Cat Lives Secret Life With 2 Families, now they are fighting over ownership
Cat Lives Secret Life With 2 Families
New Zealand households in catfight over Ming/Cleo
By Jenn Gidman, Newser Staff
Posted Aug 29, 2014 9:37 AM CDT
Cleo the cat, left, is the beloved pet of the Smith family.
The same cat is also the Alexander family moggy, Ming, bought by them in 2000. He is pictured with Mackenzie Alexander, 10.
Alice Alexander probably had no idea that the name she gave her new Siamese cat 14 years ago would prove so prescient. She called him "Ming," because he liked to mingle—so much so that he has been going back and forth between her New Zealand home and another one for more than a decade, effectively combining two of its nine lives to live a double one, reports Stuff NZ. Alexander and the Smith family, who call the cat Cleo, are now fighting over ownership of the vagabond kitty, who apparently sees nothing wrong with two-timing each one, notes Gawker.
When Alexander brought Ming home in 2000, he wandered a bit—"Everyone knew Ming, and I would often get calls saying he was in someone's house," she tells Stuff—but then he disappeared completely in 2010. Four years later, he reappeared on her deck, then promptly took off again after she recollared and microchipped him. Glenda Smith contacted Alexander after seeing Ming/Cleo's "missing" posters and told the previous/current owner that her husband had found the cat before they got married and taken him in, assuming he was a stray. "We love him so much and want him to be happy, but [we're] worried the [Smith] family will move," Alexander tells Stuff. Smith counters with, "Cleo is part of the family and been with us for nine years—we can't just push him away now. He loves us and always comes back."
http://www.newser.com/story/193162/cat-lives-secret-life-with-2-families.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united&utm_campaign=rss_lifestyle
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It all started when Alice Alexander bought a pedigree Siamese cat, which she named Ming, in 2000. He had a habit of mingling, thus the name and he once took a nap in a removal truck and ended up in the eastern suburbs, before being discovered.
"Everyone knew Ming and I would often get calls saying he was in someone's house."
When the family moved to Strathmore in 2005, Ming would go wandering, often returning home not hungry and without his collar, which had his name and the Alexanders' phone number.
The wandering became more frequent, then in 2010 Ming disappeared.
Alexander put missing cat posters up around her neighbourhood, but no-one had seen Ming.
In May this year, she was shocked when he "just appeared out of nowhere" after four years.
Alexander had been sitting on her deck when a cat climbed onto the glasshouse roof and began meowing.
"I picked it up and realised it was Ming. I was running scenarios through my head, wondering where he had been."
She got Ming microchipped and put on another collar, but the cat disappeared again. A month later, he returned with a shaved leg and had obviously been to the vet, Alexander said.
"I knew then that someone had him so I put up more missing cat posters and one week later, a lady got in touch to let me know Ming was living with them."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10419001/Nine-lives-two-homes
= new reply since forum marked as read
His name is Cosmo, and he'll be gone for a few days, then he comes back, eats a little, and gone again. I'm thinking there's someone who lets him in, and feeds him. And since we have this kitten, he's glad to be away from the "brat". LOL! I doubt they'll be any squabble over Cosmo.
<a href="http://imgur.com/jdLc0C3"><img src="
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that initially adopted ("bought"
him. 
But they darn sure should be keeping him indoors...
Unlike most cats, Siamese don't like to be separated from their humans as a rule. If their owner goes to work all day and leaves them without the attention they feel they deserve, and they have access to the outdoors, they've been known to just go find a human who will spend the daytime hours with them. In this case it seems the cat decided the owner was a better fit overall. Except when they took him to the vet or some other nasty thing he disliked, then he'd head back to his old family. What a little diva! 
