The Zora File

 

Zora is a small cat adopted in June 2020 with her sister, Ursula. Previously they were known, respectively, as Dottie and Dapple. But after brainstorming with my daughter we came up with two literary names befitting older cats. These cats are eight or ten or eleven. They act like four or five or eleven. They play and are generally interested in what is happening around the house, inside and out.

Our last cat, before we adopted Zora and Ursula, was an orange tabby named Comet. She was twenty-one when she passed and we had her for all but about six months of her life. She no longer played or was interested in what was happening around the house, inside or out. She was deaf, toothless and nearly blind. She was a good cat and occasionally still tried to bring me socks; I miss our lap time.

So now we are in the Zora and Ursula phase. And this is the Zora File. Zora is shy and weird and she makes me smile. Her song is an operatic singing of her name: ZoRA-rina!!! Zora-RUE! Which like all animals she tolerates, as she does being picked up or held on a lap. Her lap time record is six minutes and she needs to initiate it. She doesn’t meow but has coughy bark. Her purr is so loud it seems she’d hurt herself. Her favorite game is playing with scraps of paper; if she hears you cutting paper, she runs to you. She likes to sleep under a blanket or curled in a bed under an end table. She is a little arthritic and a little overweight. For the one I give her steps to jump down from high spots so she doesn’t hurt herself and for the other: we’re working on it.