Jethro Zygmunt

Special Agent Jethro Gibbs was his official name. As you might have guessed, he is named after the infamous Jethro Lee Gibbs from the show NCIS. He is known to us as Jethro, Jetti or Jetti-man.

Jethro came to us by fate. Originally just adopting his brother Jack, Jethro was also at our initial visit. He made his presence known by his signature meow. I say signature because it isn’t like other cats. It’s an old soul sound, a rough meow and it was distinct. We would have no problem distinguishing his cry/talk with that of his brothers. At the time, Jethro was claimed by another family and his original name was Toby, but as luck would have it, when we were approved to get Jack we were given a divine gift of adopting Jethro as well.

Jethro was strong, curious, fearless, spicy, loving, kind, gentle, regal and the true leader/alpha of what would become our little animal pack. And, just in true leader fashion, he will lead the pack again as they begin to transition to their forever homes.

Jethro at first like most juvenile cats was a “spicy pepper” or as some would say, a pain in the ass-we loved that about him. He was very routine, he made sure breakfast was given at the same time every morning by scratching the bed or making a door stopper “bong” if you thought you could ignore him. Sometimes he’d up the ante and open/close cabinet doors. This led to having to childproof our cabinets. Jethro was also infamous for expecting fresh water and he’d let you know it. It wouldn’t be unusual to wake up or come home from work with their water bowl in the middle of the kitchen in our first apartment. This lovely behavior lead us to velcro the dish to their mat which then ultimately led to the purchase of a drinking fountain. This made Jethro happy. Not only did Jethro decide how water was presented but he would also make the final ruling on wet food choices. No pate for these guys, shredded meat in juices. I guess he was an “au jus” guy. Luckily for Jethro, his brother Jack did never mind and happily went along with Jethro’s requests.

Speaking of brothers. Jethro and Jack are actually biological brothers (littermates). Their mother and other siblings were abandoned near a pond in Watkins Glen area and a state trooper found them. The rest is history and the two brothers have been inseparable ever since. The two couldn’t be more different as well. Jethro being the dominant brother always loved playing with Jack. He use to really enjoy this bizarre game of hiding when he knew Jack was going “number 2” (as they say) and when Jack would be done, walking back out into the common living spaces, Jethro would pounce on him. It was comical to us, probably not so much for Jack.

As you probably have noticed by now, we are crazy animal people. So in true crazy animal people way, we use to have the cats travel back and forth to Alden with us on our visits. Jethro travelled well, Jack not so much. It was obvious then how much Jack relied on Jethro for his comfort and security.

Moving into the Painted Post house was great for the cats. Jethro immediately took to his domain-the basement. He loved it down there. He loved having the back screen door to watch the birds and the squirrels. He would occasionally talk to them. He enjoyed munching on the cat friendly grasses as well as my fresh flowers that would be around. He loved fresh bed sheets out of the dryer. Not so helpful making a bed but he enjoyed it. Like most cats, he loved to play in bags and boxes and would get excited to chase crumpled paper balls around the house. Most of the time, as he aged he would keep to his routine in demanding meals, then rotating himself throughout the day in the house. He enjoyed typical cat toys and playing a game which would become known as “don’t bite the mommy!” Jethro was a playful “bitter.” I would make a fist and tell him, I would kick his butt. In turn he would playfully bite my hand and I would say in an exaggerated way-“Oww! Don’t bite the mommy!” Isn’t it funny how animals develop these games with their humans? This also reminds me, Jethro when younger, also loved chewing on things. We even bought him a chewy toy for cats. Who knew this existed? First for us, but it did work. He eventually become obsessed with broom bristles and gift wrapping ribbon to the point where we had to turn our brooms upside down so he couldn’t access them and I would have to hide myself away when wrapping presents. He could be on the other side of the house, somehow know I was getting ready to wrap presents and he’d be at the bedroom door in a second. He was the same with paperclips. If left around, he’d find them and you’d hear him batting them around. He was a smart little guy.

Mornings were funny with Jethro especially in winter. I had and still do have a space heater I would set up in front of me when I’d drink my coffee in my coffee nook. Jethro became found of this morning routine as he really enjoyed heat blowing onto him. He would lay on vents throughout the house and it is of no surprise he would want to sit on my lap or steal my chair when the space heater would be on. This behavior deemed him the title of “heat thief.” Tom was always going to write a children's book about Jethro being the heat thief, maybe he will write it one day.

Speaking of Tom-Tom is Jethro’s main man. Tom somehow trained Jethro to wait for “pets” until a pillow was positioned for him on your lap for cuddles. Every night, Jethro tucked Tom into bed by lying on his chest and getting night time pets. They even had a game called “caves.” He loved when Tom would make a fort by placing his legs up so the bed sheets would enclose him and he could still see out. He stopped this behavior as he became older but he really enjoyed it for his early years. Jethro purred the loudest for Tom, enjoyed Tom’s brushing sessions which would usually end in Jethro wanting to fight Tom and ultimately every night Jethro would sleep at the foot of the bed on Tom’s side. They were best buds.

Not only did Jethro love heat he also surprisingly loved water. I already disclosed he loved drinking fresh water but he also had a quirky want to get water from the faucet but not on a stream fashion, he preferred dripping faucets. How funny when you think about it, our Painted Post house had round sinks. How serendipitous for Jethro, he loved a good bowl!

Jethro also took a liking to Dan when he moved in with us. I remember Jethro hanging out with Dan in the mornings especially lying on his chest and getting pets while he ate his breakfast. Maybe Jethro was hoping to get some crumbs as a bonus. Jethro was also very protective of Dan.

Our move to State College, PA definitely sent shock waves through the entire family unit but Jethro as always, stood fearless and un-phased. He settled into our rental and eventually into our current home in Bellefonte. He loved our current house. He was elated to have his basement dwellings back. He settled in like he was always meant to be here.

A year after being in our new home, Jethro began to lose weight and appeared to not have that “spicy pepper” attitude we had come to expect and love of him. Although he was 14 years old, he was still brilliant and never changing- up until this point. In November, 2024 he was found to have a mass growing on/around his pancreas/kidney. Whatever this mass was (speculation cancer) it also appeared to spread across his liver. On top of this, he was also diagnosed with Diabetes. Because steroids cannot be taken with insulin the best treatment option to make him comfortable was to treat the diabetes. He did great his first week on medication. He was somewhat back to his old self. A few weeks later we noticed a decline and had him reassessed. Come to find out, his levels were showing anemia with the assumption that internal bleeding was occurring and his body although attempting to replace the blood loss wasn’t keeping up.

So here we are. End of life. It’s weird how your brain is able to make you think the ones you love will always be around and live with you forever in your own little life and bubble of a world but alas everything has an end. My hope is at the end of all of this, Jethro knows we loved him and will always love him. I hope he enjoyed spending his life with us because he sure made a part of our lives wonderful. He will forever live in our hearts and memories as our fearless, regal and steadfast leader. Our Jetti-man.