Chapter 6
Home!
“Oh, you’re back,” Tommy said. He stood up, arched his
back, and stretched out his front feet. “Did you enjoy your visit to the cat-doctor?”
My bushy eyebrows shot upwards, “It was awful,” I
replied. “The only good thing is these nice people came back for me.”
“Yes, we’re lucky, we have people who love us,” Tommy
said.
“What do I call our humans?”
“They have people names, however,” Tommy replied with
a bored sigh, “I call the woman Servant and the man Driver.”
“Why did you pick those names?” I asked.
“Because when I first met our humans, that’s how I
thought of them. They swap jobs frequently. Sometimes Servant is the driver,
and Driver is the servant, but I don’t change their titles.”
“Should I do the same?” I asked.
“Yes. Humans aren’t very smart,” he answered. “It took
me fourteen years to properly train them.”
“Okay, I think I understand,” I said. I was not quite
two years old in people years; that’s around twenty years old in doggie years.
Tommy had already lived fourteen people-years, and that made him an expert.
Eager to learn more from Tommy’s experiences, I
carefully studied his actions. He licked his right front paw with his long,
rough tongue and wiped the damp paw across his right ear, then repeated the
process.
“Are you self-cleaning now?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, then switched to cleaning himself with
his left paw, “it’s called grooming.”
“Could teach me how to do grooming?”
“No, I’m sorry. Cats groom. Dogs get bathed by their
humans. That’s how it works.”
“Oh,” I was disappointed. I wanted to be self-cleaning
too, like a cat. Then I thought of the many cats still at the clinic. “Do all
the animals at the cat-doctor’s place have people?”
Tommy yawned widely, displaying his tongue, sharp
white fangs, and pointy teeth. “No, most of the cats are looking for humans to
adopt them,” he answered.
“What about the doggies?”
“Some have owners, some are strays,” he said.
I watched in fascination as he stretched his front
paws forward, then bowed his head, and arched his back. It seemed to relax him.
“I wish every doggie and kitty had nice people like we
do,” I said.
“Me, too, but the cat-doctor and his staff make
sure the animals under his care get food, medications, and a safe place to
sleep,” Tommy said. “Princess Chica and I were both homeless before we adopted
our humans.”
“Oh! ¿Hablas
español? Do you speak Spanish?” I hopefully asked. It would be
wonderful to be able to communicate in my language.
“No,” Tommy shook his head, “I’m Canadian. Our humans
found me in a vineyard in Canada when I was a tiny kitten. I was so small I
could fit in the palm of Servant’s hand.”
“You’re lucky,” I said, then scrunched up my face as I
thought about what he had said. “How did you get to Mexico?”
“My people didn’t like the cold Canadian winters, so
we moved here when I was nine.”
“Wow, that’s amazing,” I said. “I’ve heard that some
of my doggie friends have been adopted to homes in Canada.” I shivered at the
thought. “I’m sure they don’t like the cold.”
“It’s not cold all the time in Canada, only part of
the year. Plus, their people dress them in warm sweaters and jackets, and in
time they adjust to the colder weather,” Tommy said. “It’s no different than me
with my thick fur moving from Canada to the hotter weather here in Mexico.”
“True,” I agreed, then I thought of something else I
wanted to ask. “Is Princess Chica a Mexicana?”
“Yes, she entered our house from the beach. Just like
you.”
“Does she speak Spanish?”
“A little, she was very young when she moved in with
us, and she has forgotten most of her original language. She still speaks a bit
of cat-Spanish. She says it’s different from dog-Spanish.” Tommy said with a
shrug. “I don’t understand the difference.”
I thought about that for a bit, then said, “Mexican
Spanish is a bit different from the words that people use in other countries,
so Chica’s cat-Spanish may be a little different, but it would still be
understandable.” I felt quite proud that I could explain something to a much
older and wiser cat.
Tommy slowly turned his head and studied me for a
moment, “Probably,” he finally agreed. He jumped off the sofa and wandered into
the house. He didn’t seem impressed by my knowledge.
