Just like children

I’m a country boy at heart, with most of my youth spent on a property in central Queensland. We had a fair amount of land, which meant we could have animals.

We had pig dogs (they looked scary but you were more in danger of being slobbered to death by them), numerous cats, fish, budgies and hundreds of chickens.

At one point we hand-reared almost every chicken, looking Mum directly in the eyes as we claimed, “The hen kicked it out of the nest. It will need to live with us inside”.

As I moved down south, my love of animals stayed with me. In Sydney I have a cat, Kakadu, and a dog, Maxwell. Without sounding like a crazy animal-lady, they are my babies.

At times they are like naughty little children. Many times I have found the cat in the potplant, eating dirt. When I confront him, he just looks up at me, with that ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ look.

Or chasing the dog through the house, with a pair of my undies in his mouth. He is having the time of his life, and my trade is on the lounge having different thoughts.

When I leave, I put them out in the courtyard. There is shelter from the elements, and there is enough room for them to run around after each other. (The cat is bigger than the dog.)

Last Thursday I was working at ARQ, so when I got home it was extremely late. I walked into the house and was met by cries from the back. My heart dropped.

Out hobbled my baby, Maxwell, paw swollen, and tears in his eyes. Scooping him up, I carried him to the lounge. I was almost in tears. Unlike a child, he couldn’t tell me what happened.

At dawn’s crack we were both off to the vet. It sounds terrible but 95 percent of me was worried about my pet, and there was 5 percent that was terrified about how much it is was going to cost.

Two injections later, we were off. I was told to come back if he hadn’t improved. I would be devastated if anything would happen to my animals.

Does that make me a little crazy? That two animals could mean so much to me?  As I write this, they have both climbed up on the chair and crammed themselves on me. See — just like children.