Sunday, 9th May
Mum gets up early most Sundays because she goes to a place called ‘Church’. I don’t know where ‘Church’ is, but she always comes back soft and smiley.
She sings a lot on Sunday and that makes her happy too. Her Sunday singing voice is very different to her ‘rest of the week’ singing voice – I’ve heard the All Male Alley Cat choir with their beautiful harmonies and they sound a zillion times better than Mum’s ‘rest of the week’ singing!
Saturday, 15th May
Garfield had to see Kevin, our vet, yesterday. The lump thingy in his mouth is something called a tumour and he had to have a blood test to see if he is well enough to have something called an operation. I noticed some fur missing on Garfield’s neck and asked him about it. Patiently, he explained what’s going on and told me not to make a big deal out of it as Mum’s beside herself with worry.
Kevin rang Mum after lunch to give her the results of the blood test. It’s something called ‘Diabetes’. They spent a long time talking on the phone and Mum had her serious face on – not the smiley one she usually has.
Monday, 17th May
Garfield had to go to hospital today because Kevin is going to make him better. We all felt so bad that he wasn’t here with us, that none of us ate any dinner. We all slept all day so that the time would go quickly until he was coming home again. Mum said that Garfield should be home with us tomorrow.
Tuesday, 18th May
Garfield came back home this evening. He just lay on the sofa. He had some more fur missing; this time it was on one of his front paws and I asked him about it. He told me that Kevin kept putting a needle thingy in his arm to take out a little spit of blood. He had 8 of those yesterday and 6 again today. I said that he must be worn out and he just closed his eyes, so I gave him a head butt and left him in peace.
Wednesday, 19th May
I saw Mum sticking one of those needle thingies in Garfield this morning. He was sitting out on the sun bed in the garden and she cuddled him, and then stuck it in. He didn’t seem to mind and he didn’t tell Mum off. He told me afterwards that Kevin said he had to have one of those injection thingies every day to help the diabetes get better. I hope she doesn’t do it to me!
Thursday, 20th May
Mum had something called a ‘Spanish exam’ today and she has spent the last few days talking in a different Mum voice – we don’t know what she was saying because the words aren’t her usual words.
I heard her telling a friend that she is really stressed – worrying about Garfield and the exams.
Then I suddenly remembered what I used to do when I was stressed – pee on the cushions! So I watched Mum like a hawk after that to make sure she didn’t spend too long sitting on any cushions.
Friday, 21st May
I nearly caught a bird today but it escaped. It flew up into the branches of
a tree, which is in another garden, and I could hear a lot of twittering going on. First of all I thought I’d climb the tree to see what all the fuss was about but then the twittering got louder and Timmy told me they were laughing at me. He said they did it to him once and whenever he went out in the garden after that, he had to wear a disguise so the birds didn’t recognise him. Eventually, he thought they’d forgotten all about it so he went out as himself but they remembered him, and started with their twittering again. Timmy has never caught another bird since that time. I went indoors and found Mum for a cuddle.
Wednesday, 26th May
Billy was blue today. I don’t mean that he was sad. I mean that he was really BLUE in colour. Mum had some huge pieces of wood, which she was painting blue, and Billy wanted to have a chat with her while she was doing it. He rubbed his head on the wood and gave himself a lovely blue face, which made Mum laugh, and then when Billy went to put his entire face in the tin of paint, she pushed him away quickly! The only trouble was that Mum had yellow rubber gloves on which were covered in blue paint and as she pushed him away, the whole one side of his body had a big blue splash of paint.
Mum was worried that Billy would get sick if he licked himself because she said that paint has something called ‘toxins’ in and you have to be careful – even Mum. So she pulled off her gloves and whisked Billy to the bathroom where she washed him. It all came off without any problems and Billy got what he wanted, which was a lovely cuddle with Mum. She is the best cuddler I know!
Billy liked being blue and I thought it suited him, but Mum knows best, so it seems! Mum also became blue after that. She was putting the lid on the container of blue paint and it squished a whole load of paint right up into her face. It went all over her glasses, her tee shirt, her hair, and over her neck and arms. I looked at her to see what sort of face she might make but she just sat there, laughing her head off. Her head didn’t come right off – but you get the picture. Nutty woman – splattered with blue speckles of paint. She looked like a Jackson Pollock painting!
Later on, after Mum cleaned it all off, she had to take Garfield to see Kevin because he has to have lots of tests now and when they came back home, her friends came over to put all the big pieces of wood together. They made a little wooden house that Garfield called a ‘shed’ and it lives up the top of the garden.
Naturally, we all went to have a look at it and a good sniff round. I think I’d like to move out there during the summer and chill with my friends, invite Eddie over, you know, that kind of thing. Billy thought that was a good idea and Garfield said that the lawnmower and other ‘shed’ stuff from the big-old-falling-down-shed was going to live in it and not to go getting any fancy ideas.
Thursday, 27th May
Poor Garfield has got to have TWO injection thingies a day now because Kevin said that it would be better. It’s all right for Kevin – he doesn’t have a big long needle thingy stuck in his neck, twice a day, does he! Garfield still doesn’t mind Mum doing it to him, because he knows that she’s trying to make him feel better. And she always cuddles him afterwards, and he gets his breakfast as well, which can’t be bad.
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