("kitty" in German, "MEET-sah")

  • Mietze-Pizza (Puddin' Pie)
  • Mietze-lah
  • THE Mietze

Mietze was the runt of a litter born in our backyard in March, 1993. Her extreme tininess, delicate little face and large eyes charmed me completely, and she was abducted into the house shortly after she was weaned.

Mietze compensates for her small size (even in her adulthood, she is still a mini-kitty) by being very quick, clever and enthusiastic about almost everything she does. She has perfected the running four-point bank-shot off a wall or nearby legs in order to change direction. She carries on extensive conversations (very often with no-one else in the room) in her high little voice with an great variety of birdlike trills, chatters and squeals. She almost always walks in Happy Cat style: way up on tiptoe with head and tail held high.

She was fascinated by Norville from the very beginning. Norville was full grown when she joined the clowder, and he towered above her, but this did not intimidate her in the least. She'd get this determined expression on her face ("I can take him!"), leap as high onto his back as she could, and try to wrestle him to the ground. Norville, patient as usual and probably really enjoying the game, sometimes even let her succeed.

Nearly every evening she settles in next to her human "mom" on the bed for a smurgling fest featuring her favorite fuzzy blanket. She allows great intimacies with her face, and is positively passionate about being brushed, but can lose her temper without warning if liberties are taken with her tummy or feet.

She also displays much more patience with and affection for her "mom", seeming to enjoy making "dad" just a little afraid of her. He calls her "Psycho Kitty"...her Mom concedes only that she doesn't give much warning when she's had enough, and The Mietze has strict rules about when and where she prefers to be touched. Disobey these rules at your own risk.   ;-)

She's *very* bright, and generally very cheerful.

During the period when Omar was our spokeskitty, Mietze's contributions to the Usenet newsgroup rec.pets.cats.community were very rare, and usually were only an opportunity to toss a tease in Norville's direction. Her posts were generally not very lengthy and certainly not "standard English" in form: she's just too self-confident to feel it necessary.

Since Omar's departure, Mietze has become more active, doing the "Calling of Names" at the r.p.c.c. Jellicle Ball every year since 1998, serving as architect and designer for the Walk ov Remembranz and generally taking over the "spokeskitty" position. Her posts are still mostly short, which mirrors her hit-and-run technique in Real Life.

Another current photograph of Mietze can be seen at the club page for the TuffGirl Kitties, and she can also be found on the roster of the Siamese Cat Chorale (she performs as mezzo soprano, encouraged to do so by the chorale's founding director, the late and greatly esteemed Ceilidh Flurrydance).