Although Ollie and Zero were adopted together as brothers, their parents have seen some significant personality differences as they have grown older.
The mother of the two, Callie Samuels, told The Dodo that “Zero is clearly the problem.” He’s always up for a game, loves to cause mischief, and is quite talkative. Ollie is more a kid of the angels.
Ollie sits back and observes with an innocent expression as Zero causes problems. Don’t be fooled, Ollie can also be a little provocateur. I sometimes think that those two are ensuring my day is as crazy as possible by working in shifts.
Ollie’s personality is usually much calmer than Zero’s — except when it comes to freshness seals.
One day, Samuels pulled a freshness seal off a new carton of milk and casually tossed it to Ollie. She thought he might enjoy batting it around for a while, and had no idea that she was about to begin a lifelong obsession.
It was love at first sight, according to Samuels. Ollie played with it ever since he hit it across the floor and carried it about in his mouth. Ollie now goes up meowing whenever I take the milk out of the refrigerator, and I have to explain to him that there won’t always be a new freshness seal for him.
While Ollie loves getting new freshness seals, he also keeps all of the old ones, too. He never parts with a freshness seal, and loves growing his collection and storing them in the most random places.
“I’ll find freshness seals all around the house now,” Samuels said. “Under couch cushions, on the bed, in my shoes, you name it. It’s like he’s keeping them stored around the house in case he’s ever in the mood to play with one at any given moment.”
Ollie has a crazy amount of enthusiasm for freshness seals, but Zero has never understood the fixation. He enjoys mischief as much as, if not more than, the other cat, but freshness seals aren’t his thing, and seeing Ollie’s fixation intensify has just made him feel more perplexed.
Zero usually just watches while Ollie fiddles with the freshness seal, according to Samuels. Zero would snarl and grab the freshness seal in his jaws to defend it if Ollie even glances his way while playing with it.
Zero doesn’t criticize Ollie for his interest despite the fact that he doesn’t truly understand it. One enjoys freshness seals, while the other enjoys causing mayhem across the home. Despite their differences, they love one other unconditionally.
