Zero Cat Hero.

My cat is named Zero and he is, essentially, a cat hero.  At least that is what I decided to give him as an email address.  He can be reached at zerocathero@yahoo.com.  Why does my cat have an email address? Does he like to type? Is he unusually expressive when it comes to communicating with friends?  Will I continue to ask rhetorical questions? The answer to these questions is no.

Zero is, in fact, a therapy cat.  Remember that episode of friends where Phoebe wrote a song called "smelly cat"? I just remembered that.  Zero is not a smelly cat. 

Back to the point of this blog.  Zero is a registered therapy cat with Happy Tails.  He and I went through some extensive training to determine whether he would be suitable to travel to various locations and make people happy.  Zero has always made me happy.  I got Zero in 2003 when I was still in college.  When I adopted him, he came with the name "Butters" and I changed it to Sebastian.  Eugene kept calling him "Sea bass" so I decided to change his name to Zero, in honor of my favorite band The Smashing Pumpkins and one of my favorite movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

From the beginning, Zero was a very friendly and outgoing cat.  He loves people.  He has always gotten along famously with dogs, rats (yes rats), people and ghosts.  He is an awesome cat.  So I decided to see if he would be good as a therapy cat.  Needless to say, Zero passed the test (which included being pet by lots of people, staying on a leash, sitting in laps, being around wheelchairs and loud noises and being comfortable around LOTS of dogs at once) and now we visit Peachford Behavioral Health Center once a month and then we also do "special visits" to places like the Salvation Army and nursing homes.   We really enjoy our visits with people.  It is really nice to get to share my Zero with people who maybe have had to leave pets behind.  Also, Zero is now a tax write-off.  An unintended but much appreciated consequence of our volunteerism.

Zero with my rat Madeline.  Madeline is deceased now but Zero still won't attack rats.  How do I know? Don't ask.  It is gross.  But he won't chase rats at all.