THE 3 MUS-KITTIES

My wife and I have always enjoyed the company of animals, even before we were together; but I have never believed that pets should be bought, as there are so many animals out there who were domesticated and then forced to fend for themselves. Therefore, when we decided to take on pets they were more thrust upon us to get them out of their situation, rather than us seeking them out.

PIPPIN: The Houdini of Cats

It was early Autumn 2002 and my wife and I were leaving my parents' house to head home. Mum had been talking about how many cats seemed to be living under the house next door, which had been fenced off after the elderly neighbour had died. My wife, Margaret, had said how much she would love to have a cat and since we had just moved into a rental property we were not really ready for a cat or any other pet for that matter.

But did that matter to one short-haired, mottled-grey feline, who just happened to walk up my parents' driveway, meowing at us? No. It was like this 3 - 4 month old cat had decided that we would be his owners, whether we liked it or not. And his timing couldn't have been better, as the people who inherited the house next door had chosen to knock it down the very next week. Our furry little tom cat somehow seemed to know that if he stayed there, he would be taken away by animal control and have to sit around in a cage hoping that someone would adopt him or else be put down - so he attempted his first escape trick. His courage to come across and pretty much ask to be adopted had won us over and we decided to take him in.

Naming him Pippin, after the mischievous hobbit, Peregrin Took, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, we took him to the vet and had him looked over, along with all of his vaccinations and organised for his de-sexing.

Pippin was a very loving cat; always ready for a pat or to snuggle up on the bed in the evening. He would only ever show affection to Margaret and I, but when strangers came, Pippin would disappear - no one knew where, but he would reappear whenever the visitors had left.

At that time, Margaret was teaching in the city, while I had just finished my Bachelor of Education and took up a position in the country; in a place called Stawell [Victoria] (which is around 2.5 - 3hrs drive away from Melbourne). We decided that I would take Pippin up to the country, while Margaret continued working in the city.

Travelling for so many hours in a car, is bad enough for humans, let alone a cat, and I remember Pippin's meowing virtually all the way to Stawell, except when he finally fell asleep on the back seat with about 15 minutes drive left. After that, I drove back to Melbourne every second weekend, while Margaret came up every other weekend. Pippin grew to accept the drive (I can't say whether he enjoyed it or not, as he never told me) and he would usually curl up on the back seat of the car and doze off for the journey.

But after five years of being in Stawell (Margaret having moved up for four of those years), we returned back to Melbourne to start the next phase of our lives - having children. And, once more, it was lucky for Pippin that we moved when we did, because on our final night at the house (Pippin had already been moved to my parents' house, while we finished packing), we found a cat that Pippin had been playing with throughout the year, lying in our yard. When we went over to it, it was already dead, having been poisoned. We buried him in the back yard, upset at the fact that people would be baiting cats; especially this cat that we saw bouncing around with Pippin on so many occasions; and relieved that our cat had not been around when all of this took place. Once more, Pippin had escaped possible death.

Upon returning in 2008, I got a job at Brunswick North Primary School. Being a well-travelled cat, Pippin was settling with us into what would be his fifth home. I think he got used to it and it helped that we were always there when he wanted a pat or a cuddle. But the next year, everything changed...

MERRI: Opposites Attract (Eventually)

In 2009, while at work, I had many students running up to me out in the yard claiming to have seen kittens racing around near one of the buildings. Upon going on a kitten hunt, it became evident that someone had dumped a litter of five kittens in the school and the principal had to put a call in to have them collected. However, before this occurred she put the call out to any staff who may want to adopt one of these stray little kittens.

My class was, of course, eager for me to take on all five kittens - possibly hoping that they would remain in the classroom, so that they could focus their attention on what these little fur-balls were doing, rather than on their schoolwork. I rang Margaret and told her about the five long-haired kittens; two were a ginger colour, two were a light grey and one was a mottled-grey (just like Pippin). We could not take on all the kittens, however we decided upon one and that would be the mottled-grey one, which we called Merri; because we had Pippin, we needed his counterpart on Lord of the Rings, Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck, which we then spelt "Merri", as Merri Creek is close to the school at which she was found.

Merri was a curious little kitten and was intent on doing her best to antagonise Pippin into playing with her. However, Pippin would have none of that - he would hiss and dash away looking for a place to hide (usually outside away from the annoying kitten). But little Merri never let that bother her, she went right back over to Pippin and kept on trying to befriend him through constantly being in his face.

It would have been almost a month when Margaret and I came home from work and let the cats inside and noticed the change. Pippin, as usual, ate and went for his nap on the bed. Merri also ate her food, along with that of Pippin's, then went to the bed and cautiously sat next to the alpha cat. It was a big step for both cats. But when we came to bed, Merri was snuggled up next to Pippin, as he was grooming her, by licking her head. Both were purring away and that was it - they were friends.

Merri learnt to leave Pippin to his own devices when he needed it and Pippin began showing some affection for the little kitten. Our two rescued felines were getting along quite well and even seemed to band together when we introduced them to our beautiful daughter a few years later. It was kind of like they decided "We're not getting attention from the adults any more, let's just pretend that we don't know them," and they went about virtually ignoring us; except for meal times, of course.

GINGER: Life As A Third Wheel

In 2016, my 90-year-old grandmother passed and Dad was in the process of having to work through all of her belongings, one of these being her cat, Ginger. He basically put it out to my two brothers, my two sisters and I, saying that if he couldn't find a home for Ginger, then she would have to go to the pound. As the cat was already 14-years-old, it'd probably be hard to find her a home, so Margaret and I opened up our home to her. Our daughters were very excited; as they saw Pippin as my cat, Merri as Margaret's and so they felt that Ginger would be their cat.

However, it took a lot of time for Ginger to acclimatise to this new change; she had come from having her own territory - being my grandmother's house - to a brand new home. She had to get used to new guardians, as she had only ever had my grandparents and, like Pippin, made a dash for cover when others came. And, as if to make it more difficult for her, she was in a place that already housed two other cats.

As always, Pippin took it in his stride. I feel that he decided that we, as his guardians, would just keep doing stupid things like adding more and more people to the household, so why fight it? Instead, he seemed to pretend it wasn't happening. Ginger first moved into the garage, just to give her some time to come to terms with everything, and was slowly brought into the house and eventually allowed outside. Pippin simply stayed away from the garage to begin with, but then accepted Ginger in his territory, as long as she stayed away from his food.

Merri, on the other hand, was not so welcoming. She hissed and struck out at Ginger as much as possible. She even went to the length of wandering around the garage and hissing and growling whenever she sniffed out Ginger. One time we put them both on either side of the kitchen, which Merri didn't appreciate, because she saw just how much bigger Ginger actually was; so she simply continued her hissing and growling, without as much of a violent reaction.

Once Ginger was grudgingly accepted into the fold, it appeared that Merri had decided one part of the yard was hers and the other would be for Ginger. Only the food bowl became "communal" - that is, Merri would eat Ginger's food first and then move onto her own. But she appeared to stop enforcing this rule when she found that we had taken her bowl inside and given it to Ginger. She watched through the window as her food disappeared, devoured by Ginger, and decided that she should eat her own food first, which gave time for Ginger to eat her food.

There was a time some months later where the three cats teamed up to defend their territory from a large white cat that decided to come in to attack Ginger. We were awoken by a howling cat fight and went out to find Pippin and Merri chasing down the white cat, only to leap the fence and disappear when I went out there. Pippin then went up to Ginger, sniffed her and went off to his bed, while Merri took a little more time checking on her nemesis. Ginger was unhurt and an apparent truce appeared to have been reached - although the stealing of food still occurred when we weren't vigilant.

End of an Era...

With the bonds of the cats holding strong, it became evident that Merri was starting to feel old age creeping up on her. In 2016; even though she was the youngest of the cats at seven years old (44 in human years); Merri started getting arthritis in her back left leg, which had her hobbling around on very cold days. She also had ulcers in her mouth and developed a skin condition that didn't seem to respond to treatment and the vet had to shave much of her fur off, leaving her looking a little odd.

In 2017, after another visit to the vet, Merri was once again shaved and it seemed as though she had lost her adventurous spirit. While Pippin and Ginger wandered around the back garden, Merri preferred to sit on the decking at the front. With her visible limp, due to her arthritis, she couldn't travel far, so she stayed around the house all the time. However, one afternoon, after returning home from picking up my girls from school, Merri was nowhere to be found. She would usually greet us with a "meow" on the front decking. Upon specking with Margaret, we decided to leave it a few days before telling the girls of the possibility that Merri may have just run off to die. Although, this wasn't the case, as we received a call from the animal shelter a couple of days later telling us that Merri had been brought in a couple of days ago and if we wanted to pick her up. Of course we did! And the girls were so excited to have their cat back.

Little did we know that we would have problems caused by a "concerned citizen". Apparently this "concerned citizen" had taken Merri from our front yard and brought her in to the shelter claiming that we had been mistreating her - due to the way she looked. The shelter decided that that must be true and had kept her there for a few days to observe her. When I came to pick her up with my daughters, they explained that we had to wait for the doctor to come and talk to us about Merri. I explained that I already knew all about her condition, because we had been treating her with our vet. This fell on deaf ears as we waited for almost an hour and my girls were getting edgy, because we hadn't seen Merri yet. I explained that I had to go, so could the doctor just give me a call, but they were adamant that I had to wait. In the end, I was furious, as they had lie - I had not been waiting for a doctor, instead I was waiting for someone from the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). The lady from the RSPCA explained that they were concerned about Merri's welfare and I explained that we were too, which is why we had been spending so much money on veterinary fees. She pretty much told me that we were not doing the right thing by Merri and that was that - I ended up telling her that she knew nothing about what we were doing for Merri and that she should check all her facts before believing the word of a "concerned citizen" who knew nothing about what was going on. I explained everything that we had done and why Merri looked the way she looked. She issued me with a writ that said that I had to take Merri to the vet and have him fill out a form that she gave, so that she could believe everything that I told her. And, to make matters worse, I was asked to pay for Merri's board at the shelter. I told them, as Merri was microchipped, they should have let me know as soon as they got her and it was their choice to hold her hostage for two days, before letting me know about her and the ransom that they wanted. They didn't appreciate that analogy, but it was pretty much what had occurred.

After ringing the vet and talking to him, he too seemed quite upset and he assured us that he would ring the RSPCA representative and let her know what he thought about the whole situation. A few days later, the woman rang and told me curtly that it had all been sorted out and that we didn't have to do anymore than we were already doing... there was no apology.

In the midst of all of the drama with Merri, the other cats were a little neglected in the attention department and I started to notice Pippin acting a little peculiar. When I called, he would usually come running, but not anymore. At 16 (80 human years), Pippin had gone deaf, but he showed no other signs of aging. He was still quite mobile and other than taking more time to rest, seemed his usual self.

In 2018, however, Pippin began walking around the perimeter of the house and occasionally knock into walls. We found him doing his business in the middle of the drive-way, rather than his usual spot in the garden. He had gone blind and was limited in what he ate. One evening, he was meowing to come inside (which he never really did since the girls were born), we brought Pippin inside and gave him a pat and a cuddle. He even allowed the girls to pat him, as he sniffed at all of us and purred. During the night, he meowed to me to let him outside, so I opened the door and let him out... and that was the last time we saw Pippin - he had done his final vanishing act.

Merri and Ginger were a bit out of sorts once Pippin had gone, as Pippin was the alpha. Merri would have loved to take over the role, but in her condition, it was 15 year old (76 human years), Ginger that took over. For a few nights, Ginger helped fend off an annoying cat that had been trying to attack Merri. She didn't really have to fight, as Margaret or I would usually step out and freak out the grey cat.

Eventually, in 2019, Merri's condition had worsened and Margaret and I had to make a decision. We spoke to the girls and, although they were sad, they both agreed that it would be better for Merri to be put down, than have to hobble around in pain for the few more months or so she had left of her life. We organised for a visit to the vet and when he had looked at her, he told us that she may last another year or so, but she wouldn't be comfortable. We told him that we had already spoken about it and had made the decision for our poor ten year old cat (56 human years) to be put to sleep. Margaret and my eldest daughter said that they wanted to be there with Merri, but when the time came, both said that they didn't want to see her pass. I didn't want her to go alone, so upon saying their goodbyes to Merri, I walked with her to the surgery room, where she was given the injection to put her to sleep. Merri's passing was especially sad, because we had to witness it and also make the choice to do it to her.

This left Ginger as the sole cat and not knowing what to do with herself. She had lived a solitary cat life at my grandma's for many years and was then thrust into a family with two cats. I believe she had grown used to living with other cats and now she was back to the beginning. She needed a lot of attention for the first few weeks alone, but then decided that since she was now the only cat, she had the property to herself and took on the role of dominant feline.

We were amazed at how this 16 year old cat (80 in human years) still had the energy to prowl the yard and fend off other cats. Granted she spent a lot of time lying in the camouflage of the garden or sunning herself on the pavement in the back yard, but she found the energy when she needed it.

Throughout 2020, during our Co-Vid lockdown, Ginger was a companion to my daughters. They made sure that Ginger had water and food and a generous helping of cuddles. She lived out the rest of her life in comfort.

In early 2021, my parents were looking after the girls, as Margaret and I went out. When we returned, we found Ginger had passed; lying peacefully in the garage. We held a little vigil for her and buried her in the back yard under the tree that she loved to rest.

And I like to think that since we took on the responsibility of looking after my grandma's cat, she is now looking after the three of them in heaven.