The Domino effect…

The Domino effect…

I don’t know if you have ever been embarrassed by the behaviour of a member of your family, but my wife and I certainly were this week.

Luckily it was not a human member but one of our many cats.

Domino, our Senior Cat, needed his annual jab so we took him to our vet, Andreas.

Now, if Domino was a human being, he would be the kind you see on TV, surrounded by hostages and armed to the teeth, saying: “OK copper come and get me, you’ll never take me alive.”

Like most sociopaths he is normally placid, if a little distant.

But something really got to him in the vet’s surgery this week.

On his previous visit he was as good as gold, but this time he threw a wobbler of almighty proportions.

First warning was the low growl from the cat basket as Andreas approached.

This prompted the donning of the protective gauntlet.

Then Domino turned into that creature you see in cartoons, the Tasmanian Devil.

He became a blur of black and white fur as he expressed his intense opposition to any form of medical treatment. Perhaps he is a Jehovah’s Witness, I don’t know.

He hurtled from the box and whirled around the room hissing and screaming.

I do hope you are not eating your breakfast as you read this but the fury was accompanied by streams of urine and faeces that seemed to cover most of the exposed areas of the surgery.

Eventually Andreas and his assistant managed to subdue the animal in much the same way as you see those police on American TV shows, using a blanket and a lot of imprecations which, if Domino had been listening, would have insulted him deeply.

Eventually the jab was administered and the patient was returned to his box, which by now resembled an IRA prisoner’s cell during the dirty protests of the 1970s.

The growling and swearing continued.

We would not have been surprised if the rather out-of-breath and dishevelled Andreas had banned this black-and-white bundle of trouble for life but it was at his surgery that we first made acquaintance with Domino as a tiny kitten and from where he joined us one Easter time, so he has been given another chance.

But I am not sure about what will happen the next time Domino sees the cat transporter…

Watch this space.