THURSDAY, 3.45AM -8 degrees below
My face is scratched as the doona is forced aside. My back aches from the two interlopes jockeying for position behind me. My partner is complaining in his sleep about the loss of blankets and the state of the bed. “GOD these animals are shitting me!” How the hell is it possible when the sun comes up I will be in love with them all again?
FRIDAY, 6.00AM
Bob the cat cries at the door to go out.

7.00AM
Jake the dog wants his daily walk and starts walking around the bed from me to my partner's side making a sooky whimper to wake us up…. Thanks Jake!!
8.00AM
Ebony the cat is waiting at her dinner bowl for her breakfast biscuits. Then decides to walk on the notebook as I write.
Our Perrfect Companions (PC) often seem a little grumpy of late as if it's my fault they have caught or chased off the family of mice that lived here before we came along. Jealousy is also starting to raise its ugly head and any attention given to an individual can result in attention seeking of outrageous proportions. Why do we bother with such selfish behavior?
Why indeed, Well dear reader, read on and I will tell you……….

I had lost a beautiful Belgium Shepard of ten years, through illness and I wasn't coping too well, and my ex-husband finally did something decent and bought me a kitten a month later for my birthday, at least my ex liked animals, so the three of us tried to co-exist for a while. However a month later I had left with my (PC) and was off on my own again.
I moved to my girlfriend's place, which was eighty k's away, left my job and my abode. Deb had two cats and a dog in a small back garden, and although I moved in, I realised a new home had to be found for my (PC) until I could sort myself out. I contacted a girlfriend who explained she had talked to her recently divorced brother into getting his first cat. Jen said her brother was looking for a youngish, toilet trained cat with a good nature. I said “Well that's Bob” She said I will pick you up tomorrow at 7.00pm and I will take you and Bob to my brothers place to see if they bond. Well they hit it off straight away. I left Bob there with Andy that night with a tear in my eye. We said our good-byes, or so we thought..
I had told Andy to call me if he had any questions regarding his new (PC) and to cut a long story short, the calls became more frequent and then personal, then dinner and then hey presto, we were a team. Bob had changed our lives forever!
Andy went overseas for a few months and left Bob with me. Andy's father moved into a retirement village and could not take his cat Ebony, who was from a shelter and had a history of always being a (PC) for elderly owners. She had never been outside, although she had been trying all her life. We would experience this “never quit” attitude many times in future.
I at this point had just moved into a house and now had room for Bob and Ebony. The day she arrived in her cat box, she was very allusive for the first day, then the second morning I had to pick her up and put her outside in a lovely spring morning. She ran back inside and five minuets later she stuck her head around the back door, looking into this big back garden, her eyes were like dinner plates.
Then I could not keep her in, she sat for hours in the sun, in the back garden, then Bob would take her next door, where they had chooks and taught her how to hunt for mice. From then on, we were a team of four and I think that she is forever grateful that the doors are never locked for her again.
Shortly after Andy returned from over seas and we decided to move across town and all live together. Times were so good that we decided to add to our family- a puppy was decided on and Jen was again contacted at the shelter and the search was on.
Weeks later she called and said there are puppy's up for adoption, come and have a look. We drove down there and both looked at this gorgeous puppy, he was the only calm one and we both looked at each other and said he's the one, we'll call him Jake.
Bringing home a puppy to two cats that hate dogs was on experience that we had not done before. Bob ran and hid for two days, he was putout, no longer the only kid on the block. Ebony hid for an hour and then came out of hiding, but kept her distance. Poor Jake was even more scared than the cat's, he did not know anyone. We began to think that we had done the wrong thing; as usual, Ebony broke the ice with a kiss or three and hey presto……..three kids asleep on the mat in front of the heater that night. Our journey was beginning…..
It was at this time we decided when the lease was up, we would move to Andy's NSW country property. The cats realised what was happening when we were packing up and were becoming unsettled, Jake had no idea what was ahead.

DAY 1
I took the cats and Andy took Jake with him. Chris and Wolf (guard-dog/cat hater) took the truck with the furniture. Bendemeer 1600k's away and in the middle of winter. How would we spend the night? What if we lost one? I must admit we were scared. That night we stayed in a motel together and you could cut the air with a knife, but all was o.k. When we resumed next day, the cats were getting stressed. We got to Bendemeer at 6.00pm that night and put the animals in the house. Bob got out and was missing for twelve hours, we walked the streets calling him, while Ebony and Jake stayed in and got closer, they are now two peas in a pod. Bob came home another six hours later, wet to the bone, as it had rained for two days straight, the day after we arrived. Little did we realise his addition to the bush had begun.
The property backs onto a River and we have chooks, so Bob only comes home for tea and to sleep. Ebony and Jake follow each other around the block.
Jake at six months old is now the Bendemeer celebrity, people driving past the house yell out”hey Jake” and the general store owner gives him a biscuit every day and the kids in the street come down to pat him.

We are blessed by all our Perrfect Companions.

Author: Jaki
Country: Australia
True story: Yes
Rating: 12 paws up
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