New Mini Mew

So… funny story:

It was lazy, overcast Sunday and I had spent most of my morning reading and experimenting with a little meal known as breakfast. Meals are occasionally rough to manage: my refrigerator freezes everything placed in it (limiting what I can safely buy and save) and recently my oven was inconveniently broken for me (against my wishes). I had informed my supervisor of both of these unfortunate conditions.

I headed over to Bill and Bianca’s place to hang out and make food. Bianca and I planned to go out and get a little sunshine, enjoying the outdoors before the onset of colder temperatures. As we were preparing to leave, I got a text from my supervisor: “Hi. I have mini mew. You need mew. Bat now go to your house?”

I stared at this message a moment. What? I told him I was not at my house, but would head there, and inquired what a ‘mew’ was. His reply came as Bianca and I were headed to my house: “mini white moggie.”

Refrigerators were often white. Perhaps a fridge? Bianca reminded me that Mongolians often call things by the brand name rather than the appliance name (copiers here are called Canons, as they are made by Canon most of the time). I had never heard of a moggie or a mew, and neither had she. I texted my supervisor back, saying I didn’t know what that was.

A few minutes later, a text came from him again: “you looke moggie? I am go your home?” … Sure, I told him. I still had no idea what he was talking about.

Bianca and I hung out at my house until my supervisor arrived with the mew. Oh! I exclaimed in sudden enlightenment, A mini mew! Of course! And he handed me the mini mew and told me not to let it outside.

What is a mini mew, you might ask. Why, this of course:

My mini mew happens to be female, and while I cogitate upon a more appropriate appellation, she is referenced simply as my mini mew. I am also ruminating on possible solutions to digestive needs of my new mini mew. Mongolians, in general, aren’t really fond of mews, and their stores are frequently bereft of mew food and mew bathroom sand. Unable to procure such items as I would in my native land, I have sought alternatives.

I have dirt in a pan as a mini mew loo, and have mixed fish and cooked buckwheat as her standard dish, though both these are subject to change. Currently, her toy of preference is an object of ingenious design, which I call “two buttons on a thread of dental floss.”

I will note that she is surprisingly good-natured and affectionate. She is occasionally shy, but given the treatment she has likely received in a country that, on the whole, dislikes mews, perhaps that is no surprise. I am very fond of her, and so is Bianca, so perhaps we will slowly cure her of that.

So… if anyone wants to send me some cans of mew food from the States, that would be great! If you can’t find any, cat food will work, too.

Cheers,

Karen