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Today is Charles Mingus& #39;s birthday. As you may know, I& #39;ll never pass up an opportunity to remind you that Mingus loved cats, especially his best friend "Nightlife," and developed a method for toilet-training them, which he self-published in order to help others do the same.
You could send Mingus a self-addressed envelope to a PO Box in Manhattan, and he would send you back your very own copy of the Cat-A-Log. Mingus& #39;s biographer told me Charles genuinely thought this would take off, that there was real money to be made. He was always scheming.
The Cat-A-Log has meticulous instructions. Take a cardboard box and get your cat comfortable pooping in it. Then move it closer and closer to the bathroom, and up onto the toilet. Then but bigger & bigger holes in the box until you can remove it entirely. https://www.charlesmingus.com/mingus/cat-traning-program">https://www.charlesmingus.com/mingus/ca...
This is surprisingly similar to the method employed by the plastic kits (like "City Kitty") you can buy today. I don& #39;t think there& #39;s an intellectual property argument to be made, though. Really, Mingus was tapping into basic cat psychology.
Much of the pamphlet reads more like cat therapy than anything. "You& #39;ve got to get him thinking." "He has to learn to follow it." "The main thing to remember is not to rush or confuse him." I spoke with a cat expert who said it& #39;s clear that Mingus understood what makes cats tick.
Here is the late, great Reg E Cathey reading the Mingus method in its entirety. He was in The Wire, Oz, House of Cards, and lots of very serious theater, but I think this is his best role. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bkf9dFRpsQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
We made this video as a companion to a piece I reported on Mingus, cats, madness, and more. We also tried to toilet train a cat. It didn& #39;t take. https://www.wnyc.org/story/charles-mingus-toliet-trained-his-cat-we-put-his-method-to-the-test/">https://www.wnyc.org/story/cha...
I have a cat that is toilet-trained, though. It& #39;s glorious. There& #39;s no litter box, a particular godsend when you& #39;re stuck inside the house for going on five weeks. If you& #39;re inclined to try, Mingus method or other, this might be a decent time. Let me know how it goes. /END
Oh while we’re on the subject of weird animal stories involving people I admire, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that this week’s the anniversary of Jimmy Carter being attacked by a giant “swamp rabbit.” That’s a story for another time, maybe a future episode of @thisdaypod.
