The softest kitty cat in the world
Stinker left us this morning at approximately 10:45 a.m. Letting her go was one of the hardest things we've had to do. But her quality of life had been diminishing and we couldn't let her suffer anymore. I'd like to reminisce about her life with us.
I found Stinker under the table of the Humane Society's tent, stashed in a cat carrier, during Doo Dah Day in 1992. She was a tiny kitten with a runny nose. I somehow knew that I was the one for her - the one person who would take care of her no matter what. I also knew that Pete would object. But with assurances from Leslie that Pete would accept her, I adopted this little black and white kitty and took her immediately to the vet. I remember that Alan informed Pete of my acquisition, who, in turn, told me that I better not bring her over to the apartment. I ignored that.
Pete tried to convince me that I (we) didn't need another cat and that I had to take her back to the Humane Society. I refused, knowing that she would not be adopted and more than likely put down. If he didn't want her, he would have to take her back. He picked her up and left the room. But he didn't leave the apartment. Instead, he played with her for a while, fell in love, and that was that - we now had a kitten.
I was overjoyed! She was the cutest little thing. But what were we going to name her? We went through several ideas - some suggestions were "lunch" or "breakfast" (which were taken from Scout's nicknames), to "Orca" because of the color pattern of her fur. We ended up settling on "Q" from both James Bond and Star Trek. However, that didn't last long. Stinker was notorious for jumping in your lap, setting off a silent one, and running away before you noticed. Alas, she became known as the little stinker and then just Stinker.
At the time, Gavin had his two dogs, Bilbo and Frodo. The three of them got along famously. They would chase each other around, first the dogs chasing her then she would chase them. One day, Pete left a can of cat food open for her while he went to work. She ate most of it in one sitting! When I found her it looked like she had swallowed a softball. She could barely touch the floor with her little legs because her stomach was so full!
When we moved in together, I brought Scout to live with us. She was living with me at my parents' when I had adopted Stinker, so they hadn't met until we took both of them up to Mentone one weekend. At first they were rivals for attention, but soon enough, Scout established herself as the queen and all was well. They had fun chasing one another, grooming each other, and got along generaly well.
When she broke her leg she was trying to sniff at some catnip on the balcony of our apartment. There she was sniffing along and decided to flop on her side to roll around in a catnip high. When she did, she flopped right over the side of the balcony, fell one story onto a tiled courtyard, and was immediately chased by a neighbor's dogs up a screen door. I was a work when I got the call. She had a pin inserted into her leg, stayed at the vet overnight and was extremely happy to see us the next day - she lept into my arms! She wore the cast for 4-6 weeks, hobbling around the apartment.
Stinker was a big talker - to the point of being nicknamed the "most annoying cat in the world." As soon as you walked in the door, she would tell you about her day. Sometimes it would take a couple of hours for her to relate everything. If she couldn't find you in the house, she would meow until you called her. When she found you she would meow differently as if to say, "Oh there you are! I'm so glad to see you! Let me tell you about my day."
If you whistled certain songs (the theme to M*A*S*H, for example) she would sing along with you.
She was also the "loudest purring kitty cat in the world" sometimes, out-purring Scout. If she was getting some excellent petting, you could hear her two rooms away!
She was very peculiar about eating. For example, she would not touch the food in her bowl until Scout had begun eating. That's because Scout would push her out of the way and growl if she got there first. I had to separate their bowls - Scout's on one side of the room, Stinker's on the other.
She liked menthol, peppermints, things like that. If you had Flexall 454 on you, she'd lick it off. Got an Altoid? She'd want one, too. How about some medicated Chapstick? Or better yet, Vicks Vapo-rub.
Her favorite toy was a toucan from K-Mart. It had rabbit fur on it and would make a warbling sound when you shook it. She would go nuts when she heard it! It was attached to a stretchy string which was tied to a plastic ring so you could hang it on something. We put it on a nail one time and she grabbed it, stretched it taut and chewed right through the string! Then she'd carry it off and skin it. No matter how many times we re-attached it to the string, she would chew it off and run away with it.
She wasn't a big fan of sleeping on the bed with us unless it was very cold. But she loved to sit in your lap. She was also a great biscuit maker.
When we got Spike, they were bosom buddies. They would have "head lickin' time" which is when they would groom each other, licking each other on the head. We would call it "stinky head time," too because of the stinky cat breath. ;)
But the best thing of all is that she had bunny fur. She was the "softest kitty cat in the world," if not the universe. And the white fur was softer than the black. Oh, she never got any petting... no siree. She wasn't spoiled rotten, or loved, or anything. ;)
She was definitely her daddy's baby. She loved Pete more than anything. She prefered to be in his lap, always wanted his attention, and slept on his side of the bed when she did get up there.
Just this year is when she began to get really sick. All her life she's had problems with her sinuses - remember, she was a kitty with a runny nose when I found her. But this problem would not go away. It was finally determined that she had a tumor in her sinuses and we could not afford to have the chemotherapy treatments done. So we decided to make her as comfortable as we could. I wish it could have been forever, but the sickness got the best of us, and in the end, she was blind and couldn't smell. It was very difficult for her to rely solely on hearing. Plus, she couldn't feel anything on the left side of her face - even the whiskers had stopped growing on that side. Eating and relieving herself were chores, and she would cry for us most of the evening because she couldn't find us. When she did, we'd pet her for a long time and she was happy, becoming the "loudest purring kitty cat in the world," again. She had ceased being the "softest kitty cat in the world" weeks ago due to the illness, but she will always be that for me.
She will be buried next to Atticus.
Goodbye Stinker. We will miss you terribly.
Stinker "Q" Haddin
1992-2005
I found Stinker under the table of the Humane Society's tent, stashed in a cat carrier, during Doo Dah Day in 1992. She was a tiny kitten with a runny nose. I somehow knew that I was the one for her - the one person who would take care of her no matter what. I also knew that Pete would object. But with assurances from Leslie that Pete would accept her, I adopted this little black and white kitty and took her immediately to the vet. I remember that Alan informed Pete of my acquisition, who, in turn, told me that I better not bring her over to the apartment. I ignored that.
Pete tried to convince me that I (we) didn't need another cat and that I had to take her back to the Humane Society. I refused, knowing that she would not be adopted and more than likely put down. If he didn't want her, he would have to take her back. He picked her up and left the room. But he didn't leave the apartment. Instead, he played with her for a while, fell in love, and that was that - we now had a kitten.
I was overjoyed! She was the cutest little thing. But what were we going to name her? We went through several ideas - some suggestions were "lunch" or "breakfast" (which were taken from Scout's nicknames), to "Orca" because of the color pattern of her fur. We ended up settling on "Q" from both James Bond and Star Trek. However, that didn't last long. Stinker was notorious for jumping in your lap, setting off a silent one, and running away before you noticed. Alas, she became known as the little stinker and then just Stinker.
At the time, Gavin had his two dogs, Bilbo and Frodo. The three of them got along famously. They would chase each other around, first the dogs chasing her then she would chase them. One day, Pete left a can of cat food open for her while he went to work. She ate most of it in one sitting! When I found her it looked like she had swallowed a softball. She could barely touch the floor with her little legs because her stomach was so full!
When we moved in together, I brought Scout to live with us. She was living with me at my parents' when I had adopted Stinker, so they hadn't met until we took both of them up to Mentone one weekend. At first they were rivals for attention, but soon enough, Scout established herself as the queen and all was well. They had fun chasing one another, grooming each other, and got along generaly well.
When she broke her leg she was trying to sniff at some catnip on the balcony of our apartment. There she was sniffing along and decided to flop on her side to roll around in a catnip high. When she did, she flopped right over the side of the balcony, fell one story onto a tiled courtyard, and was immediately chased by a neighbor's dogs up a screen door. I was a work when I got the call. She had a pin inserted into her leg, stayed at the vet overnight and was extremely happy to see us the next day - she lept into my arms! She wore the cast for 4-6 weeks, hobbling around the apartment.
Stinker was a big talker - to the point of being nicknamed the "most annoying cat in the world." As soon as you walked in the door, she would tell you about her day. Sometimes it would take a couple of hours for her to relate everything. If she couldn't find you in the house, she would meow until you called her. When she found you she would meow differently as if to say, "Oh there you are! I'm so glad to see you! Let me tell you about my day."
If you whistled certain songs (the theme to M*A*S*H, for example) she would sing along with you.
She was also the "loudest purring kitty cat in the world" sometimes, out-purring Scout. If she was getting some excellent petting, you could hear her two rooms away!
She was very peculiar about eating. For example, she would not touch the food in her bowl until Scout had begun eating. That's because Scout would push her out of the way and growl if she got there first. I had to separate their bowls - Scout's on one side of the room, Stinker's on the other.
She liked menthol, peppermints, things like that. If you had Flexall 454 on you, she'd lick it off. Got an Altoid? She'd want one, too. How about some medicated Chapstick? Or better yet, Vicks Vapo-rub.
Her favorite toy was a toucan from K-Mart. It had rabbit fur on it and would make a warbling sound when you shook it. She would go nuts when she heard it! It was attached to a stretchy string which was tied to a plastic ring so you could hang it on something. We put it on a nail one time and she grabbed it, stretched it taut and chewed right through the string! Then she'd carry it off and skin it. No matter how many times we re-attached it to the string, she would chew it off and run away with it.
She wasn't a big fan of sleeping on the bed with us unless it was very cold. But she loved to sit in your lap. She was also a great biscuit maker.
When we got Spike, they were bosom buddies. They would have "head lickin' time" which is when they would groom each other, licking each other on the head. We would call it "stinky head time," too because of the stinky cat breath. ;)
But the best thing of all is that she had bunny fur. She was the "softest kitty cat in the world," if not the universe. And the white fur was softer than the black. Oh, she never got any petting... no siree. She wasn't spoiled rotten, or loved, or anything. ;)
She was definitely her daddy's baby. She loved Pete more than anything. She prefered to be in his lap, always wanted his attention, and slept on his side of the bed when she did get up there.
Just this year is when she began to get really sick. All her life she's had problems with her sinuses - remember, she was a kitty with a runny nose when I found her. But this problem would not go away. It was finally determined that she had a tumor in her sinuses and we could not afford to have the chemotherapy treatments done. So we decided to make her as comfortable as we could. I wish it could have been forever, but the sickness got the best of us, and in the end, she was blind and couldn't smell. It was very difficult for her to rely solely on hearing. Plus, she couldn't feel anything on the left side of her face - even the whiskers had stopped growing on that side. Eating and relieving herself were chores, and she would cry for us most of the evening because she couldn't find us. When she did, we'd pet her for a long time and she was happy, becoming the "loudest purring kitty cat in the world," again. She had ceased being the "softest kitty cat in the world" weeks ago due to the illness, but she will always be that for me.
She will be buried next to Atticus.
Goodbye Stinker. We will miss you terribly.
Stinker "Q" Haddin
1992-2005
posted by Mandy @ 11:42 AM
2 Comments:
At 2:48 PM ,
Kim said...
This is a great tribute! I'm so glad I read it. I'm so sorry for you guys.
At 10:08 AM ,
Anonymous said...
I'm sorry for your loss. She was a great kitty cat.
I have two memories of Stinker that were special to me. One was the time that I decided, for some unknown reason surely unrelated to any chemical causes, to play with Stinker and Sebastian for several hours with The Bird. Sebastian got more air than Stinker, but she was just as entertaining and looked a whole lot funnier when she jumped for the bird (she looked like a furry brick with legs).
The second favorite memory I have of Stinker is the time when I was playing Sim City 2000 at the old red house and sitting in the ergonomic knee chair the wrong way (my butt was where my knees were supposed to be and my back was where my butt was supposed to be) and I was leaning back with my hands behind my head watching the little people rush around my metropolis building archologies to house my minions. I was sitting there, minding my own business, and suddenly noticed Stinker looking up at me from the floor. She regarded me peacefully, with no particular expression on her face. I regarded her peacefully, too, with no particular expression on my face. And then, for no reason whatsoever, she launched herself at my face---not with any malice, just to have a better perch...or perhaps to see what my "shocked and surprised" expression looked like. I had no time to move my head or do anything but react, and I gently swatted her back down with my right hand. Then I made up with her by petting her and explaining that she ought not go around jumping at peoples' faces without good cause. She understood, I think, because she purred happily and never did it again. I hate that no one else saw that. It was pretty dang funny. Just like that old black lady who had a dispute in Tom & Jerry's that night.
Goodbye old friend. You will be missed.
-Gavin
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