In all the chaos of this past week, the one thing I didn’t get to report on was the state of Stinky the Cat’s health. We put her to sleep a couple days ago, after almost two years of health problems and more. She’s had breathing problems dating back to 2009, and got down to something like 5-6 pounds because she wasn’t eating. Her respiratory problems went away for a few months and then came back with a vengeance in the summer of 2010 and just never went away. So for the past 18 months we’ve listened to Stinky’s ragged breathing and sneezing.
Denis and I found Stinky half living on the street, half working as a mouser in the basement of a local bakery in Kew Gardens in Queens, NY soon after we moved there in 1997. We have no idea how old she really is since she was a street cat. She could be as young as 15 years old, or as old as 18. We originally named her “Alfalfa” (since we had another cat named Spanky), but she never acknowledged that name. One day Denis random called her Stinky and she turned to look at him and meowed her response. And so her name was doth given.
She was a very independent cat, very ornery. She let it be known when it was her way or the highway and definitely ruled the roost among the animals. When I became pregnant in 2003 we had a bassinet in our bedroom, which she claimed for herself.
She had very long hair and a few times in her life she had to suffer the indignity that is the “lion cut.”
She was a decent mouser and loved greeting people at the door to allow them to pet her.
When we switched vets earlier this year after getting no diagnosis from her old vet, it was determined that she had an inoperable tumor growing behind her left eye. It caused massive swelling and infections that were only mildly helped with medication. In the end, we decided a couple weeks ago that her time was nearing an end, and took her to her final vet visit on Friday.
She was a great cat, and will definitely be missed. Our menagerie is ever-shrinking and we only have Ginger the Cat, Mini the Cat and Cooper the Dog left. Cooper is the youngest, at 10 1/2 years old. So I predict we’ll be making more of these posts over the next couple of years.
In any event, Stinky will be missed greatly. She was a great cat.