Happy Father’s Day Dad and thanks for reuniting ‘Black Cat’ with his owner.

So this little story is not about my herbal medicine, acupuncture or any veterinary skills. It is about the love of animals and kindness to them that my dad taught us as we were growing up.

I read a meme on Facebook this week that said ‘The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away’ Pablo Picasso. We did a bit of good today Dad.

Saturday night saw me at my mum’s keeping her company as I often do and because the next day was Father’s Day. A cat started miaowing loudly quite close by and on peering through the curtains I saw a pair of glowing, yellow eyes staring at me. There was such an intense connection and I immediately thought of dad saying I had to help. On questioning mum, she mentioned that there had been a couple of cats hanging around her house ‘for ages’ and she thought they lived across the road. I went out to investigate and ‘Black Cat’ raced up, talking nineteen to the dozen and wound himself around my legs. He was obviously domesticated but without a collar, quite thin, with some small sores and an unkempt coat. Sleeping rough can do that to anyone. Mum said she never heard any cats at night and thought they went home but I guess mum’s hearing and eyesight weren’t the best and she wouldn’t have heard him calling all night. It was a conundrum; although I am a vet, one of two in the family, my mum is allergic and phobic about anything with fur. ‘Black Cat’ was definitely not going to go down well with her. Leaving my jumper out on the doormat that night for warmth, I was determined to find a solution the next day.

Today, on inspection of the house across the road, I found that it was under renovation but there was a number displayed for the site manager. A couple of phone calls later, it was determined that this was not their cat. ‘Black Cat’ looked liked he had been living under the pergola in the dad’s beautiful chinese garden for quite some time.  Luckily with the help of a client who was planning to pick up some herbs from me, we managed to take ‘Black Cat’ to the local vets that morning. I was hoping it had been microchipped.

A couple of hours later, I got a phone call from a very grateful owner who had lost ‘Black cat’ six months ago when he jumped out of their window three suburbs away while they were in the process of moving. She had feared he must have been run over on the busy highway that runs along our neighbourhood. Hooray for microchipping! I could imagine the joy that ‘Black Cat’ would have felt on being reunited.

Thanks dad, we gave a special gift away today.