I was told to expect Dolly to arrive sometime within the next week. I was both dreading and looking forward to this visit. Dreading it because Dolly and I had met only once before, on a camping trip many years ago, and had been stuck in a car together for four days. Our personalities are about as opposite as you can get and, while sometimes this works out for the good, in this case it did not. By the end of our time together, I was happy to see the back of her. Looking forward to it because it meant I would be meeting my niece and nephew for the first time. Little Monkey and Babe were so teeny tiny in the pictures I had seen, I couldn’t imagine how cute they must be in real life. I had no idea that there was an additional guest coming to visit until the car pulled up and I heard the screaming from the backseat.
We helped them unload their bags and saw the dog carrier, from which the unearthly sound was emitting. It sounded like a cat, a very pissed off cat, but there was a touch of human in his cries, as if he was saying “I don’t know what I did to deserve this kind of treatment, but it will not be tolerated much longer.” This was my first encounter with ZigZag. They took the carrier directly to the shed that would be his temporary home and he immediately found the very back of the back, dark corner to hide in.
We tried to get him to come out, tempting him with treats and sweet talk, but he would not budge. J finally had to brave the claws and hissing to drag him out by force. It was decided that for the time being, ZigZag would stay at our house. We already had Sir Robert, so all of the necessary cat-care things were readily available. At the time, it was only supposed to be for a month or so.
The moment we let him loose in the house, Chubby made a beeline for under the bed. He squeezed between the box of sweaters and the multiple pairs of shoes and there he stayed. Nothing could bring the boy out. I couldn’t let him starve (although with his ample belly, there was little threat of him wasting away), so his food and water were placed conveniently under the bed for the first few days. After about a week of living under the bed 24 hours a day, he decided it would be safe to come out at night, when the house was asleep.
Sir Robert was not exactly thrilled at this new addition to the home. I think he was hoping that if we got a new pet it would be a kitten, one that he could lord over and teach the ways of the cat to. Instead, he got a mammoth of a brother and a good fighter, to boot.
ZigZag may have been this cat’s name when he arrived, but I tend to give everyone and everything in my life multiple handles. His was christened Chubby, and Sir Robert became Skinny, by comparison.
Dolly ended up going back home, but she didn’t feel right about ZigZag making the trip back, since he isn’t the easiest cat to travel with. We gladly agreed to keep our unexpected house guest. He fits in nicely with our little family and continues to prove daily that it is possible to teach an old cat new tricks.