Maxie Bubba – The first 10 years

We think Max started out life as a garbage tip cat.   That was where he was found, anyway.   The kid next door brought him home, she was very concerned about this poor little kitten, and he was SO SO hungry.  Trouble was her parents weren’t near as keen on him, and though they certainly wished him no harm, they didn’t really want the responsibility of looking after him.  As it turned out, he struck up a friendship with our kitten, Felix, and spent a lot of time in at our place.  We carefully avoided feeding him, but after talking to our neighbours about him, they explained they really weren’t happy about him being “their cat”, and we decided between us to see if he would like to move in with us.  So I opened the back door, and put a little bit of food in the kitchen for him.  He had never been in the house before, but he worked out where the food was, and he decided he would move in!  That was that!  He wanted to live here with his friend…..and the food.  We soon discovered that food was a very important factor in Max’s life.  Anybody with food was wonderful.  If you were eating, he would sit at your feet with the dogs and look at you hopefully.  One time Felix was having teeth trouble, and the vet suggested raw chicken wings or necks.  I gave them each one.  Felix looked at his, and then at me as if to say do you expect me to eat that?  Max grabbed his and ran under the table, growling as he chewed it up, and then came back for Felix’s……

Of course, he didn’t stay a kitten for long, and grew into a huge and handsome tabby cat, with long fur in the winter, which he would moult in the spring, leaving him with his shorter summer coat, but still longer than a normal short haired cat.  His beautiful thick tail stayed all year round, so he would look as though he was waving an ostrich plume round.  He soon won the hearts of the neighbours on the other side, and he would constantly visit them, because……you guessed it……they would give him their scraps, and sometimes, they had chicken, which is his all time favourite food!  He would go into their house, and lie down in front of their heater, sleep on their beds, and generally make himself welcome.  They encouraged him like mad, because they liked the idea of having a “part time” cat, and not having the responsibility of taking him to the vet for his routine injections etc.  However, whenever the lady of the house has been ill, he has taken himself round there and just sat with her.  Obviously she thinks he’s wonderful.

Several years ago, I had to have a short time in hospital.  When I came home, Max came inside, looking for food I thought, and stroked him as he went past, as I usually do.  However I got a most unusual reaction, he spat at me.  When I investigated, because I thought something must have been amiss, I noticed he wasn’t waving his tail round as usual, but he was just dragging it behind him.  Fortunately my daughter was there to carry him around, because I was under strict instructions to pick up nothing heavy than 5 kilos (11 pounds), and Max weighed at least 7 kilos (nearly 15 and a half pounds).  So off we went to the vets.  We had a musical trip, Max was not amused at being put in the cat carrier and put in the car for the 45 minute trip to the vets, but apart from that everything went well.  The vet inspected him and found a huge abscess at the base of his tail, and gave him an antibiotic injection, and sent us home with tablets to give him.  This is when things got interesting.  My daughter had to go home, leaving me to give the tablets to this cat I wasn’t allowed to pick up.  Thankfully he was in a better mood by then, the antibiotics had started to work, and he would allow me to get down on the floor with him where I would swathe him in a towel, and insert the tablet into a pill popper.  Then I would sorta sit over him, and attempt to force the pill down his throat, before he had backed out of the towel, and out from under me.  With an extraordinary amount of patience and perseverance, I succeeded.  Fortunately I only had to do this every second day, and the course was soon finished.  I’m very pleased my doctor never found out……

Max fancied himself as a hunter.  Being a typical cat, he would bring me home rats and mice that he found outside, but I got a bit annoyed when he decided he would try his hand at catching honeyeaters, which he thought he could catch by lying in my neighbours’ garden.  I saw him go over there one day and it didn’t take me long to work out what he was after.   He would lie in the plants and wait for the birds to land.  So I thought what could I do to discourage him, and remembered that cats don’t like being hosed.  So I hosed him.  He broke the land speed record getting away from the water, and I doubt that much water actually landed on him.  The next day however, he was back, so I went over to turn on the tap.  As soon as he heard me, he took off home again, but back he went the next day.  This time as soon as he heard me walk towards the tap, he scooted home, and the next day, I only had to walk out the door, and he left.  After that he gave up.  He stuck to the odd mouse now and again.

However, he wasn’t all that keen on catching the mice that came inside.  So of course I had to resort to traps.  Just recently, I caught a mouse with the trap one night, and of course discovered the contents the next morning. I picked up trap and all to dispose of the little body, but managed to drop it.  Max streaked out of nowhere, picked up the mouse, still in the trap, and ran under the table.   He was most incensed when I took after him, yelling at him to give me back the trap!  I finally managed to get the mouse and trap away from him and took it all outside, with him hot on my heels.  When I got outside I released the little body from the trap, which remained firmly in my hand, and  I thought I’d better let him have the mouse after all that….he was still following me, and his eyes were huge and black with indignation because I had deprived him of his prize.  So I dropped the mouse at his feet, but he caught it before it even hit the ground and sprinted away.  He came back about half an hour later…..gloating…..

Max is now 10 years old, and still as handsome as ever.  He still loves his food, and insists on many helpings of breakfasts, and dinners.  He still visits the neighbours on a regular basis, and has progressed to being the head of the neighbourhood cat mafia.  The last time I had to look after my neighbour’s cat (around the corner), Max insisted on accompanying me, and escorted me up the drive.  He was not put off by the fact that we had to pass several lots of yappy dogs.  Possibly the fact that he’s bigger than them helped.  Of course the neighbour’s cat wisely stayed out of sight till Max went home with me after I had put his dinner out for him.  I suppose it says something that Max didn’t eat it for him…..