Nigel Allowishish Munson White

Our sweet Nigel Pink Feather

Nigel, our most beloved cat and famed world traveler passed away at 6:10 in the morning on September 4th.  At the time of death he was surrounded by those who loved him the most and he went peacefully.  He was buried in the hills about 3 miles from town in a small valley with a lovely view of the Gurvan Saikhan mountain range.

For those of you who don’t know, I first met Nigel when I was a Peace Corps trainee in 2002 and he was a 6 week old stripy kitten.  He has lived in Hanhongor, Columbia Missouri, Ithaca New York, Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, Madison Wisconsin, and one final time in Hanhongor.  During his life time he moved between Mongolia and America 3 times and took trips to California, New England, and Ohio.  While he suffered from life long illnesses he had a very determined spirit and more attitude than any cat deserved.

He is greatly missed by everyone, including Santiago who seems to be extra bored these days.  While we wish we had gotten to spend another 9 years with the little stink ray as the days get colder we are glad that he is no longer tortured by an evil body.  Good luck Nig in your next life-we hope you are eating all the crunchy cat food your little heart desires!

Nigel’s last napping place.

My Mongolian son

Look at that cute face!

Yesterday, along with our furniture, we picked up Darkhuu’s great nephew Delgermuron. “Muron” is seven and going into the second grade, and he is one of the most inquisitive little kids we have ever met.  He loves animals and the minute he got out of the car he had become best friends with Santiago and a very gentle admirer of Nigel.

Muron, Santi, and Nigel playing with the Ipad

For the next 48 hours Muron basically lived with us showing up in the morning while we were still in our pajamas and only leaving in the evening when we gave him the boot.  Unlike many of my past English students he picked up “Come on”, “No”, and “Sit” in about a nano second and took it upon himself to be in charge of Santi’s walks and playtimes.

When Muron was not playing with the dog, he was pestering Brian with hundreds of questions such as “Do you think that crack was there a long time or did the earthquake do it?” (While passing an old building in town).   Brian convinced him that we don’t know English, and when he doesn’t understand us that we are speaking “Special Mongolian” which he would not learn until he went to college. He also told Muron that he had “Super eyes” that can see everything including things going on in the next town.

Perhaps the best part of Muron’s visit was that he started going around town and, all on his own accord, started telling people that I was his mom.  This caused no end of hilarity especially when people pointed out that his father must have been Mongolian and what did Brian think of it all?  It was great having him around and based on his love of Santi I think we will be seeing lots of him on the weekends.