ClearWater-P6 English

Medicine Cat (by Joan M. Walker, adapted from "Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul)

Upon her arrival, after an exhausting five-hour trip, Mom was examined by the home health-care nurse. The nurse took me aside and asked,"How long do you think your mother has?"
"Two, maybe three months," I said.
The nurse looked at me sadly. "Adjust your thinking," he said. "She has days, maybe a week. her heart is weak and unstable."
My home, small and comfortable, was a haven to four cats and a golden retriever. The animals had the run of my house. During my parents' infrequent visits, they'd seen the cats prowl the kitchen counters, the dog snooze on the couch and knew the cats shared my bed. This made my father angry and my mother uncomfortable. i was worried my mother would be bothered by my pets.
We installed the electric hospital bed and oxygen machine, which frightened the cats from the bedroom. I'd moved their furniture, and they were peeved. The retriever, on the other hand, an immature dog with bad habits, was excited by all the changes in the house. She jumped up, barked and shed more profusely than usual.
One cat, however, seemed to adjust perfectly. Otto had been an ugly, smelly kitten adopted from the animal shelter, but he grew into a handsome cat. His short coat was white with black and tan tabby patches, accented by bold orange spots. The veterinarian decided he was a calico. "Unusual," she said, "because calicos tend to be female."
Otto was as smart as he was unusual. He had learned to retrieve paper balls, ran to the telephone when it rang and even gave useful hints about how to fix the toilet. Once when I was trying to repair the toilet, he kept reaching into the open tank, pushing on the float with his paw. Since I was not having any success with the repair, I decided he might be on to something. I went to the hardware store and bought a new float mechanism. It worked.
Otto was the cat who was not afraid of the hospital bed, the oxygen machine or the medicinal smells. Nor was he afraid of the frail woman who had scolded him down from the kitchen counter. Otto jumped onto the foot of Mom's hospital bed, and stayed.
He was not startled by the nurses. he did not interfere when Mom was fed, nor when she was transferred from bed to commode and back. Whether the disturbance was from changing her bed or because of bathing, he simply waited to resume his post. With the exception of eating and using the litter box, Otto never left Mom's room.

Answer the following questions.
1. Why was the trip an exhausting one for the writer's mother?
2. Where do you think the writer and the writer's mother had come from?
3. Who was to take care of the writer's mother?
4. What was the outlook on the writer's mother in terms of health?
5. Do you think the writer's mother would face difficulty adapting to her place of recuperation?
6. How did the writer's pets respond to the changes in the house?
7. How was Otto unusual?
8. How did Otto help in fixing the toilet?
9. How did Otto serve as a 'medicine cat'?
10. In your opinion, how did the writer feel towards Otto for being a 'medicine cat'?