Mews and Views from Mungo's World - 2001
December 2001
The beginning of the month started off pretty quietly, with Mum going shopping and buying presents for friends and family, and myself and Mabel 'helping' her wrap them up. Wrapping paper is great fun! It makes lots of crinkly noises, and Mum thinks it's cute when we chase it around the room and it ends up with lots of teeth marks in it! We helped her use all her wrapping paper, so she could go out and buy some more, he he!
We were also getting ready to travel to Colchester to spend Christmas with Nan and Grandad, and Jarvis. Jarvis is older than us, and likes his peace and quiet apparently, but Mum said he didn't mind kittens rampaging through his house as long as they didn't get him into trouble! We were looking forward to meeting Jarvis very much, and the news that we were going to have a WHOLE Turkey for dinner on Christmas day was met with lots of mouthwatering anticipation!
Just before we were due to leave for Colchester Golly went missing for approximately 36 hours. Mum was VERY worried, especially as there was a heavy frost and Golly has a track record for being accident prone. When Golly didn't come home the first night, Mum was out looking with the torch and calling her name all along the towpath running alongside the Grand Union Canal, and up over the hill. Eventually she had to come home, but still there was no sign of Golly, so Mum slept very fitfully that night. First thing in the morning, Mum was searching the the woods and along the towpath again. She came home around lunchtime to see if Golly was home, and just as she sat down Golly snuck through the catflap. She seemed ok, but was very tired, so we all let her rest on the radiator bed and warm up. It was that day that we were due to travel to Colchester, so we packed our toys and scratching post, and got into that big noisy box on wheels. Golly travelled in the front with Mum, and slept the whole journey. I sang along to the radio, although I'm not too sure if I was in tune or not!
Nan and Grandad were very pleased to see us, especially Golly. It was very exciting, Nan and Grandad had stairs exclusively for us to charge up and down as noisily as possible, and floor length curtains for us to climb!
Golly was very subdued, so Mum decided that she'd take her to see the Evil Doktor in Colchester as she was very worried. The Doktor instantly suspected that Golly had been hit by a car, and suspected that she'd ruptured her diaphragm. Luckily she hadn't, and nothing was broken, but her lungs were impacted and full of fluid, which developed into pneumonia. So, Golly was booked in for a stay at the vets, and wasn't allowed to come home until late on Christmas Day. We still got our Turkey though, and discovered that the decorations on the Christmas tree were great fun to play with!
Golly got better slowly but surely, and she has her own page detailing all of this here.
November 2001
Well, it's been a pretty quiet month here in my little world of orangeness. Mum's received a few telephone calls reporting potential sightings of Golly's brother, Tigger, but none of them have been him. I've been extra cute to make up for it and to try and get Mum to concentrate on me!
I've been hearing some rather worrying rumours that in some countries it's common practise for cats to be declawed! Hearing about this has made me value mine, and Mum's shown me how to sharpen my claws on the scratching post rather than on her furniture or carpets. Every time I started to scratch the carpet, she took me to my scratching post and showed me what I was supposed to be doing. Even Golly uses the scratching post, ostensibly to sharpen her claws for when she lashes out at me! Us cats need our claws though - not for sharpening on the furniture, but for helping us escape from danger when we need to. Hopefully, most cats won't find themselves in positions of danger to escape from, but I find it very reassuring to know that I could if I need to. Although I'm still only a baby cat, and still an indoor only cat, there's a tree at the end of the garden that I'm desperate to climb! I wouldn't be able to do this without the help of my claws, and that would be a terrible shame.
October 2001
Yippee! Mum came back from America at the beginning of the month, so she could spend lots of time feeling guilty about leaving me. I've had a bit of a bad stomach which the Evil Doktor has diagnosed as Colitis. Obtaining this diagnosis wasn't pleasant, let me tell you! That thermometer thingy made too many appearances for my liking, and I've been prescribed worming powder, had my toilet business sent off to laboratories for examination (don't know what answers they were expecting - it's not as though the stuff can talk!). Because Mabel and Golly had also suffered diarrhea around the same time as my symptoms appeared, the Evil Doktor thought there may be a bacterial infection, so we all got treated with a course of antibiotics. There's something very undignified about having to take antibiotics. Mum makes me open my mouth, and then throws this vile tasting tablet into it, and then holds my mouth closed until I've swallowed it. Pretending to swallow it and then spitting it out when she lets go is a no win strategy - she just picks it up and repeats the process!
After a while my symptoms calmed down, and Mum no longer calls me Mingy Mungo. I must be quite lucky in that I didn't lose any weight or my appetite, or any of my boundless energy! According to the laboratory tests that came back, I didn't have any parasites, which was a relief. Maybe I picked up something nasty from that wet place you humans call the canal, who knows, but at least I'm better now and there won't be any mad and undignified dashes to the bathroom!
September 2001
September has not been the best month, I'm afraid. I'd managed to settle in slowly, but World events managed to put that process on hold a little. On the 11th, a series of attacks were launched on America that the World will never forget. The terrorist group Al Qaeda was responsible for crashing airplanes into the World Trade Centre's twin towers in New York, and as a result hundreds of human and animal lives were lost, and hundreds more have been devastated as they have lost their homes and loved ones.
During this time, Mum was spending a lot of time at work, so I didn't get to see as much of her as I would have liked to. Golly was still being bad tempered, so I stuck with my pal Mabel and we had lots of fun playing together. I was becoming much braver, and my orangeness was causing me to get attacks of the gremlins, and I would run around and around until I was exhausted!
Then, Mum announced that she was going to leave us for a little while! She said she was going to America to work in her company's New York offices, and that she'd only be gone for two weeks so it wouldn't be too bad. Not too bad!?! This seemed like such a LONG time! And Golly had an evil glint in her eye when she looked at me following Mum's announcement. What was I going to do?
August 2001
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I gotta new home! There I was, just minding my own business, having been pulled out of the wet place (something called a canal) by a BIG human man and taken to this place where there were lots of people and pets. I was pulled out of the bag I was in, and just happened to be wearing my best baby pout, when a lady came over and gave me a big hug. She didn't care that I was soaking wet, and shivering, she wrapped me in her arms and told me I was absolutely beautiful, and that she'd quite like to take me home! Now, at this point, I wasn't really sure what she was talking about, but I was starting to warm up so I started to purr. It felt very nice and snuggly being held, so I figured that she must be ok. Then, a man took me from her into a separate room, and stuck this wierd thing next to my chest and listened to my heartbeat, and looked at my eyes and teeth, and stuck something that I later learn't was a thermometer in a place where, really, things shouldn't be stuck. I call this man The Evil Doktor. Then he took me back to the nice lady that I have decided to call Mum, and she told me she was taking me home. I wasn't too sure of what she was talking about, but she had a little black kitten with her who seemed pretty content, so I figured that it must be ok. I introduced myself to the little black kitten on the way to this place called home - she was called Mabel and had been getting some vaccinations from the Evil Doktor. She said they hurt a little because the man stuck a sharp needle in her, but it was important as this would prevent her from getting really sick in the future. We travelled to the place called home in a strange thing that was like a box on wheels, and was very noisy. It's a good job we did't have to travel far. I found this rather frightening - I could feel that I was moving but I couldn't see that I was. I could'nt quite understand how I could be moving without my paws working!
When we got to this place called home, Mum let Mabel out of her carry case, and she scampered off to play with something she called toy mice. Mum picked me up, and from her arms gave me the grand tour of the place I was going to call home. Then, she set me down on the floor, and I was approached by this HUGE thing that was hissing and spitting, and trying to sniff me and smack me with it's huge paw. Mum called this thing 'Golly'. I didn't care what it was called, it was bad tempered and mean, and I didn't like it! Because of this, Mum took me to the place she called the spare room, and gave me a cuddle in there, just me and her. This I could handle. This was good. Mum realised I felt comfortable in there, so she brought me some food and biscuits, and a bowl of milk that was specifically for cats. Then, she brought in a litter tray for me to use, and showed me the chair I could sleep on and a towel to snuggle up to. She also brought in some of those toy mice things, but I didn't know what they were and whether they were safe, so I ignored them just to be on the safe side.
After a few days, I decided that I was brave enough to explore a little on my own, but that thing called Golly was hanging around. I found a place in the kitchen behind this huge white thing called a washing machine, and if I went behind there as far as possible she couldn't get me. Mum tried to tell me that she was ok really, but she was missing her brother Tigger who had gone missing and Golly didn't know where he was or what had happened to him, so she was a bit grouchy. This made me feel sorry for her, so I tried to be as brave as possible and introduced myself nicely to her. She told me that as long as I didn't step out of line then it was ok with her, but I was to make sure I behaved myself and to not get too big for my boots.
Mabel was a lot friendlier, and we've become really good friends. She's shown me how to play with the toy mice, and we have great fun chasing each other around the living room and bedroom, and playing with toy balls. I think this place will be perfect to call home!
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