My name is Moo, and I'm a cat

Chapter Four: Farm Life

My mom and dad love living on the farm. Duke, the owner, farms with instant lawn, so our grass is always green and fresh for eating. Nothing like nibbling on a fresh green blade of grass. This is where my nickname comes from. Moo. Mommy's friend told her that cat's eat grass because of indigestion problems, but she doesn't know that I like to eat grass because it tasts good. I love to feel it tickling my nose and play with the grass for a while before eating it. I love it when mommy takes hay or freshly cut grass and puts it ontop of me. I feel young and play in and in and of the grass. Mommy calls me, 'Cammo cat.' 

We often hear other animal sounds around, so you can imagine how weird this was for me at first. Geeze live on the one side of chickens and us and horses and cows on the other. Ducks were at the dam but often visited us on the rooftops, speaking loudly to one another.

Our house's roof is made from straw. Straw keeps no sounds out. When the wind blows, it sounds so strange to me. I would look up and watch the roof and mommy would say, 'never mind, it's just the wind.' When it rained, it would be even worse for me. It would sound like it's dripping inside the house. I would watch the roof and then run for cover. Mommy would most likely pick me up and comfort me.

We had the most dreadful thunderstorm on the farm. Mommy would play music as loud as she could to drown out the sound, but I would still get scared. Sometimes she would rock me, like a human baby and try to distract me from what was happening outside. Sometimes it would work and sometimes not. I just wanted to find a dark spot under the couch and stay there until the storm was over.

Mommy loved me too much. I would get too many hugs and kisses. Daddy wouldn't do this, so I would often go and sit by him. He would stroke me softly on my side and ignore me while watching TV. Sometimes I would sit on mommy's lap if it was cold and she would play with my tail.

This year, beginning of March, mom and dad were given a holiday down at the sea. Usually, I would travel with them, and they would drop me off at granny's house, but we had just taken a long trip in December, and mommy could sense that I wasn't up for another one, so she asked one of her friends to sleep over and look after me. It turned out that her friend also needed a holiday, so she was more than keen to stay with me.

Mommy's friend was not what Mommy thought her to be, and she had a man friend stay over. They were both horrible to me and hurt me, and I spent most of my time under the couch or behind it in the bedroom. Oh, how I wished every day that my mommy would come home. She had no idea what was happening to me. Every day she phoned in to find out how I was and every day, the lady lied.

I started to struggle to breathe. It felt as though I wasn't getting enough oxygen into my lungs. After mommy and daddy had got back from holiday, they noticed this too. Mommy noticed that I kept hiding behind the chair in the bedroom. She immediately knew something was wrong. She spoke to me and asked me what had happened while she was away. I wished I could tell her, but couldn't. I was afraid to come out from behind the chair, but mommy fetched me and helped me not to be scared anymore. I stopped eating, and mommy got very worried and very scared.

Mommy took me on walks and noticed that I was panting like a dog. She knew something was not right, so after one night of me struggling to breathe, she and daddy took me to the vet. The vet said I had either been abused or I had been hit by a car and was very upset with mommy. Mommy explained how this was impossible as we lived far away from the main road as our driveway is at least about a hundred metres away from the road and that I don't go down the stairs unless mommy is with me. The vet explained that the x-rays showed that my stomach area was sitting in my chest and that she needed to operate on me, to bring my stomach back to my lower abdomen and fix the tear in the fleece.

It was then that Mommy told the vet about her house sitter and my behaviour after she got back. Mommy was very upset with her friend because she could see now that her friend had hurt me badly as the x-rays were more proof than what her friend was telling her. She ended the friendship because later on she found out that her friend had stolen a few things from her. Mommy and daddy don't have a lot of stuff and mommy waits ages until they have saved up enough money to get some things, and then this lady goes and helps herself to mommy's stuff. I could see how upset mommy was and wished I could do something, but it appeared that mommy was more upset that I had been mistreated.

Mommy asked a lot of people to pray, and I went into theatre that afternoon. Mommy and daddy were only allowed to visit me the next day. I was asleep most of the time because the doctor had given me Morphine. When mom and dad came, I was so happy to see them. They were making such a fuss like they usually do. I didn't mind, not this time. Mommy was so worried that I was in pain and that I didn't have enough water or food to eat, but I wasn't hungry, and I didn't have pain. I just wanted to sleep.