Zero

Zero was born sometime around Saint Patrick's Day 2013. I was working as a pet sitter and dog walker at the time, and one of my clients was fostering some adorable black kittens. She told me they would be at the SPCA that weekend, and my boyfriend (now husband) agreed to go look with me. The volunteer who helped us was new and didn't know you were supposed to only allow people to meet up to 3 kittens or something, so we spent a long time meeting different kittens haha. Zero was the perfect balance of playful and affectionate when we interacted with him, and we happily took him home.

Zero's name at the shelter was Gus. We didn't immediately have a new name for him, but over the next couple of days we settled on Zero. His name is not any one specific reference, but has a few associations that made us like it: the Smashing Pumpkins song, the skateboard brand, Jack Skellington's ghost dog companion, my WoW hunter character's beloved ghost snow leopard pet, and of course the hex code for black, #000000.