Meet Mickey, Jennifer Gladen's 'Queen of the Household'

Welcome to my blog, Mickey!

Mickey lives with a very nice editor and writer called Jennifer Gladen. Like my mom, Jennifer writes children's picture books for Guardian Angel Publishing. She also edits a super cool Catholic ezine--My Light Magazine. In fact, Mom interviewed Jennifer for Suite101 last month.

But let's hear a bit about my guest....

Mickey is the spokescat for the Gladen home. She is the oldest of three cats, a dog and a turtle. She is the self-proclaimed Queen of the Household. She is known to eat only by herself. If another cat comes to eat while she is there, she will, out of the goodness of her heart, remover herself from the dining area until it has been cleared.

1. Thanks for stopping by and spilling the beans, Mickey! Tell us, how long does Jennifer work each day on a book and ignores you?

Jennifer works at the computer all day. Something about a magazine (My Light Magazine) and writing for children. I can’t understand how someone could sit in front of a boring screen all day when they have me for fun. I could understand if she was watching me bat around a ball of yarn, but this I will never understand.

2. So what do you do for amusement in the meantime?

Well, we have the two newbie cats, Mittens and Sunny. When Mittens came here, she walked in like she owned the place. Huh! I had to show her who was boss by tossing out random hisses and batting her once in a while. Now I do it just for fun, especially when I’m bored…and I’m sure you know how often THAT is.

3. I like to stare at my mom while she writes to make her aware that she’s ignoring me and make her feel guilty. What do you do to annoy Jennifer while she writes?

Ahhh. I have a few tricks under my paw.

The first thing I do is make her think I’m starving. Even though I just finished eating, I’ll sit in front of my bowl and push it around on the kitchen floor. I’ll do this until she gets up and feeds me. (She made the mistake of setting her office up next to the kitchen. Ha ha. ) Then I’ll take a few bites of the food and walk away. Yes, it is a little bit of work, but it’s all worth it when I hear her grumble in frustration.

Another thing I’ll do is sit 2 feet away from her chair and meow. Not just any meow. I make it a short raspy meow that is hard to ignore. When she turns and looks at me, I just sit there and stare. He he. Sometimes I crack myself up.

When one of her children needs something and she gets up, I steal her chair!!

One of my favorites, though, is just jumping right up on the desk and wedging myself onto her lap. I make it a point to step on the keyboard. Once I’m on her lap I don’t just sit there. I try to pace and turn. Then I’ll rub my head against her hand. If she doesn’t pet me, I’ll do that short, raspy meow thing again. Gets her every time.

In the event I am unavailable, I hired Sunny to park himself on Jennifer’s computer desk. That is his job. Although I’ve caught him sleeping on the job. I think he needs more training in this mission.

4. Good work! What advice would you give to those pets that have to live with irrational, egotistical authors?

Be persistent! I don’t know about your author mom, but when mine gets on a roll, she has been known to kick me off her lap and put me back on the floor. In that case, I keep hopping up on her lap until she realizes I am not going away.

5. What is the best part of having an author as a mom? The worse part?

The best part of having an author as a mom is getting to hear those time-stealing stories when she reads them aloud. I like to think she’s reading to me. The worst part is all the time it takes for her to work on a project. And then, when she’s done, she pulls out another one. It’s one huge everlasting cycle.

I know exactly what you mean, Mickey! It's so hard to share Mom with all her projects!