this is life: ziggy

4 years ago.
It was Election Day.
Election Day in 2004 was on the 2nd of Nov.

We had plans to go to a like-minded couple’s home for election festivities to watch the countdown. We were on our way out the door when I noticed the answering machine was blinking.

I hadn’t noticed it earlier. Weird.

It was the local Human Society calling about my cat, Ziggy. They wanted me to call them back. My heart sunk in fear.

I had already made a mental note that I hadn’t seen him ALL day. That wasn’t normal.

We went across to the neighbor, who I am almost positive he fell in love with even more than us, to see if she had seen him. He spent a lot of time there and I even gave her food to feed him there, he frequented her place so often.

She hadn’t.

I told her of the message.

She said she knew of people within the Humane Society there and she would call her if I would like.

Yes, please. I said.

I think we all tried to say to each other and ourselves that nothing was wrong. He probably just got called in and picked up by the city and needed to be “bailed out”. But in my stomach, I felt something was wrong. So wrong. He was so good at not pissing off people. In fact, most people loved him.

You see, even impartial-to-cat people fell in love with him. The neighbor across the street he fell in love with is an example of that. She was more of a dog girl.

People who walked their dogs up and down our street would say to me, I can’t believe this. My dog is usually aggressive towards cats or dislikes cats, but with Ziggy, it’s like they are dumbfounded. Ziggy would approach dogs, people, and kids with no hesitation. He would rub against them or just fall and roll over hoping for oooing and awwwing of his awesome-ness. (He truly believed he was pretty awesome. It showed.)

But that call my neighbor made quickly proved that he had fallen fate to the elements of the outdoors. Her face and body sunk. Tears came. I looked at Ladd in shock and disbelief. I couldn’t believe it. It happened. Ziggy died. I knew it.

She told me his body was at the shelter for me to pick up.

No. No. NO!!!!

He had been struck by a vehicle while trying to cross a major street. A street he never bothered to explore beyond, until recently. There was a stray cat he had been eyeing. I don’t know if he was trying to make friends with it or chase it out of “his” territory. Probably the later. He didn’t really like to share our block with any other cats. He wanted to have all the attention for himself, and got plenty of battle scars to prove it.

An older lady was outside her house to bring up her trash cans from the curb and saw it happened. She told me she wasn’t about to let Ziggy get hit twice and walked out into the street fearlessly and grabbed him. He passed quickly. She held him close as he went, so he wouldn’t be alone or scared. She said she even tried to resuscitate him in hopes they could do something to save him at the shelter she was taking him to. He had severe head trauma. There was no saving him.

I will never forget this lady. She means the world to me for what she did for my Ziggy. And to know he didn’t die alone or lie in the street for hours or days, brings me peace. He deserved to die in the arms of someone who cared.

Four years ago, I lost a one of the best cats and I lost hope for America’s following 4 years, due to Bush “winning” the election.

So tonight I sit and remember with a heavy heart of that day 4 years ago. And I will sit with hope for our next president to raise us all back up as a nation.

Ziggy was so loved and there will never be another cat like him. Miss you, Ziggy.

(A.K.A. Zigster, Zigsters, Mr. Ziggy, Ziggy Piggy, Ziggers)

I will love you forever.

just brought ziggy home, summer 1999