About 6 weeks ago a cat followed my eldest home from Taco Bell. A strange choice for a cat to make as my eldest is nervous around animals and taco bell is not a great option for cats, or for people to be honest. For the next few days the cat stuck around the backyard, blagging meals from me, and probably the neighbours.

This is a very calm cat and obviously a pet as they had a collar with a bell but no number to call. I spent a few days checking local lost pet pages on Facebook etc but nothing was posted about this lost cat. As I was in the middle of trying to finish the farm, a few health tests etc and I was being Mr Sensible about things I decided I should contact the local council pet rescue to try and reunite the poor cat with it’s family. I keep saying it because at this point I was sure it was female, and pretty sure not desexed. That also played heavily into my wanting the cat to be in the hands of people that could get the vet to check everything out. I was sad to see the cat go, but I was pretty sure there must be a family missing them.

Over the next week I put it out of my mind until I saw that the next Saturday the animal shelter was having an adoption day, this seemed like a great opportunity to go check if the cat had been collected by its owners or was still there. In my head I decided to let the universe take the lead in this one and if the cat was there on Saturday I would look into the possibility of adopting it.

The morning came, I was first one there, I enquired after the cat, but was informed her family had collected them a few days ago. I was disappointed but was sure it was for the best, the cat was home and my life was already pretty busy. The universe had obviously decided it wasn’t to be.

Then 3 weeks ago I saw a post in a local group.

It seems SHE has runaway again. I contacted the person to fill them in on what I knew, the lady in the meantime I had discovered the cat belonged to her new neighbours. Who didn’t seem to be the most responsible pet owners, with several cats and dogs being allowed to roam at will. Also apparently it was a house with a lot of shouting and screaming, so it seems the poor cat was just trying to get some peace. The woman waited several days for the owners to come and collect the cat and she had texted them several times. Eventually she to got in contact with the council and them collect the cat. She also let them know that I was interested in adopting the cat if the owners relinquished her.

Three weeks of the occasional call, and daily checking the council website for any updates, but only being told that the owners legally had till the 28th to collect the cat. So I once again decided that the universe was in charge of this and I should probably be concentrating on the hospital day surgery I had booked in for Tuesday. The surgery went well and found nothing unexpected so I was a bit sore but recovering well the next day when the council called a few days early to let me know the cat was mine if I wanted. I told them I would be there as soon as possible.

A quick stop for painkillers and pet supplies and I was soon at the animal shelter with the second born child. I had kept all these goings on to myself just in case it didn’t work out, because then I would have a disappointed child and no cat. Upon arrival we were shown to the “get to know the cat room” and the cat was brought in to meet us (again). There was no doubt she was coming home with us, the only thing was she was a he. I chatted with the shelter manager who was very happy that we were taking the cat, she told us the owners had blocked their number and that they had also surrendered two dogs earlier that week.

As I was filling out the adoption paperwork I needed to fill in a name for our new family member, and I didn’t have a suitable one ready. Since our she cat had turned out to be a tom cat the name Ziggy popped into my head, you know Major Tom/Space Oddity/Bowie/Ziggy Stardust. And that’s how we came to adopt a cat called Ziggy.