Meet Gimlet

We had been following Darling Minuet kittens on social media for a while and by summer 2023, we were ready to start looking at adopting. When Dani saw an all-black Minuet-British Shorthair kitten available, it was love at first sight. The process of adopting through Kimberly at Cattery of Dreams in Southern California was terrific!

We adopted Gimlet when she was 12-weeks old and started harness training almost immediately. After trying many styles of cat harness, we discovered a Minuet kitten is too small for most brands and styles… so we turned our attention to ferret harnesses! We love the Rypet Small Animal Harness from Amazon. She started in a Small when she was 3-months and about 2 pounds, and moved to Medium at 6-months and 4 pounds. Now that she’s fully grown at 7 pounds, she’s moved to a Mercano XX-Small pet harness.

We started by having her wear the harness for a few minutes at a time and incorporated it into play and treat training. Then we gradually increased her time until she was comfortable and able to move around freely. Now she’s used to it, and she knows that wearing it means we are going out on adventure or going for a walk, she has no problems putting it on.

Gimlet demands at least two walks a day!

She’s a very smart baby, so she made it easy on us! Every cat’s temperament will be different, but we follow Albert and Mia at Outdoor Bengal who provided a great framework for clicker training. Like harness training, we started as soon as Gim came home with us. We started with her name and the point command “touch.” Once she had those, we moved onto “sit” and “carrier.” We’re still working on other commands, but keeping treats reserved for clicker commands has help reinforce her good behavior.

CARS | We started getting Gimlet used to the car as soon as we adopted her, making it a point to bring her along on short car trips and rewarding her with lots of clicks and treats. We bring her with us on errands and trips whenever possible, but never leave her in the car unattended.

BACKPACK | We set a goal of bringing her out in public in her backpack carrier at least every two weeks so she’d be comfortable moving around and meeting new people. The key was to expose her to lots of different environments - from the quiet aisles of pet-friendly craft stores to the hustle and bustle of city sidewalks. She’s gotten very good at accompanying us to brunch where she hangs out in her backpack and people watches!

PLANES | After a few months of car and carrier trips, we took Gimlet on a one-hour flight from Burbank to San Francisco. She had no issues, and enjoyed her day roaming San Francisco on her harness! After that, we lengthened flight times little by little every few months until she was ready for an 8-hour international flight. So far, she’s flown over a dozen times! She doesn’t like the noise of takeoffs and landings, but she’s never shown signs of being in distress while traveling. She mostly just snoozes.

TRAINS | Due to the track noise and horns, Gimlet doesn’t love American trains. At all. She really hates trains. She gets very squirmy and hides in her backpack at the stations, but she settles down once we’re on board. We work hard to reward Gimlet with clicks and treats at train stations to help reinforce her tiny bravery. The smoother and quieter trains in Europe were a much better fit for Gimlet.

MEDICATION | Gimlet travels comfortably without needing medication. Our vet provides us with back-up Gabapentin tablets that we bring with us on all trips in the event she shows signs of anxiety or distress. Because she’s so curious, she prefers to stay alert so she can snoop on everyone.

HOTELS | Gimlet loves exploring new places, so arriving at the hotel is probably her favorite part of travel! We always confirm that hotels are cat-friendly, even if they are listed as pet-friendly. Many hotels’ “pet policies” only extend to dogs.

She doesn’t speak English, so we can’t say for certain, but we do look for body language and feline social cues to make sure she’s happy! Gimlet seems to enjoy exploring, sniffing new scents and meeting new people while we’re out. We try to make sure we’re watching for any signs that she might be stressed or scared and we haven’t seen her display any of those behaviors when we’re out. We also try to make sure we continue to normalize leaving home so it becomes part of her routine. She’s a laid-back little gal who seems to enjoy the same things we do!

We sure did! But not just us. The cattery we adopted her from and her vet did, as well! With smaller breeds like Minuet, sometimes the biological gender can be tricky to pinpoint until the kitten is a little older. We all believed “Duke,” her given name before adoption, was male. It wasn’t until her six month check-up when we were discussing neutering a cryptorchid cat that we realized he was actually a she! This news changed nothing but her pronouns — we love her like crazy. If you’re browsing her Instagram before September 2023, you may notice we chose to leave he/him pronouns intact, and began using she/her pronouns after. Oh, and we will continue to call her our sweet prince. Obviously.

We do a lot of research! Whenever we’re looking for a restaurant or hotel, we usually start by looking for dog-friendly locations, and then we email or call to confirm their policies are open to cats, too. Due to their allergens, many hotels do not extend their dog policies to cats, so it’s important to double check! BringFido.com and the dog-friendly Amenity filter on Yelp.com are great places to start.