Nico and Linda Jellison: Furry Friends Fur-Ever

“I adopted Ziggy to hopefully bond with my other cat, a Siamese named Bella, whom I unfortunately and abruptly lost to kidney disease in October 2025,” Linda says. “Ziggy seemed lost, so I decided it was time for a new kitten.

“Then the holidays came around and my family suffered the tragic loss of my 39-year old nephew, Nick, to suicide. My cat sitter had told me about Furry Friends, so I started looking at their Facebook posts. I then attended an adoption event at PetSmart in Salmon Creek, where I met littermates Aston, Jaguar and Bentley and their beautiful mom, Porsche. When I picked up Aston, he immediately started purring loudly. It was late in the day, so I went home to think about it, and the foster mom was nice enough to deliver him to me the next day.

“I had Aston in his own room with a cat tree, a litterbox and plenty of toys, and planned to introduce him gradually to Ziggy. It turned out to be a challenge because he’d cry loudly if I left him in his room and closed the door. After letting Aston and Ziggy sniff each other under the door, I opened it wide enough for them to see one another and Aston marched right up to Ziggy. They hit it off immediately, running around and wrestling and playing!

“I renamed Aston Nico, which I came across in a list of names. It’s from the Greek ‘Nikolaus’ which means ‘victory for the people.’ Since Nicholas was my nephew’s name, I thought it was perfect. Nico is so playful and talkative, and loves to snuggle. He sleeps on the pillow next to me, wakes me up by lying across my face and neck, and he loves to snuggle on the couch. 

“His favorite toys are the little plastic springs, which I have to extract from under the couch daily, and a wand toy that he drags around the house. He makes me smile, and his antics always make me laugh. I constantly have to look down when walking around the house as Nico will walk in front of me and then just flop over like he’s exhausted.

“Ziggy has decided that having his little brother follow him everywhere is annoying, but I think he secretly loves him. They have hammocks in their catio, plus plenty of toys, treats and food, and I can’t imagine two cats more spoiled than these two. I love them so much!”

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Furry Friends Fur-Ever Stories are compiled and written by Nomi Berger who is the bestselling author of seven novels, one work of non-fiction, two volumes of poetry, and hundreds of articles. She is a volunteer writer for Furry Friends in Vancouver, WA and also volunteers her writing skills to animal rescue groups in Canada and the USA.