Curiosity almost killed the cat

Let me just tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Harry and I am seven years old. I live in a big house with a bright red door. There is a public park with small rocky hills, tall trees, and pretty flowers next door to us. A narrow foot and bike path goes across the park, but it is usually not very busy. Our neighbours on the other side, Eliott and Carol, are super nice. They always seem happy to see me when I wander into their backyard or make my way onto their balcony.

I live with Mom, Dad and my pesky little brother. Griffin is two whole years younger than me and a bit of a mama’s boy. He always wants to do what I want to do and follows me around like a shadow. I play with him when I feel like it or to make Mom happy. Sometimes though, he annoys me so much that I have to remind him who is in charge. We wrestle on the living room floor until one of us cries to Mom or flees. Of course, that is usually Griffin. Sometimes, we both apparently take it a little too far and that is when Dad calls us “crazy little maniacs” and tells us “to stop it right this minute!” A good thing for me is that, unlike Griffin, I am allowed to go outside by myself provided I stay in the neighbourhood. I am glad to be able to get away and do my own thing. Except of course if I get hungry. When it comes to food, I rely totally on Mom for that. She always makes sure I get all my meals and sometimes even one or two of her homemade treats.

I have two friends who live in my neighbourhood. Lily is about my age, and she is very sweet and can also have a wild streak, like the orange streak she has in her hair. We enjoy playing with butterflies, insects, and whatever toy we can find or we just lay around in her yard looking at the clouds. And then, there is Tripp. He has a scar above his left eye, long hair and always looks disheveled, like he spent the night on the clothesline. He is a morose teenager, so he is much older than us, but he tolerates us. Honestly, when he shows up at our house, I am fairly sure it is as much in the hope of getting one of my Mom’s famous treats as it is to see me.

When I am on my own, I often end up spending time at the park. I like to climb trees and and go up the rocky hills. I also enjoy some of the wildlife there like squirrels, geckos, little snakes, and birds. At first, I was only able to catch geckos lazing in the sun, and all the other creatures were too fast for me. Sometimes, I would even bring them back to show Mom. Surprisingly, she was not as impressed as I thought she would be. One time, I even found a baby bird and brought it in the house. As soon as Mom saw it, she started to scream at the top of her lungs. I got so scared that I dropped the poor thing on the floor. Dad came out of his study to see what the commotion was all about. He saw me and Griffin staring at the bird on the floor. Dad picked it up and told Mom he would take care of it. My parents were so upset that I was grounded for a couple of days. No going to the park for two whole days!!!

Raccoons kind of gross me out. They keep trying to open our garbage bins and when they succeed, what a stinky mess they make! I guess the animals I get along with the best are cats. Except for orange cats though. In my book, those Doritos and dogs belong in the same category. They are creatures that seem to only have one or two brain cells. Orange cats are just dumb, and small dogs are annoying with their non-stop yapping and chasing around. And as far as big dogs go, they are needy, drooly, and always want to please their parents. Those goodie two-shoes are so irritating.

Today started out as any other day. I was on my way out of the park when I saw Tripp on the opposite side of the street. He was lying on his belly and was completely still. As far as I could tell, he was mesmerized by something under small bushes. Then I heard some faint shrieks and saw that something was moving inside those bushes. Branches were cracking, leaves were rustling and dry dirt was coming out from underneath the bush. Out of curiosity, I started to cross the street to get closer to Tripp and the bush.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy with a bright yellow hat riding one of those electric bikes with fat tires. He was coming fast, but not that fast. For sure I can outrun him and get to the other side…That was clearly a miscalculation and a moment later I got hit and everything goes blank.

It seems like I’m in another world. Everything is spinning in my head, I feel like I cannot move and my eyes won’t open either. And yet it’s bright, very bright wherever I am. It also smells funny, like when Mom cleans the bathroom.

A while later, I can hear people talking but I can’t quite make out what they’re saying. I try opening my eyes again. Only one appears to work normally but I can see that I am in a small room with many ceiling lights. Two walls are covered with colourful posters with various animals on them. Another wall has a door with a with a series of hooks on it and a tiny window. And the last wall has shelving holding some books, jars, and plastic boxes. As I look below, I realize that I am wrapped in a blanket lying down on some sort of a bed. What is going on? Where am I? Why am I here? Okay, I’m just going to close my eyes again and hope that this is just a bad dream and that I am going to wake up back at home.

No such luck. What I see next is a lady wearing purple outfit and a funny black necklace around her neck. She is holding a wet sponge and rubbing it on my head and over my right eye. Owie, that hurts! I try to reach out to stop her from doing that, but I can’t because of the blanket. She finally puts the sponge aside and pulls the blanket away. She takes the black necklace from around her neck, puts one end of it in her ears and the other end on my chest. She then does some gentle poking and prodding of my limbs and my stomach.

“So what do you think?” asks someone with a man’s voice.

“Well…,” starts the lady in purple. “We have an approximately seven-year-old male with short hair. No identification found on him. And he doesn’t have any distinguishing marks or features really.”

“Is he going to be okay?” inquires the man.

“From my brief examination,” she continues, “there does not appear to be any broken bones. He has a cut above his right eye that extends to the top of his head. There was a fair amount of bleeding, but it seems to have stopped now. It is highly likely that he suffered a concussion. Hard to tell how severe though, without running more tests. But we must contact his parents before we continue any further.”

“How are you going to do that without any form of identification?”

“I think there might be a way, let me check.”

She leaves the room for a minute and comes back holding a device which is about the size of our TV remote. She then positions it between my shoulders for a few seconds, then she goes out again for much longer this time.

When she returns, there is someone else behind her.

“Oh, Harry! My baby boy, my poor fur baby!” says my favorite person.

Aaah, Mom! I’m so glad to see you!

“I was so worried when you didn’t come home for lunch. I went out and called your name, nothing, I shook the treat bag and still nothing.”

“I am so sorry Mrs. …? “ the man cuts in as he comes closer to Mom.

Holy cow! It’s the man with the yellow hat.

“Richards, Lucy Richards” my mom replies.

“ Mrs. Richards, my name is Peter Hughes and I’m so sorry about your cat. I try to be careful when I’m riding my bike but I really didn’t see your cat, starts the man. He came out of nowhere! … Since he had no tags and was unconscious, I brought him to the nearest veterinary clinic to get assessed. I was also hoping people there would be able to help me find who he belongs to. I’ll pay for whatever treatment he needs…”

“We were able to find out who Harry belongs to because he is micro-chipped,” adds the veterinarian.

“Since he is looking pretty much back to himself now, and purring up a storm,” Mom chimes in, “I’m just going to bring him home and have some cuddle time.”

I, for one think that’s a fantastic idea and maybe one or two treats with that…

“I agree with that,” says the vet. “If you feel he is acting abnormal in any way, please bring him back for more tests. The cut on his head should heal uneventfully as long as it is kept clean but will likely leave a scar.”

A scar! Cool! Now I will look as badass as Tripp!

“Otherwise, the effects of the concussion should dissipate over time. And he should probably stay indoors for a few days…”

Curiosity nearly killed a cat…good thing I have nine lives!