Vet Tails Excerpt – Meowmeow, a Crafty Cat
Some animals are very crafty in their approach to various problems, illustrated here by a beautiful cat called Meowmeow. I met her when she was nine months old and my friends at the Rotorua SPCA had her in care as a rescue. Unfortunately she had a very stubborn case of cat flu that wasn’t responsive to conventional meds and unless they could rehome her as a healthy cat she would have to be put to sleep. She was divine and so they brought her through to Tauranga to see if we could help as she hadn’t eaten for a few days and this was the last resort.
We treated her with NIS therapy and gave her various supplements to build up her immune system. Within two days she was eating and didn’t look back! She is a beautiful medium hair tortoiseshell with a very gentle nature. She would occasionally demonstrate her hunting skills and manage to catch dead birds from the garden and bring them inside proudly with her “I’ve just caught something” meow. One day her deep “I’ve caught something” meow was heard and her owner dreaded what she would bring in… she was proudly carrying a piece of sausage in her mouth, which she’d retrieved from the barbeque! Meowmeow settled into her new home and was a happy cat until the arrival of King Kong.
Little King Kong, a Yorkshire terrier had been scratching himself severely all his life and his visit to us was his owners’ last hope to getting him to be a healthy dog . Being a stubborn case, he came for three visits and we eventually determined that a big reason for his persistent problem was the underlying stress that he had in his home environment with another dog that disliked him. Since his owners wanted to do everything that they could to help him and realised that their home was not facilitating a healthy environment for the little fella, they decided to rehome him.
King Kong was rehomed to live with Meowmeow and he arrived with his two doggy beds, his four doggy jackets, his doggy raincoat, his doggy playpen, doggy crate in which he slept, an array of toys and a list of all of his likes and dislikes! Initially Meowmeow was scared of King Kong and he learned quickly that attacking her wouldn’t help him to feel welcome in his new home. Over time her fear evolved to curiosity and King Kong began to treat Meowmeow with great respect. Occasionally he would bound around the house and race around a corner to suddenly stop dead in his tracks and reverse because Meowmeow was sitting there and had given him the “don’t mess with me” look which occasionally was followed by the “don’t mess with me” right hook! Sometimes he would even wait to eat his meal, sitting a distance away and watching his bowl as Meowmeow decided that the content of his bowl looked more inviting than hers!
One morning their owner awoke to find poop in the conservatory where King Kong slept. Having given him the benefit of the doubt that perhaps he didn’t get enough opportunity to do his “doo” the night before she simply cleaned it up and let him be but this happened again another morning and King Kong was reprimanded and put outside. This happened again and King Kong had his nose put into the mess hoping that he would get the message. A few mornings later his owner again awoke to find a deposit of poop in the conservatory but that night King Kong had slept in her daughter’s bedroom and hadn’t been out all night, there was only one other explanation… Meowmeow had been framing him!
To read more about my adventures, read Vet Tails available as a book or e-book from https://www.drliza.co.nz/shop/