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Fifteen-year-old Taz and the “old doc” he lives with in University City.
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Local cat recalls
history in U. City
I’m a cat.
I live in the city — University City, that is. I’m a native Charlottean, like one of the humans I live with.
My queen (feline) mother lived somewhere on the UNC Charlotte campus. I was born there, class of ’92. Mom was looking for a better life one day, and she stopped by one of the few restaurants we had in the area back then. I got lost. I was found in the Hardee’s parking lot and was taken to an animal hospital up the road — the one named after a duck, of all things. And that is where my story begins.
My initial accommodations at Mallard Creek Animal Hospital on North Tryon Street were stainless steel cages lined with recycled newspapers and occasionally a monthly publication called University City Magazine … for my reading pleasure. You can learn a lot about the area in that one.
I eventually moved in with one of the vets and his family. They always seemed to smell like Noah’s Ark, because it seems they made it a habit of getting very close to their patients. They were always bringing home “critters,” as they called them.
Dr. Mark Green and his wife, Mary Ann, had been in the area since the early ’80s. One of their other pets, Back Creek Babs, a feisty old Brittany spaniel that occupied the back yard, told me that back in “the day,” living in University City was living “out in the country.” Babs used to tell me stories about chasing quail around what now is Highland Creek, as well as the farms around Harrisburg. And she told me Dr. Green used to take care of cows and pigs on the land where the YMCA is now.
A lot has changed over the years. We members of the animal kingdom used to be considered “senior” if we made it to double digits. Now, 20-year-old cats and 18-year-old dogs are the norm. A lot of that has to do with what has changed in University City.
As the farms have become neighborhoods, we cats have moved indoors and the dogs of the area have become more civilized. The nice animal doctor I live with claims that in the old days, at least one cat or dog would get hit by a car or kicked by a horse in any week and would require major surgery. Now, with leash laws and we pets assuming our rightful position as members of the family, the most significant trauma seems to be the poodle falling off the king-size bed. Stupid dog.
Geriatric issues are the cases of today. Why, I even had to have my thyroid gland radiated a couple of years ago at that feline thyroid cancer center up in Huntersville. And there’s a 24-hour emergency referral hospital for us pets now. The old doc gets to sleep at night and doesn’t have to run out to make house calls anymore.
There’s a whole bunch of vets in University City now, and you can even find doggie day care if you want. Cats now outnumber dogs as pets, because we are easier to keep. Dogs do require so much more than felines — they are so needy.
Over the last 15 or so years, I have seen other changes. We felines are now more international. At Dr. Green’s office, I now meet Maine coon cats, Norwegian Forest cats, Scottish Folds and even the occasional Bengal. And from what I see on the end of the leashes attached to those drooling dogs, the people are more diverse, too.
Speaking of international, there are a lot more businesses, stores and restaurants around now. The old doc obviously has discovered a few of those eateries. Instead of running after cows on the corner of Mallard Creek Road and Harris Boulevard, he now he runs around a track at the Y, trying to minimize what he calls “middle age spread.” He’s chasing nothing, and nothing is chasing him. Cuckoo, if you ask me.
You humans … you can be very strange, but you do seem to enjoy a nice quality of life in the city — University City that is.
Finally, whether you’re one of those native Charlotteans or you just moved here from Chicago, remember that there’s one thing that will never change around here: Dogs drool, cats rule.