When he kisses me awake every morning it’s easy to forget he has the name of a monster but is actually a cat. Lush, and extravagantly blessed with a coat of long orange and white fur his given name, Zombie, brings smiles and shock to many due to the words connotations. As far away from deadly as can be he’s more a ray of sunshine on a rainy day than a traditional ghoul. To me, he’s the feline embodiment of unconditional love.

The journey that led that led me to finding him included every emotion and feeling such an experience requires-fear at the onset, sadness over momentary obstacles and finally relief, happiness and joy when he became mine.

Initially it began with a mouse sighting in my apartment, which brought back my musuphobia (fear and loathing of mice and rats).

Backstory About My Phobia:

It all began when I was living in a spacious modernist home with my family in Windsor Hills, California and I woke up one morning to the thunderous sound of a large brown rat racing across my bedroom floor to my bathroom.

It stood so boldly on its hind legs as it drank out of the toilet I immediately panicked and ran out of the room. My parents were determined to halt a vermin infestation as quickly as possible, so they decided to get a cat.

Soon after, my brother Donnis brought home a gorgeous white kitten with blue eyes, that I named Giorgio after the Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

One night when we were coming out of the garage, a large rat ran over my foot, and I yelled to my brother, “Don’t let it get Giorgio!” Before I could give full rein to my panic Giorgio killed the rat. It didn’t matter that he was only six months old, he instinctively knew what to do. From then on my passion for cats and their hunting skills grew. Symbolically my phobia became a self-fulfilling prophecy when I was diagnosed with SLE lupus in 2008 and Stage II A Breast Cancer in 2010. In a physical recreation of my battle with both diseases, rats and mice represent the melodies, and cats a momentary Panacea and safeguard.

Feline Solution to a Problem

Mirroring the large brown rat drinking out of my toilet incident, the black mouse I saw in my current apartment I now shared with my mother standing on its hind legs and examining my book bag on my bed, brought back my musophobia.

“We need to get a cat,” I told her.

While living here, in our small two bedroom, we’d successfully survived bedbugs, cockroaches and other natural annoyances, so I knew we could get through this too. I called our local SPCA and made arrangements to look at their adoptable kittens. Unfortunately, despite falling for a lovely brown tabby named “Butterball” we couldn’t adopt him, at the facility, because we didn’t have permission from the landlord to have a pet.

“I don’t want to go home until we find a cat,” I told my mother. “Let’s try that Dog and Cat Bakery Gift Shop down the street from the Mar Vista Library next.” “Okay,” she said.

Although our hopes were dashed again, when the clerk at the Dog and Cat Bakery told us they didn’t have any kittens right now she did give me the address to “Adopt-aShop” in Culver City, California. Jumping back into our SUV and heading to what we hoped would be our last stop, my mother and I drove down Sepulveda Blvd., to “Adopt-a-Shop”.

Adopt-a-Shop

“Remember to get one that’s at least six months old, so it knows how to use the its kitty litter box,” my mother reminded me before I went in. Strolling past so many adorable dogs and cats with equally adorable names borrowed from Hollywood stars and genres I fantasized wildly about each one until I finally got to the section housing Zombie and his space mate Zebra.Coming up to the front of the case, Zombie locked his jewel like amber eyes on me and I fell in love immediately.

“I want that one, with the orange spots,” I told the clerk. Leading us to a small room she said, “Why don’t you spend a little time together to see if you’re compatible.” First rubbing against, then walking between my legs, as I walked around the room, he worked his magic and chose me as his furever home.

Today as I continue grieving the sudden passing of my mother, struggle through the challenges of working as a Special Education Instructional Assistant by day, and a professional fashion featured journalist by night, his devotion for me and mine for him has remained a stabilizing force in my life and a blessing.