Sunday, April 6, 2008

meet Mieze

we've got a new family member. Mieze is a 17 or 18 year old kitty from the village of Tanana on the Yukon River (where some of you might remember i used to live) who came to us this last friday under somewhat unusual circumstances.

As a result of some unfortunate immigration issues, a German national friend of mine, who's lived in Tanana for the last 20 years, is moving on to new adventures. however, his constant companion of the last 15 or 16 years, Mieze (german for kitty and pronounced Meet-zee) is too old to accompany him. So, Cob and I are lucky enough to get Mieze as the mature and wise kitty he's become.

Clearly, he's a handsome devil. and he's quite accomplished, too. I've known Mieze since 2000, when he regularly made himself comfortable in my lap while Christian and I talked long into the night over good German beer - a small oasis in the middle of Alaska. before that, Mieze logged some time in Christian's dog sled as he mushed his dogs 40 miles north of Tanana to a homestead on the Tozitna River. Mieze's been to fish camp in a boat and spent some time in a canoe with Christian. as a friend recently said, if kitties wrote their autobiographies, Mieze's would be exceptional.

but perhaps Mieze's biggest accomplishment has been taking care of Christian and being a good and loyal friend for the last 15 years. even with his feral start, Mieze quickly made his way into Christian's heart and hung with him through a lot of cold, dark winters. but Christian 's time to move on had come and he was heart-broken over having to leave Mieze behind.

Our job is to take care of Mieze as well as he took care of Christian. i think we're off to a good start.

3 comments:

carabou said...

I like your nose Mieze!

Lena said...

very sweet story and kitty!

Ed Plumb said...

your friend must have been really sad to leave his longtime companion...at least he has an awesome home.