Here's Ziggy!
Pleased to meet you
There's a fair bit to catch up on from the past two months but first we need to get the CAT SPAM out of the way.
Yes, it finally happened. As so many of you said it would. We got a cat!
And she's a non-Neighbour Cat, too! Her name is Ziggy and she's a 2.5 year old tabby with a fluffy ginger belly. We adopted her from a local shelter. After a shitload of contemplation and angst.
I started stalking the shelter website about three months before we moved back to Fife. So it was a full six months of umm-ing and ahh-ing before the moment of action arrived. I kept saying to Gareth:
Now, we don't have to do this!
It's a big commitment, I know.
A cat can live for twenty years or more.
So you need to think about this very verrrrrry carefully.
You can say no!
I won't be offended at all!
Just be honest with me!
I won't do it unless you're fully on board!
He kept looking at me like I was off my rocker, saying he was cool either way. It wasn't until the first night we bought Ziggy home and I was staring at the ceiling at 3am with guts churning like a washing machine, that I realised the commitment issues were MINE ALL MINE.
What the hell have I done?
I don't know what to do with a freaking cat!
What if she lives 'til she's 25?
What if I don't like her as much as Neighbour Cat?
What if she's a jerk?
What if she pees all over everything all day long?
What if she gets really bored and hates our guts and claws our faces off in our sleep?
I can barely commit to a free Boots loyalty card so I dunno how I managed to twist it in my head that it was Gareth holding up the process. But anyway. ZIGGY IS BRILLIANT!
In the interest of hitting publish on a blog post before the next decade I am going to hit you up with some quick Ziggy facts:
1. She has cute white socks! She looks like she's off to play a round of golf or referee a snooker match.
2. One paw has a tabby-coloured toe though, for added cuteness.
3. She is tiny wee! I now realise that Neighbour Cat wasn't just "festively fluffy", she was a bloody large cat.
4. She doesn't really sit on your lap, but she loves to curl herself around your forearm and use the palm of your hand as a pillow then take a nap. Melt!
5. She is a near-silent cat. When Alfie/Neighbour Cat was hungry she'd get vocal and sometimes tear open the Whiskas pouches herself. Ziggy just waves the end of her tail like a rattlesnake when she's hungry. And every time we sing "Huuuungry Taaaaail!" to the tune of Eric Carmen's Hungry Eyes
Catsignal
6. Sometimes she makes a quiet "brrrrt!", an almost Space Invaders kind of sound, if she wants to play or have a nap in your palm.
7. As per cat cliches, I bought her a cat bed and she prefered to sleep in a cardboard box instead. But a couple of weeks ago she finally got in and fell for its cushioned charms. SUCKA!
8. Her favourite game is Chase The Ping Pong ball. You have to say, "Ready Ziggy?... GO!" and throw the ball across the room, and she springs off like a dog, paws scuttling along the tiles. Then she pounces and swats it around. Extra cute with the aforementioned white gloves, like a tiny goalkeeper.
9. She also has a pet golf ball. Gareth had dropped it in the hallway when we moved in and it rolled under the radiator. We realised this when we heard her battering it off the skirting boards at 3am.
10. She falls for the Cats In Circles thing, every time.
11. Turns out that yes, you were all right. There is room in my heart for more than one cat.
I LOVE HER SO MUCH, SHE IS MY LITTLE PAL!
Do you like my summer house?
