Despite that Zee had no one to blame but himself for Zoey’s pregnancy, he clearly had no idea how quickly his newly “extraordinary” life with Zoey was going to change, and not for the better, in his opinion. For the next three months, his beautiful, irresistible, agile, and athletic partner was changing day by day to a fat, lethargic, and uninspiring cat. Zee still stayed close by her side, but you could see he missed the “old” Zoey he had fallen in love with.

Zoey really had no idea what was going on. Her changing body was a mystery to her and I don’t think she quite knew what would soon be in store for her. Perhaps the two of them might have thought twice about all their reckless fooling around, had they fully understood the consequences! As Zoey got closer to her due date, she became more and more sedentary and seemed most content when she was cradled on my legs on the couch. At this point, we were not ignoring the other cats, in particular Zee, but it was obvious we were spending more time spoiling and coddling Zoey and getting the house ready for her delivery.

On February 12th, 2009, Zee’s life forevermore changed. That was the day he became a father and that was the day he reverted into a fuming and petulant child. To his credit, I can understand his demeanor. His life had completely turned upside down – the bedroom that he was once able to wander freely in and out of was shut tight like Fort Knox. Dan and I were constantly in with Zoey and the kittens and became obsessed with her new family. Zee was depressed and completely miserable with the changes in the household. He no longer felt any love towards Zoey whatsoever and when we brought him in to introduce him to his new family, he took one look at them, hissed, and ran off! His quick assessment of the situation – so what – who cares… nothing but a bunch of squirmy, wiggly, mewing masses of fur. Absolutely not impressed…

In many ways, I guess I can’t blame him. Dan and I were blatantly giving all of our attention to Zoey and the kittens and Zee and the other cats, Jazz and Harley, barely got a second glance from us. We would work all day, come home and quickly feed them all dinner, then we would head to the bedroom to be with Zoey, with the door shut, for long periods of time. When we finally started opening the bedroom door a bit to let the cats become familiar with the new situation, by then Zoey had become militant in her role as Mama and would terrorize anyone who would even dare come remotely close to her babies. Which included Zee. Actually, especially Zee. So, Zee just took it upon himself to abandon all fatherly responsibility and spent the first few weeks of birth, alone, on the dining room table, looking forlornly into the distance, wondering… Why? Where is my Zoey? Where is my life? Where’s my dinner?

Eventually all was well. Zee became a proud and devoted father and Dan and I spent more time with the other cats. Eventually, however in cat time, is a long and drawn out  process… which I will unveil as we move along!

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