This is Zoe. In her favourite position.
It's her 8th birthday today. Or thereabouts. We first met her on the 29 November 2009, in RSPCA Southport, and were told she was about 8 weeks old, so it's near enough. She was the runt of a litter of five, found sleeping rough with their mother in St Helens (is there any other kind of sleeping in St Helens?). Her four slightly larger brothers pushed themselves at the glass when people came near, but she kept her distance, unsure of herself or her charms.
This is one of her brothers.
And that's little sis at the back....
Eight or nine months had passed since Millie, our last cat, had had to be put down, and by now we were feeling that the cat shaped hole in our lives needed filling again. One of the staff got her out for us to handle and she was soon sitting up on my shoulder. Sometimes you just know when something's right.
So we filled in the paperwork, but then had a wait a few weeks while they checked that we lived somewhere appropriate, and until she was old enough to have her first injection. And that's where Zoer came from. But where did "Zoe" come from?
Over that time we visited quite often, getting to play with her a bit, hoping she might get to recognise us a bit. Back then she was just 'little number 262' to us.
A name was required, but none of the options we came up with felt right. One day, not long before she was due to be handed over to us, I'd gone on my own, spent some time with her, and walked out with a possible name in my head. I called Barbara and.... Neither of us can recall who said "Zoe" first, but the other immediately said they'd thought of that too. So Zoe it was.
Why? I have no idea. Neither of us knew a Zoe, or ever did as far as memory serves. The only connection the name called up was Zoe Wanamaker, a good actor, but not a particular favourite of ours. Maybe we'd seen something on TV, perhaps just a trailer, where her name had been mentioned? Whatever, it's odd we came up with the same moniker independently and near simultaneously.
So by the time she came home she was a confirmed Zoe, and we still haven't met another one since. This was the first video of her emerging when she first arrived in this strange new place. Cute,eh? And she soon came back out....
She's still shy with most visitors, but remains playful.
Even if she all too often ends up like this.
I know my place.
