The Swimming Cat

The Botanic Hotel was one of our favourite watering holes. It was located across from the Hospital and was favoured by the nurses. Soldiers and nurses always seemed to get on well, I guess because we had similar lifestyles, living in barracks, wearing uniforms and doing the tough and dirty jobs. The nurses liked to party as hard as the soldiers, so we got on well.

The Botanic was a lovely hotel. Very grand with ferns and a huge tropical fish tank. The publican had a cat that always sat on top of the fish tank staring down at the tropical fish. Junior decided that he would help the cat out one night.

Firstly Junior showed the cat how to catch the fish. Junior reached in and caught a fish. The cat's education appeared to be sadly lacking as it had no idea what to do with this squirming morsel in front of it. So Junior took it upon himself to complete pussy's education and promptly bit the head off the fish. The cat still just sat and stared. The rest of the platoon were killing themselves laughing as the cat totally ignored Junior.

Junior then decided to move the cat's education one stage further ... he would teach the cat how to catch his own fish. Grabbing the cat by the scruff of the neck Junior dragged the cat into the tank. Junior kept hold of the cat and guided him around the tank in pursuit of the fish. The uproar caused by this last manoeuvre brought the Publican out from behind the bar. The bouncers moved in to hold Junior until the police arrived.

This called for a Platoon diversionary tactic. Cigarette lighters were applied to the curtains. The platoon retired under cover of the smoke ... this was a classic infantry manoeuvre .. fire and move. We decamped with the nurses to another of other favourite drinking holes The Napoleon.

This incident was to have further consequences for us in South Vietnam (read The First Leave) and had a sequel when we returned to Adelaide after Vietnam (read Return to The Botanic).