Roger Zee Memoirs
Adopting Zoe 3 10/25/20
What can you expect from an arranged marriage with just one foster parent involved? I adopted Zoe without ever meeting her. Just looked at her on the Paws Crossed Animal Rescue dating site --and she's the only one on it, LOL! But loneliness and sorrow makes you do crazy things. Yeah, I'm an expert at that! So I took a leap of faith... Welcome to another excerpt in my memoirs, "Life and times of a Pandemic Musician."
When we got home and I managed to "release" Zoe from her Yurt into the living room. She disappeared for three days. Completely freaked me out, cold sweats and all. Turns out she could not abide open spaces. Living on the street left her only comfortable in tight, secure, closed areas. Finally found her under my big brass hospital bed. Something I inherited from my parents after they passed. Never wanted that monstrosity but my three sisters insisted I take it. I regret it to this day. Who wants to sleep on their parents' bed? Tried to sell it a few times by placing an ad in my apartment building's mail room. No takers. When I get up the energy, I might just throw it out...
Couldn't reach Zoe under the colossus. So I moved her water and food bowls to the side of it. She wouldn't touch food for the first two days. But after that, she began to eat but only after I went to sleep. In the morning, I'd wake up and find half of it gone with her still huddled, crouched under the bed. I didn't know what to do. Couldn't call the shelter for fear that they would think me an unfit guardian and demand to take Zoe back! On top of it all, I lived in almost total isolation -- my doctors and dentist continually warning me, "You already have one foot in the grave. Take extreme care!" So I find myself in lockdown. My only companions, two chirpy parakeets and a feral, abused cat, terrified of males who wants absolutely nothing to do with me. Grim days.
Finally, God sent an angel from heaven to reach out and lift me up. Leigh, Zoe's foster mother, began emailing and texting to check on Zoe's new situation. I ignored her at first. If I told her the truth, she might just come right over and take the cat back! And frankly, I had to admit I might not mind that.
But I finally broke down and explained to Leigh that Zoe had disappeared under my big brass bed and wouldn't come out except when I slept. She suggested I move the food and water back into the kitchen but only put it out after enticing her from under the bed by shaking the box of kibble. No deal. Finally Leigh suggested taking a broom and gently pushing Zoe out. So I did. But she kept finding new hiding places -- on top of the kitchen cabinets, behind my CD piles, inside the TV cabinet, on top of the fridge. Living on the streets had given her the tools to expertly ghost me! It broke my heart that like "Beauty and the Beast," I scared her so desperately. And ultimately she found her way back under my bed.
At my wits end, I reached out again to Leigh and she offered to come over with her husband Ron to help straighten things out. When they arrived, Ron took the broom and gently pushed Zoe out from under the bed and into the living room/kitchen. She immediately made a beeline for the top of the kitchen cabinets. We tracked her by the grimy paw prints from the age old debris up there. Ron got on a chair, I handed him her Yurt and Zoe jumped right in. He handed the Yurt to me and I gave it to Leigh sitting on the futon. Before I knew it, Zoe sat contentedly on Leigh's lap with Ron next to her gently scratching her head. How the F* did they do that? Leigh put Zoe in my arms and to this day that's the only time I've ever held her. More to come...
So on this brisk, crisp, beautiful red-leaved Autumn Sunday morning with the Pandemic spiking out of control, and the country teetering on its knees while struggling to vote, I hark back to the late 60s when police and protesters battled in the streets. I grab my Mexican Fender Precision bass, slap on Boz Scaggs' 1969 eponymous first album, play along while humming, "I'm gonna get up and make my life shine!" One <3
YouTube - I'll Be Long Gone - Boz Scaggs
©2020 Roger Zee
