The cat that we inherited, Sumo, is a great hunter and was quite bored at our new house. He kept on disappearing for weeks at a time until we’d find him again at a local kuy teav restaurant. Meanwhile, the MCC Cambodia office was having a terrible rodent problem.

In short, Sumo got a promotion to guard cat and has done a magnificent job. The girls still get to visit him often – the office is just three houses down from our new abode – but they missed having a cat of their own. So when Crystal heard that there was a cat who needed a family she jumped on it.

That’s how we met Miso! I know, another Japanese name. I fought the good fight to rename the cat ក្រូច. In Khmer, the word for lemon is [citrus cat] so I really wanted to rename the cat [citrus]. But my clever wordplay was vetoed by the family.

Miso is a very different cat from Sumo. She’s shy, timid, and very much afraid of dogs. She also has a curly tail. Like most Khmer felines, including Sumo, she’s very gentle with the girls but unlike Sumo she’s quick to climb to the highest space in the house (the water tank) if they get too rough. Her family had to leave Cambodia because of COVID-19 and she had been staying with their friends for 9 months, but it was time for her to find a new permanent home.