Eagle's Wings: Pets: Zack

After Novella died, the only pet we had was Scooter the hamster. It was strange not having a cat in the house; we kids had never lived in a home without cats! I had been wanting my own kitten from the time I was 6 years old. Every year, I asked for one at Christmas and my birthday, but Mom and Dad didn’t think it was wise to introduce new kittens into a home with older cats.

So I was thrilled when they said we could adopt some kittens from the local humane society! Finally, my dream of owning a kitten came true.

In June of 2009, we brought home Lasso and Lyric, litter mates who were approximately 8 weeks old. We renamed them Zack and Zinnia. They were both quite tiny when we got them. Zack was just over 2 pounds while Zinnia was only 1.6 lbs!

Zack was the “family cat” with most of his responsibility falling on Roma’s shoulders because she was the cat-person of the family. Zinnia was my own cat, adopted with my own money. But more about her next week! Zack was tiny but had large ears to grow into.

Many hours of our summer were spent playing with the kittens and gradually introducing them to the different areas of our house. As you can see, he is our lap-kitty!

In fact, Zack used to fall asleep in our laps when he was a kitten! In the above photo, I was holding him while watching something on the computer, and he fell asleep in my arms.

Just before we left on vacation, Zack and Zinnia became quite ill. They developed respiratory infections that eventually settled into their eyes. While we were gone, Zinnia’s cornea ruptured and Zack developed several ulcers on his eye. We are so thankful for our neighbor, who is a vet technician. She helped us by administering medications and caring for them while we were gone.

Their eyes will never be quite the same, but they did eventually recover, with minimal scarring. It always made me feel good to know that we truly “rescued” the cats. If they had gotten sick in the humane society and had difficulties responding to the medications as they did, they most likely would have been put down.

But back to Zack! You can see he was still a bit sick in this picture from his gunky right eye. He is sitting on the plate that Mom set out for their snack. Every day at 4:00 p.m., the cats get a snack of canned cat food. Zack can be quite possessive of his snack as you can tell from this photo! J

Zack reminds us of Garfield in lots of ways. He is definitely a lazy cat most of the time. You never quite know where you’ll find him sleeping. A lot of times, it looks like he was just walking through the room and just dropped down for a nap in the strangest places.

Zack is also a hydromaniac. He is obsessed with the Jacuzzi, the bathtubs, and the showers. He will beg and beg for anyone walking by to turn the water on for him.

Zack has a special bond with Daddy. He will let Dad do just about anything to him without batting an eye. When Dad’s reading the newspaper on Sunday afternoons, Zack loves to come and jump into his lap for a belly rub.

Zack also loves “helping” me write blog posts. Just this week I was sitting in the computer chair working on a post, and I heard a “meow.” I felt a little paw reach up and tap me on the side a few times. When I gave him the ok, he jumped right up on my lap and proceeded to rub himself all over my lap and my face, making it impossible to type!

Zack is one of the few cats we’ve had who genuinely loves the outdoors. All our other cats were perfectly content to be indoors-only cats. Not Poonie! (his affectionate nickname.) From April until October, he listens carefully for the front door. Or if he doesn’t feel that he’s had his fair amount of time outside, he’ll stand by the front door and yowl until someone lets him out. He’s not supposed to stray far from the porch, but he occasionally ends up in the neighbor’s bushes or in the backyard. Or in our crabapple tree. J