The following week, I heard Mom and Dad talking about ways to keep me safe. Mom was concerned that because I could only see out of one eye, a dog might come up on my blindside and do something awful to me. She mentioned someone named Iggy and someone else named Segia. I didn’t know who that was, but knew I could ask Fred.

Later that day Mom went to the store, and came home with something she called a harness. She put part of it around my neck and another part of it around my tummy. It felt funny, but she said that soon I would be too big to just walk with Fred in the backyard, and would need to be on a leash. That is when I asked Fred about Iggy and Segia.

He said that they were both cats who were with Mom and Dad when he was first adopted. All three of them were part of the family when they moved into this house. Iggy had been a big tuxedo boy that Dad picked out at the Humane Society. Dad’s lap was one of his favorite places to sleep. One day, he had shown people all of the good things to buy at a yard sale here at our house. Everyone admired him, and asked if he was for sale. They all laughed. The next day he was gone and never came back. Both Mom and Dad were devastated. They said they hoped he was taken to a loving family.

Segia was a female tabby that had been part of the family since she was a baby.  She loved to lay on the back of Dad’s chair. She also followed him everywhere. He even told me stories about the way Segia was by his side as he worked on his old Camaro. He said she kept putting her arm in the opening as he tried to adjust the hinge on the sunroof.

Mom often told people that Segia was twelve-years old. Later Mom would tell the story of how she found an old picture of baby Segia with the one-year-old granddaughter. Granddaughter had just turned nineteen years old. Segia passed away shortly thereafter at the ripe age of eighteen! Mom and Dad were devastated again. That might have been the reason they were okay at adopting me when I showed up. Iggy’s story was also why Mom was concerned about keeping me safe. I wish I could have met Iggy and Segia; I know I would have liked them because Mom and Dad loved them so much.