Mayo The Missing Cat

In early 2006 while living with Mum in Hobart, a lady Mum worked with ended up with a litter of kittens she was trying to find new homes for. I was single at the time and had no other commitments, so Mum and I decided to go and check them out.

The runt of the little was off to the side minding its own business, apparently the others kept pushing it away when it came to feeding. It was a cute little ball of fluff with a quiet squeaky meow, and patches of white. I asked if I could have the little one, and arranged to pick it up a week or so later.

When I eventually picked her up and got her home I decided to cordon off the kitchen area down stairs until she got used to the new surroundings. As soon as I put the board up blocking her in, she started to cry with a constant little meow. And she kept going until I either removed the board or picked her up again.

After watching the movie Eight Below I really liked the name Maya, so I decided to name my new kitten Maya. A few days later I took her to the vet for a check and to get tattooed and microchipped, while we were there the vet turned her over, then pointed between Maya’s back legs and said “So, you see that there, I hope that isn’t going to be problem for you?” Maya wasn’t actually a female, turns out it was a male and I hadn’t taken the time to check, I had just taken the word of the person that gave him to me.

Anyway, all was good and he was all healthy. I can’t remember my exact line of thinking here, but to me Maya was a female name, so I then ran a few other names through my mind, and maybe just being lazy, I decided to change his name to Mayo. Don’t try and work out my logic because I don’t know either, naming a black cat with white markings Mayo does not make any sense.

I was still dealing with a relationship breakup, and trying to work out what I wanted to do with my life, and that little kitten brought me a great deal of happiness. He was a lot of fun and very playful, even if at times he had quite a nasty streak in him.

As he got a bit older he loved to sleep under the bed covers with me. I slept on my side most of the time, he would end up snuggling around my stomach and stay there most of the night. Unfortunately for me, most mornings when he started to wake up, he would stretch out and then dig his claws into my chest or stomach.

Another fun activity that became a night time ritual was, I would go to the bathroom and then as I walked back to the bed he would attack me from somewhere he’d been hiding. It got to the point where I would have my doona cover pulled back ready, close the bathroom door while I got ready for bed, and then I’d fling the bathroom door open and try and race to the bed before he could get me. I lost most of the time but it was very entertaining.

I was used to cats hating water but Mayo loved it, whenever I was in the shower he would come and sit next to the curtain and play with the water splashing around. He would even sit on the bathroom sink next to me and play with the water when I was shaving.

Towards the end of 2006 I moved to Canberra for a brief period, then I moved to Cairns. Until I got settled somewhere, or was in a position to take Mayo to live with me, he remained living with Mum. Typical of anything that is young, they have lots and lots of energy, and Mayo had plenty, much to the annoyance of Mum. In 2007 while Mum was out one day, she broke her ankle and was on crutches for a while. Mayo was too much for her to handle while she was on crutches, so Mayo was sent to live with my Dad.

Within the first few months I started teaching him to spend time outside. It was quite amusing to watch this little kitten explore and get further away from the house each time I let him out. Mum lived in a cul-de-sac, and each time I let him out he would follow the gutter down the street but then come back again, until one day he went all the way around, via the gutter, to the house directly opposite Mums house. That house had been burnt out a year earlier and it became a playground for Mayo, he ended up spending the majority of his time over there. Much to Mums disgust Mayo came home with a small snake one day and had it downstairs in my room. The next morning when Mum went in there to feed him she got an almighty fright. The snake was alive but only just barely. Mayo had worked it over pretty well.

Back to his vacation with my Dad. For the most part he had been pretty good while staying with Dad, and he mostly remained inside the house. At dinner time Dad would feed Mayo and then let him outside for a bit of a play, go to the toilet, and then he would come back inside. On the night before I was due to fly back to Hobart on leave, Mayo had his dinner, went outside and never came back. I spent the majority of my time on leave looking for him, putting up posters around the local area, calling veterinary clinics and cat shelters, and even door knocking, all to no avail. He wasn’t even two years old, and now he was missing.

Fast forward to 2016, I now had a son and my wife was away at sea. I received a phone call that went something like this:

“Hi, is that Adrian Medbury?”

“Yes.”

“I’m calling from the Hobart Cat Centre to let you know we have your cat.”

“What do you mean you have my cat?”

“A cat was brought in and we checked his microchip that says he is registered to you.”

“That cat has been missing for eight years.”

“Excuse me, did you just say he’s been missing for eight year?”

“Yes that’s right, he went missing one night from my Dads place in 2007 and we have not seen him since.”

“Well, we have him. Apparently he has been with a family for a while and he didn’t get along with their new cat, so they brought him to us.”

“No worries, thank you very much. I’ll arrange to have him picked up soon.”

The next day he was picked up by Mum and taken back home. She took a few photos of him and it was clear to see he had been around a bit, as he was sporting a few scars, but otherwise he looked to be pretty good. He seemed to remember Mum and was quite friendly towards her.

We were contacted by the local media asking if they could do a story on him, we were happy to oblige but declined to be interviewed. The link below is to the news article.

https://www.facebook.com/tenlives.com.au/videos/10153325067608994

Mayo was soon on a plane and sent to Western Australia to be reunited with me. It was a weird experience. The last time I saw Mayo he was a fit and healthy little cat, and now he was a lot older and battle scarred.

It was a big culture shock for everyone, and whatever Mayo had been up to, he was not happy being sent interstate, and into new surroundings with a dog and small child around as well. Mayo had attacked my son on a couple of occasions, one day giving him a cut on his leg so deep that the scar is still clearly visible today.

It was not the best environment for him to be thrown into, and he soon started suffering from a recurring urinary tract infection. This resulted in him weeing everywhere in the house, constant vet bills, and causing more stress that was not wanted. After a couple of months of trying to deal with this, my wife being away at sea, dealing with a young child on my own, and Mayo’s symptoms getting worse, we found ourselves back at the vet one Sunday evening.

As the vet was discussing a couple of options with me for a way ahead, all I could think about was how I couldn’t keep forking out money for the bills, or even deal with the stress of constantly cleaning up cat pee from the floors and furniture. I looked the vet in the eye and said, “There is another option”.

She looked back at me, knew exactly what I meant and told me it was definitely an option if that’s the way I wanted to go. Of course it wasn’t the way I wanted to go but I really didn’t like any option I was facing. The vet told me to go home, have a think about my options while they kept him over night for observation. I agreed and off Harrison and I went. I couldn’t be bothered going home to cook dinner so I went and got some take-away. We were still in the shopping centre carpark when the vet called me back and said Mayo was worse than they originally thought and he needed medication right away, she said “I’m really sorry to do this to you but you need to decide right now which way you want to go with him.”

I made the heartbreaking decision for him to be put to sleep. Parked in a shopping centre carpark, I hung up the phone and had a good cry. I never saw Mayo again.

A lot of people say “Everything happens for a reason”, but for the life of me I have been unable to find a reason why he was returned to me after missing for eight years, only to then end up getting sick.

Oh the joys and pain of being a pet owner.