Zig

Zig, unbeknownst to me when I came up with the name (more on that later), is the name of the ship in the old-school video game that spawned the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" phenomenon. You know "he set us up the bomb" and other such classic lines that were borne out of a programmers laziness and/or incompetance in the art of translation.

But more importantly, Zig is the name of my cat. He's lazy. Very, very lazy. Short fur, big eyes, long-ish whiskers and a mostly black coat that wraps the feline version of a sloth. He has it good, as good a life a cat can ask for. This, a far cry from his humble beginnings.

I got Zig after he followed me and my sister home one day, and we decided to keep him because

i He was a cute cuddly little kitten
ii We like cute cuddly little kittens
iii He didn't seem to belong to anyone
iv He seemed to like my sister's shoelaces

So we bundled him up in a rather dank towel and fed him strawberry bars for the duration of our short walk home that evening, and he spent the night in a cardboard box with leftovers as his dinner. And he scared my other sister to bits because it appeared that although she had (and stil has) a strong enthusiasm for cats, the said enthusiasm was limited to cats of the cartoon variety.

And now, little Zig isn't all that little anymore. He spends the better part of the day on the couch, since he's too good for the floor. Seriously. I haven't seen that cat sleep on the floor for ages.

Picky with food too. He'll raise hell when he's hungry, but then refuse to eat those small biscuit-like cat food, only diving into the fishy canned kinds.

But I've always liked cats. Seems like I've always had at least one cat in my home since I was 9 or 10. At one point I had ten cats. At a time. Was pretty... furry. But I love cats, though I'm pretty sure I already mentioned that before.

I used to believe that I was under a curse, that I could keepc ats but they would die if I named them, because that was the trend for a long time. So for a long time I didn't even name my cats. That brings me to the question some people ask when I tell them the name of my cat.

If you do get a chance to look at him, you'll notice he has a funky looking tail. It's crooked a few centimetres before the end, and it's rather obviously crooked. I'm talking about a cat with a 90 degree kink in his tail. A zigzag tail. Get it? Good.

I've also found another cat near my place, a fat grey/white female. She seems stray, but incredibly clean and (obviously) well-fed since she's larger than a few of the dogs I've seen in my area. She seems to like me too, and follows me around when I place myself conveniently around her favourite hang-out, though I've yet to convince her to follow me all the way home. Yet.

But I'm happy with the cat I have, even if he moves less than a rock at times. I like how he surprises me with random jumping on my lap, sleeps at my feet (only if there's a soft rug) and does other little weird things that most cats do. But Zig is mine, andI'm glad he is.

The Original Zig

Seeing that again, I realise that the guy's name is Cats...