Ziggy
was the first cat I really got to know. I'd always liked cats well enough, but
mainly because they weren't as demanding as dogs. So you could visit a cat owner's
house and pretty much ignore the cat. No begging, no messy dog kisses, no beseeching
eyes. Just a pretty creature slinking along in the background. So I never really
looked at cats that closely and they all seemed pretty interchangeable.
Even though I had known Sushi for a long time, we didn't really become friends till our last couple of years together in Pennsylvania. At the time, she and Rocket Man had a long distance marriage. He was working in another state, and Sushi and Ziggy were living alone in PA.
I, too, was in a transitional period in my life. My cadre of grad school friends had all left for greener universities. I was defining myself as an adult and embarking on a series of, um, interesting relationships.
The first time I went over to Sushi's house for dinner, we were still on pretty formal terms. She had just started working in my office, and we were doing the friendly colleague thing. My memory of Ziggy from that time was pretty generic. I didn't really see his personality any more than I saw who Sushi was. She was just a fellow English grad student and Ziggy was just a cat.
But pretty quickly it became apparent that both Sushi and Ziggy were more than that. That first evening, she introduced me to the power of polish. And I saw her "Starsky & Hutch" tape on the video rack and got my first hint of Slash. I also had her homebaked rolls and listened to her talk about Victorian literature. And once again I marveled at how wondrously complex and fascinating people are and how fascinating it is to get to know one.
As I began to appreciate all the different lights and angles of Sushi, I also began to see Ziggy for the individual he is as well. At one time, I could only have described him as "black." In a police line-up of black cats, he would be indistinguishable to me. But now I could never confuse him with another cat. I'd recognize his deep-chested body-builder's physique and his muscle-bound swagger. I'd see his bright eyes and the ghostly tabby stripes that show up only in strong sunlight. I'd know to expect a quiet little voice at odds with his macho body.
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Ziggy greets you at the door and welcomes you in. The first time I visited them after they moved to New England, Ziggy crawled on the foot of the bed and stayed the night with me. But his favorite place to be is on somebody's lap. Sushi and RM have developed strong quads from sitting with their feet up and 13-lb cat stretched out along their legs like a glossy black suspension bridge. Odin and Ziggy have never actually met, but they write to each other occasionally. Ziggy picks out toys to send to Odin, like his Dress 'n Drag Frank. Ziggy had enjoyed taking the skirt off his own Big Yellow Bob so much, he wanted Odin to know such pleasure. |
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