Sophia

by Louise Wilkinson

It was raining.

I loved it when it rained. I loved watching the drops of water trickle down the windowpanes, and I really enjoyed playing in the muddy footprints left by the people as they came through the door. My name is Sophia and I'm a beautiful gray tabby cat. They say that I am about seven months old, but time and age don't mean much to a cat. I live at All Paws Veterinary Clinic. My owner is the one they call Doc. She's a nice enough lady and does a pretty good job as a vet, but that's mainly because she has me to look after her. My job here is to be sure that the veterinarian and her staff do their jobs well. I watch out for everyone and make sure they're not slipping up. It's a hard job, but somebody has to do it. This is a big place and it's hard work keeping up with the receptionist up front, the veterinary technicians, assistants, and kennel workers in back, not to mention Doc herself. Why, some nights I'm down right exhausted.

Today was a special day. I was sitting at the front door watching the rain and waiting on Justin. Justin is a ten-year-old boy with red hair and freckles and the biggest smile I've ever seen. He's the one who rescued me and my brother from an abandoned building after the Big Noise killed our mother. I see the machines that I call the Big Noise pass on the road in front of the clinic everyday, but they can't hurt me here. I have Justin to thank for that. He wanted to keep me himself, but his parents won't let him have a cat. His younger brother is allergic. I think they should have gotten rid of the younger brother and kept me, but that's only my opinion. Anyway, they found a nice home for my brother and brought me here. I was really sick at first, but Doc gave me medicine and before I knew it, I was back on my feet and ready to take on my new job as head of the veterinary clinic.

Justin comes by to see me from time to time and I love his visits. I heard Mary, our receptionist talking to Justin's mother on the phone. I heard Mary say, "Yes. That would be fine. Come right over, but be careful in the rain". I've been waiting by the door since then, but Justin hasn't shown up yet.

"Excuse me, Sophia," a tall man with a big Golden Retriever said, as he came through the door.

"Just push her out of the way, Mr. Stevens," Mary said to the man. "She's waiting on a special visitor."

"And just how does she know she's getting a special visitor?" Mr. Stevens asked.

"She heard me talking to his mom on the phone."

"That's impossible. Cats aren't that smart."

With that remark, I reached out my paw and grabbed the laces from his shoe. With a gentle pull, the laces came loose and dangled on the floor. When Mr. Stevens took a step, he tripped on the untied laces. The floor was a little slippery from people coming in from the rain and when Mr. Stevens hit a particularly wet spot, his feet flew out from under him sending him sailing through the air. He crashed to the floor with a loud thud. "Take that, you Bozo," I thought.
"Mr. Stevens," Mary cried. "Are you all right? Can you move? Be careful getting up, it's a little slippery out here today."

"What happened?" It was Doc coming into the waiting room.

"Mr. Stevens slipped on the wet floor."

"Chad, come and dry this floor before someone breaks their neck," Doc commanded. Within minutes a young man with a mop and some towels appeared and began cleaning the waiting room floor.

"What really happened?" Doc whispered very low to Mary so Mr. Stevens wouldn't hear.

"He said Sophia wasn't smart."

"I see. Well, young lady, for that you'll be banished to the back for the rest of the afternoon. You can wait on Justin back there."

Doc scooped me up in her arms and carted me off to the back. I didn't understand why I was in trouble. He started it. "I know he started it," Doc said, as if she read my mind. "But, you have to remember to treat all the clients with respect. No matter what they say. Now you stay back here in treatment until Justin gets here, and if I catch you tripping anymore clients, you'll be sent to time out for the rest of the day.

I hated time out. She puts me in a cage and makes me stay there sometimes all day long. It's so boring in the cage. I guessed I'd better be good. If I made her angry enough, she might not let me see Justin.

"You in trouble again, Sophia?" asked Molly the technician.

"Who me? Not me? It was the wet floor's fault." I flipped my tail in defiance and snuggled on my blanket. They kept a blanket on top of the incubator just for me. The incubator came from the human hospital where they used to put baby people in it. Now, Doc uses it for baby animals and it's my favorite place to sleep. My blanket sits on top and I can sleep there even if a baby animal is sleeping inside.

I had just dozed off when I heard Doc say, "Sophia, Justin is here.

I jumped up and ran to the waiting room. Justin and his mom were coming through the door, wiping their wet feet and removing raincoats.

"Sophia," Justin cried. "It's so good to see you again." The little boy with the bright red hair and big smile picked me up and squeezed me so hard that I thought my eyes would pop out. I loved this little boy.

We sat down on a bench in the waiting room and Justin softly stroked my fur. He had a good way with cats. Too bad we couldn't figure out how to get rid of that little brother. I purred in delight and Justin reached down and kissed me on the head. He was the only person I ever let do that. It made Doc mad that I wouldn't let her kiss me on my head, but I'd let Justin do anything.

"So tell me, Sophia. How have you been?"

"Oh. I've been well," I purred.

"Are you guys having a nice visit?" Doc asked, as she sat down beside us. "How's school, Justin? Making straight A's?"

"Well, no ma'am," Justin replied. "I've not been doing so well in school lately."

"Oh, and why is that?"

"I don't know. I just don't seem to be able to keep up."

"He's not trying very hard," Justin's mom said. "He could do better, if he'd just try harder."

"I am trying, Mom. I swear I am, but I don't seem to be able to keep up anymore, especially when they write stuff on the board."

I took a good hard look at Justin. He seemed very upset that his mother didn't believe him when he said he was trying his best. Something seemed a little different about Justin today. I couldn't quite put a paw on it yet, but give me time. There was something definitely wrong.

"I don't know what's going on, Doc," Justin's mother said. "All of the sudden, he's struggling in school. He never struggled before. I don't understand it."

It was his eyes. That's what was different. There was something wrong with Justin's eyes. I put my front paws on his chest and looked him square in the eyes. Yes, there was definitely something wrong with his eyes. I placed my right paw on his left eye and looked over at Doc. She didn't seem to notice. I did it again, but she still didn't notice. I had to get her to understand that something was wrong with Justin's eyes, but she wasn't paying attention to me. Oh well, desperate times call for desperate measures. I reached out and swatted Doc's leg with my paw. At first she didn't seem to care, but then I gave her a second swat, this time with my claws extended. That got her attention all right.

"Sophia," she yelled. "What in the world is wrong with you? I can't believe you just did that."

I meowed and put my paw on Justin's eye again.

"Stop that, Sophia," Doc said very angrily. "You better not swat him in the face. You could do some serious damage to his eyes."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you," I said. "His eyes are sick." Doc just stared at me like I was doing something wrong. Oh, the world for a veterinarian that can speak cat. I raised my paw again to touch his eyes, but Doc scooped me up and handed me to Chad.

"Take her to the back and put her in timeout. I'm sorry, Justin. Obviously Miss Sophia is in a bad mood today. I don't want her to scratch your eyes. Maybe you can come for a visit on another day."

"That's okay, Doc," Justin said, a little disappointed. "I'm not sure why she was doing that, but she seemed very interested in my eyes today. Do you think I could come back tomorrow?"

"That would be fine. You come anytime you like. I'm sure she'll be back to her normal self by then."

Chad didn't put me in timeout like he was told. Instead he put me back on the incubator and gave me a stern talking to. "Sophia, you can't swat people like that. You know Doc won't allow that sort of thing. You better stay right here and mind your own business for the rest of the day."

"Molly, are we ready for surgery on Boots?" Doc asked, as she walked into the treatment room.

"Yes, we just have to get her to sleep and then we're all set."

Oh, that's my cue. I jumped down and headed for Boots' cage. I can't let an animal go to sleep for surgery without talking to them first.

Boots was a big black cat with white feet with a very frightened look on his face.

"Hi Boots," I said. "What's going on?"

"Hi, Sophia. I'm having surgery today and I'm scared."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I came to talk to you. I don't want you to be afraid. Doc is an excellent surgeon. Here's what's going to happen. She's going have you breathe some really strange smelling gas that comes out of a hose. It'll make you sleepy. Don't be afraid of it. It won't hurt you - just makes you sleepy. While you're asleep, Doc's going to take those stones out of your bladder. When you wake up, it won't hurt when you go to the bathroom anymore."

"Really? That's all there is to it?"

"Sure. That's it. You'll be good as new. Doc won't let anything bad happen to you."

"Thanks, Sophia. I feel better now. Will you be around when I wake up?"

"Of course, it's my job. I'll be right here the whole time."

"Great. See you when I wake up."

Molly came and took Boots to the pre-op room to get him ready for surgery. Before long, he would be sound asleep. He wasn't going to feel a thing.

I wandered around for a few minutes, avoiding Doc, until Boots was asleep and ready for surgery. I wanted to check out the surgery room before they brought Boots in. Doc doesn't allow me in the surgery room, but sometimes I manage to sneak in there when she isn't looking. I silently crept through the door and scouted out the situation. Everything was set. The surgical instruments were laid out on the table and the anesthetic machine was hooked up and ready to go. Everything looked good, but I had a funny feeling. Something didn't seem right. I looked around some more to try and figure out the problem. The gloves. That was it. There was something wrong with the surgical gloves.

I jumped up on the table where the gloves were lying, ready for Doc to put on her hands. They were sterile which meant they didn't have any germs on them. Doc would scrub the germs off her hands in the special sink with the special soap. Then she would put on a sterile surgery gown, and then the sterile gloves. This way, no germs would get into the surgical incision, contaminating it. If a surgical incision gets contaminated, it can cause an infection and sometimes the patient can die from that infection. It is very important to keep everything in the surgery room sterile. That's why Doc wouldn't allow me in here. She thinks I have germs and will contaminate things. Doc should know by now that cats are the cleanest animals in the world, and we don't have germs. I've tried to tell her this, but she refuses to listen.

There was something wrong with these gloves. They were contaminated. Germs are too small for you to see without a microscope, so I couldn't actually see the germs. I just knew they were there. Don't ask me how. I just know things sometimes. I know the kind of things that a cat really shouldn't know, not even one as beautiful and as intelligent as me. There was definitely something wrong with these gloves. If Doc uses them for this surgery, Boots could die. I promised him we wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. I had to figure out a way to stop Doc from using those gloves.

The door opened and in walked Molly with a sleeping Boots. She put him on the table and fixed the anesthetic machine so that he would be breathing the anesthetic gas the entire time. This would keep him asleep until after surgery. She didn't immediately see me on the table, so I had a few minutes to think. How was I going to tell Doc about the gloves?

"Sophia," yelled Doc, as she came through the door. Her hands were wet from where she had scrubbed them and she was headed straight for me. I was sitting on the table where the gloves, gown, and a sterile towel for drying her hands were located. "How did she get in here? Somebody catch her and get her out before she contaminates everything."

Chad was coming near me now. He'd catch me and put me in timeout for sure this time. I had to think fast. Just before his hands grabbed me I darted across the table, knocking over the gloves, gown, and sterile towel as I went. They fell onto the floor and were immediately contaminated. Surgery stuff can't touch the floor. There are too many germs from your feet on the floor.

"Oh, Sophia," Doc said in a tone that was a cross between anger and frustration. "I can't believe you did that. Now we'll have to get out new gloves and everything. Somebody please get her out of here and put her in timeout."

Chad chased me around a bit before I let him catch me. As we were headed out the door, Molly reached down and picked up the gloves.

"Hey, Doc. These gloves have a hole in them. It looks like they were already contaminated before Sophia knocked them off."

"Really, I wonder how that happened?" Doc asked. "Let me see the package they came in."

She studied the package for a while and sighed. "This package was damaged before it was opened. It looks like something punched a hole in the package and contaminated the gloves on the inside. It's a really small hole and hard to see, but it certainly got germs on these gloves. If I'd used these gloves on this surgery, Boots would have surely gotten an infection."

Doc walked over to where Chad stood holding me. "Sophia, how did you know about these gloves? Cats aren't supposed to know this stuff."

I reached up and put my paw on her eye. She looked at me for a minute and then realized what I was trying to tell her.

"Mary, call Justin's mom," Doc yelled as she ran toward the front of the clinic. "There's something wrong with Justin's eyes."

Two weeks later Boots came in to have his stitches out. "Thanks, Sophia," he said. "You were right, surgery was a breeze. I don't remember a thing and it no longer hurts when I go to the bathroom. Thank you for helping me not be scared."

"No problem Boots. I told you Doc was a good surgeon." Boots didn't need to know about the gloves. Everything worked out just fine.

Just then Justin came through the door. He was wearing his new glasses and looked very handsome in them.

"Hey, Sophia. How do you like my new glasses? I can see so much better now, and I'm not behind in school anymore. Thank you for telling everybody about my eyes."

You're welcome, Justin. I was just doing my job.

The End

Copyright © 2003 Louise Wilkinson

Louise Wilkinson is a veterinarian who grew up in Mississippi and lives with a houseful of animals. She can be reached at louisewilkinson5@aol.com.

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