Does this mustachioed kitty remind you of someone? Look closer… Exactly!
Say hello to Zappa the Cat.
If you know the rock legend (and a well-known cat lover!) Frank Zappa, you’ll have got it straight away.
We spoke to Zappa’s human Lisa Williams, and Zappa isn’t her first kitty to resemble America’s alternative rock star.”I had an Oriental Shorthair who was black and white with a mustache named Marceau,” she shared with We Love Cats and Kittens.
“Everyone told me he looked just like Frank Zappa and some people referred to him as Zappa Cat.”
This is Marceau…
Sadly at only 3 years old, Marceau had heart failure and crossed over the rainbow bridge.
Lisa was totally devastated.But not long after he passed, Lisa spotted a black and white kitten with a mustache that belonged to a breeder in Russia.
She contacted the breeder who explained that he wasn’t available as she was keeping him for breeding.
But this didn’t deter Lisa.”I begged and nagged her for weeks until I convinced her to let him be mine,” she recalls. “I named him Zappa in memory of Marceau, my original Zappa cat.”
So the new Zappa stepped into her home and heart!
And what a handsome kitty he turned out to be…
But the similarities between the two kitties stops at the mustached face.”This Zappa couldn’t be more different,” explains Lisa. “Marceau loved to be held and Zappa hates it. Marceau talked all the time and Zappa is quiet.”
However, he’s quite the character. Out of all of Lisa’s cats Zappa is the most playful.”He loves to play games like hide and seek and chase with my daughter. He sitsby her door in the morning and waits for her to get up so they can play.”
Zappa also loves to go for rides in his stroller for cats or sometimes Lisa’s laundry basket on wheels.He’ll come running when he sees it and never gets bored of going around andaound the house.
There are three other kitties in Lisa’s family and they are all Oriental Shorthairs, just like Zappa.
There’s Keebler…
Thatcher aka Thatchy…
And Peterbald LeMieux, usually shortened to LeMieux…
Read next: Oriental Shorthair: Cat Breed Profile
Lisa affectionately calls them her Oriental Shorthair Squad and has an Instagram page dedicated to their antics.
Zappa loves them all but Thatchy is his favorite.
The pair like to spend their evenings on or near any family member’s laps and are always ready for a cuddle.
“He also goes mental for stuffed animals,” Lisa shared with We Love Cats and Kittens.
“He will drag the biggest stuffed animals into the cat room and will tear them up,” she added.
And it makes no difference to Zappa who the stuffed toy belongs to!”He has destroyed several of my kid’s childhood stuffed animals – and especially goes for the dog ones!”
Did I not mention there are also three dogs in this household!
Zappa keeps a watchful eye on them. He gets along with them fine but most of the time tries not to get in their way.
Like most Oriental Shorthairs, Zappa is very athletic.
Lisa recently bought a wheel which he is learning to run on and he loves jumping over obstacles that Lisa’s daughter sets up for him.
He is also very serious about nap-time.”When he is ready to take a serious nap,’ says Lisa. “He likes to go under covers in bed or on the sofa, preferably with another cat to groom.”
And he has another endearing habit.
“If there isn’t a cat nearby, he will lick the sofa pillows – especially the alpaca fur one that I have. His tongue gets stuck in it, but he doesn’t care – he licks it anyway!”
Zappa also LOVES watching TV, even if it’s just videos on the phone.
I wonder if he’s a big fan of watching himself?
“We all love his silly character,” concludes Lisa.
Leave a Reply