Page 108 of One in Three

‘I just got home from work fifteen, maybe twenty minutes ago,’ I say. ‘Bella found him like this in the bathroom upstairs a few minutes later.’

‘He threw up this bright green stuff,’ Bella says tearfully. She hands Tamzin the old towel covered in catvomit, and I’m impressed by her quick thinking at bringing it in. ‘It smells weird. Kind of sweet.’

Tamzin sniffs it. ‘Antifreeze,’ she says grimly. ‘I’d recognise it anywhere.’

‘Antifreeze?’

‘It’s not just used to stop engines freezing,’ Tamzin says, ripping open a sterile packet containing a needle and syringe. ‘It’s also used in hydraulic brake fluids. Cats usually come into contact with it when it leaks from a car’s engine onto the ground. It tastes sweet at first, and by the time the foul aftertaste hits, it’s too late. It doesn’t take much to make them very sick.’

‘Is he going to die?’ Tolly asks, his eyes wide with fear.

‘Not if I can help it, sweetheart. Jamie!’ she cries, calling to the young veterinary assistant in the back of the surgery. ‘I need you to go and get me some vodka from the off-licence down the road. Fast as you can. The more expensive, the better. Grab some money from the petty cash box. Run!’

‘Vodka?’ I exclaim.

‘Trick I learned when I was working in Australia. If we can get pure alcohol into his blood, it’ll metabolise that instead of the antifreeze, and vodka’s the purest form we can get right now.’

‘Won’t it make him sick?’ Bella asks apprehensively.

‘It’ll give him a bit of a hangover, maybe, but that’s all,’ Tamzin says. ‘If his body is metabolising the vodka, it allows the antifreeze time to pass in a less toxic form. Give his kidneys and liver a break.’

I frown in confusion. ‘I don’t understand how he could have come into contact with antifreeze. I always park in the garage, so even if the car was leaking, Bagpuss couldn’t have got to anything on the ground.’

‘It could’ve been in something else you might never think of,’ Tamzin says, gently stroking Bagpuss’s head. ‘A lot of snow globes use it. Something like that could have smashed, and he’d have licked it up – there’s a reason cats have nine lives. They need them.’

‘Or someone did it on purpose,’ Bella interjects.

‘Who’d do that?’ I protest.

Tamzin sighs. ‘You read about it all the time. There are a lot of very sick people around.’

‘It’s that insane farmer,’ Bella says. ‘The one who wants you to sell the paddock. It’s just the kind of thing he’d do.’

Jamie reappears, panting. ‘Purest Russian vodka,’ he says, brandishing the bottle. ‘Will this be enough?’

‘Let’s hope so,’ Tamzin says.

We all crowd around anxiously as she dilutes the vodka, and sets up a drip for Bagpuss. His eyes open briefly and he looks at us with sudden lucidity. I see the weariness and pain there, and feel a flash of guilt that we’re putting our own feelings before his own. ‘Is this fair to him?’ I murmur quietly to Tamzin.

‘I’ve given him some pain relief,’ she says. ‘I promise you, I won’t let him suffer.’

Tolly lays his head on the table next to Bagpuss, tenderly stroking his ears, and my heart twists with anguish. ‘Is he going to be OK now?’

‘I’m afraid all we can do is wait,’ the vet says, gently ruffling Tolly’s hair. ‘You all did everything you could getting him to me so quickly. And well done, Bella, for bringing in the towel. We’ll get his blood tested, but I’m pretty certain it’s ethylene glycol poisoning – antifreeze.’

I have to steel myself not to cry, as I watch my two children wrap their arms protectively around their beloved cat. Despite Tamzin’s best efforts, I know the chances he’ll make it are slim.

I can’t fathom how anyone could deliberately inflict such suffering on an innocent animal. But if some sick person is deliberately going around poisoning cats with antifreeze, why on earth would they go to so much trouble as to come out here? We live at the end of a remote lane; the only person anywhere near us is Gavin, the farmer opposite me, and I don’t believe even he would be so wicked as to kill our cat. It doesn’t make any sense.

And then I suddenly remember the topaz-coloured earring sitting in my soap dish at home.

ELISE MAHONEY

PART 1 OF RECORDED INTERVIEW

Date:- 29/07/2020

Duration:- 36 Minutes

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