Najen Zora

Our product name “Mignon Petites” means “cute littles,” “cute smalls,” or “cute itty-bitties.” This is a growing family of handmade toys, representing domesticated and wild animals alike. Each piece incorporates the characteristic features of an animal as seen in real life. But each piece also is endowed with human-like attributes as well. The animals are all friends with each other, independently of their distinctive biological category. They're designed with love and hand-made from brilliantly colored wool. All pieces within a represented species are similar, but none of them are identical.

The Mignon Petites story began with two precious little creatures in 2003. They were Sheema and Tinzah, a Birman Snowshoe and a Snowshoe. They were sisters, and the happiest kittens on the planet. Sheema and Tinzah were born on the 4th of July, and we got to share our lives with each other for almost 17 years. This long-term companionship is significant for many reasons, but most importantly, it is because it marked the genesis of Mignon Petites.

Sheema and Tinzah were the first two real-life Mignons, but they did way more than just being “cutes.” They apparently came to this world with a mission of practicing and teaching interspecies communication. Now, that may sound outlandish, but it is true. They taught one human being to pay attention, listen carefully, observe intently, and connect. They taught me that communicating with non-human species is just as possible, important, and meaningful as intraspecies communication is between humans.

But even without a CHAT device at hand, we can get to know a lot about animal-speak if we really want to. The point is that groups of unlike species do communicate. They use various types of cues and signals to get their messages through. The simplest form of interspecies communication involves eavesdropping on cues and signals that are produced by other species. The signals of these kinds are particularly interesting because they seem to be produced to modify the behavior of another species, whether the originator animal’s intention is beneficial and honest or harmful and deceptive. Both intentions are possible, and non-human species are known to communicate with each other either to benefit or hurt the others with the shared information. When a human being practices long-term, sustained engagement with and interest in an animal’s well-being, signal exchanges can be noticed. Cats, for example, exhibit subtle signaling when they communicate. Their signals are more subtle than what dogs exhibit. So, the operative term here is “subtle” because without due attention, "cat-speak” can easily be missed. It is really like in a blink of an eye that you may miss a crucial message from your cat. For me, it was Sheema and Tinzah that helped cultivate my ability to receive subtle and nuanced messaging.