in great health.

We will provide you with her crate to maintain her sense of security when you may need it.

We will provide you a couple months of food if you would like. She was raised on a raw diet but will eat anything out of a can. She has never seen a kibble before and I highly doubt she will eat that. If you would like more information regarding a raw diet I will be happy to assist you getting started.

If you decide to take her and realize it is not going to work out, we will happily take her back, but ONLY BEFORE DECEMBER 1. Anytime after that will be impossible for us to take her back. We really hope this doesn't happen and whomever decides to adopt her has a good understanding of her needs and will commit to adopting her. Please pass the word onto anyone you know that may be interested in adopting a beautiful, fun-loving, kitty.