I am a cat. More specifically I am a nine-year-old male cat. My people say I have been neutered. I’m not sure what that means, but just that something in my life is missing. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t live with my people. She says I was less than eight weeks old when I showed up in their backyard. I do know it was love at first sight for the large, long-legged animal who spotted me first. The man said that animal was a dog named Fred. I just know Fred used his big tongue to wash away the dirt I had from my travels. He washed me from head to the tip of my tail even cleaning out the things that hid inside my ears. I knew he wasn’t my mother, but it didn’t matter. Fred made me feel safe in a way that only my mother had before.

The people picked me up out of the wet grass and took me inside the house. The lady scurried around to find me something yummy to eat. I hadn’t eaten anything in a day or two, so it really didn’t have to be yummy. I would have eaten a dry crust of bread, but of course she did much better than that. She talked about mixing a couple of pieces of Fred’s kibble with a little bit of milk and then something from a can called tuna. I dove into it with my whole face. Fred sat and watched me. He never tried to take my food, so again he made me feel safe. After I ate, he let me curl up close to him. I was so tired, but knew everything was going to be all right.

After my nap, the lady put me in water with smelly stuff she said was shampoo. She told the man I had hundreds of things she called fleas. The water was warm, but I can’t say I liked it. Out of the water, she wrapped me in a towel and rubbed my whole body. The towel was much nicer than the water had been. Fred, once again, made sure I was clean to his standards by washing me with his tongue all over. I liked that I would smell more like Fred than that shampoo stuff. I wish he could’ve done a better job of getting those fleas off of me. I really didn’t want to be put in that water ever again.

The next day the lady took me to some place called the vet. There were a couple of ladies there who did all kinds of things that I didn’t like. One of them put something big in my butt. It hurt and I tried to tell them it did. I yelled as loud as I could, but they held me tight for what felt like forever. When they took it out, they said I had a temperature. I told them I wanted to go home to Fred. They didn’t listen. Another lady put tubes in her ears and then put a cold disc in different places over my body. When she took the tubes out of her ears, she pulled on my ears and poked something in there. Next, she put her hands around my face. She flashed light into my eyes, before she said, “We’ll put him on antibiotics. This eye is clearly infected. It is so swollen, I’m sure it will rupture. When that happens, you will need to bring him back for me to remove the eye completely.” My lady looked sad, but I told them I didn’t want that to happen.

The lady with the tubes left the room, and my lady carried me to a counter where a fluffy black and white cat sat looking at me. That cat just studied me like I was some sort of a bug. He didn’t say anything. He just looked at me. Another lady sat at a table that was lower than the counter. She wrote things on a piece of paper the other ladies had handed her. She asked my lady questions. That is when I learned I was to be named, “Dr. Murphy Jones.” My lady said that I was named for an actor – James Garner. Murphy Jones was a character he played in a movie called Murphy’s Romance. It seems Mr. Garner had just passed away. My lady said she loved that movie. I hoped she would let me sit on her lap while she watched that movie. This whole discussion made me feel very important. I liked knowing I had people, a friend like Fred, and the name.

As we made the trip back to the house where we now all live my lady whispered to me that she would find a way to make the swelling go down in my eye. I’m not sure I will like what she plans to do to me, but it has to be better than having the vet lady take out my eye.

That first night my lady brought in a plastic box with sand in the bottom. She said it was a litter box, and that she hoped I would use it. I had never used one before, but my mother had told my brothers, sisters, and I about using one when she was young. As Fred started to groom me again, he had whispered that I didn’t need to worry about that litter box. He intended to take care of me in every way. I remember that my mother had done that when we were tiny. Once we were big enough to walk away from the nest, we did our business outside. I whispered to Fred that I was not afraid to use that litter box. I walked over like I owned the world, and climbed over the edge to land face first in the sand. I moved to the far corner, dug a little hole, and did my business. I do hope I get better at climbing in and out, or at least that I remember where not to do my business! It was only when Fred picked me up in his mouth to lift me out of the litter box, that I was struck with an idea I had not considered. I knew I was a cat, but I could hear Fred, a dog, whisper things in my ear. I could understand him! Maybe that means that not only am I a cat, but maybe I am part dog too. I may be the only dog-cat in the world. Isn’t that a great idea?

The discussion about the litter box has me thinking about my brothers, sisters, and my mother. It seems like forever since I had last seen my mother. She told us stories about the farmer’s wife who had taken her in as a young cat. The wife had hidden her in the pantry in her farmhouse kitchen. The wife’s husband did not want cats in the house. He found her when she was clearly pregnant with all of us. Mother told us that our father had left as soon as she got pregnant. She called him a cad. She thought the farmer was also a cad.

The farmer’s wife was worried about how she was going to conceal us once we were born. The farmer answered that by taking Mother to a big cold barn, and dumping her in a box. The wife came out with a bundle of rags, so that Mother could make a nest. Mother said the wife also brought out food, but she didn’t eat anything. She started having us shortly after the wife left. The farmer found the food later and yelled at his wife, saying that the food bowl would attract more mice. He said they couldn’t afford a freeloading cat, and that Mother would need to catch her own food. The wife started bringing Mother food while the farmer was out in the fields. Mother said she knew she needed to eat all of the food to be able to take care of us properly.

When we were about six weeks old, Mother started to share that food with each of us. The farmer must have found some of it because the next day Mother was gone when we woke up. We never saw her again. Shortly thereafter, the man came back and closed the flaps on the box. The box shook when he moved it to what must have been his car. The car made scary noises before it would stop and a smelly gloved hand would open the flaps and grab one of my brothers or sisters. Like Mother they did not come back. I was the last one in the box when he stopped again to open the flaps. That smelly gloved hand grabbed me. I felt the rush of cold air as I went flying into the weeds. I made myself as tiny as I could be as I heard the scary noises as the car drove away. I didn’t know what to do. I checked to make sure I could stand and walk. The weeds were all so tall I didn’t know which way to go. I heard two women’s voices nearby. The last woman had tried to be kind to us. I decided I needed to trust these women. I marched through the weeds until I could see the two women. I was cold, wet, dirty, and very hungry. I started to cry. ‘Help me! I miss my mommy.’ That is when I first saw Fred. I heard one of the women say, “I can’t take another kitten. You need to be the one to pick it up.” Two warm gentle hands picked me up. This is how I started my life with my new family.

After that first trip to the vet, my lady didn’t lie about trying to do something with my infected eye. She told the man that she was going to the store to buy something called sterile saline solution. She said it had been recommended on the Internet, whatever that means. I just know that she started holding me down and squirting liquid into my eye. She did it a number of times each day. I didn’t like it, but it didn’t take long each time. She always cuddled me after she did it. I like the way she cuddles me. After about five days, my eye started to feel different. It no longer hurt. I knew that it had been swollen so much that I really couldn’t blink. Now I could actually close both eyes. I still had to turn my head to look in both directions, but I almost feel normal.

In addition to the liquid in my eye, Mom and Dad both held me while she pushed a tube in my mouth with nasty tasting stuff. I yelled and cried, but they still did it. I heard Dad swear when I scratched him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I tried to tell them that the stuff really tasted bad. I even tried to hide, but they still found me, and then pushed that tube into my mouth. This was far worse than the liquid in my eye. I vowed that when I’m all grown up, I’d never allow them to make me take that stuff ever again. I’m not sure Mom will be happy about that, but she really doesn’t know how awful it is.

A few days later we make another trip to the vet. I heard some of the vet women say how much better I looked, but they still put that big thing in my butt. I told them not to do it, but they did it anyway. Why do they think they can do anything they want to me just because I’m smaller than they are? One of them said the antibiotics must have worked, because my temperature is normal. The lady who put the tubes in her ears and that round thing against my body did it again. When she flashed the light in my eyes, she said she was surprised that the swelling had gone down so quickly. She also told my lady that I was blind in that eye. My lady said that wasn’t a surprise. The lady with the tubes picked up the skin on the back of my neck and stuck me with something sharp. It was a quick jab and then it burned. My lady kissed my head, and said that I might be sleepy from my shot by the time we got home. When all of them were done looking at me and poking me, my lady took me to that counter where that black-and-white cat just sat and looked at me again. The least he could have done was give me a thumbs up. I feel like I’ve won an important prize. I have a family. Back at the house, the man lets me curl up on his lap. I can’t seem to keep my eyes open. As I start to drift off to sleep, I realize that I need to make a change. I will never forget my mother nor my brothers and sisters, but since this is my new family, this man must be my dad. Fred is my brother and my lady is Mom. Somehow calling them by these names just seems right.