Our sweet Stinky passed away 2 days ago, on Friday, June 9, 2017. Erik and I are heartbroken.
We got Stinky 18 years ago from a farm near Royalton, Minnesota. Our children were wee tots at the time and one of them decided she should be named Snowball because she was mostly white. That’s the name we used when we took her to the vet for her shots and spaying. However, we immediately started calling her Schmutz because she had this little black schmutz spot on her head. The schmutz eventually wore off, but we noticed she was periodically a smelly kitty for no apparent reason, so we began calling her Stinky and the name stuck.
She was always our sweet Stinky because she was the gentlest cat with the sweetest disposition. She was malleable, with a body that was always loose and relaxed when we picked her up. As soon as we touched her, she’d purr. She was the bedroom cat, preferring to hang out on our bed all day, particularly after we brought home Doggle Woggle. She also wasn’t much for company, which made the bedroom a perfect place to avoid visitors.
Our sweet Stinky seemed perpetually youthful, keeping her kittenish qualities most of her life. She really only started showing her age maybe a couple of years ago. Over the past year, we noticed she couldn’t hear us. Over the last half-year, she would yowl loudly at us when we came into the bedroom, when previously she’d been an almost silent meower. A couple of months ago, she kept us awake at night by running all over the bed randomly. She had trouble making it to the litterbox in the basement, so we moved it upstairs. She decreased her food intake and started losing weight. We tried feeding her smaller amounts more often and offering her whatever she was interested in on our plates. She ate less and less and we knew that soon she would leave us. We kept her comfortable and cuddled her as often as she let us, which was pretty often because she wanted to hang out with us. As she declined, she no longer cared whether Doggle Woggle was in the vicinity. In fact, she walked under him several times during her last couple of weeks and laid on the couch near him.
Our son Sebastian found Stinky dead on Friday while we were both at work. She had barely touched her food that morning and I told her she could go when she was ready. Erik had told her the same thing the previous day. We’re pretty sure she was mostly surviving on our love during her last week.
We buried our sweet Stinky in the rain garden next to our kitty Rosalyn. I planted 3 Asiatic lilies on her grave, one for each of the cats we’ve lost in the past few years, Rosalyn, Inky, and our sweet Stinky.
Bye, sweet Stinky. We miss you. 🙁
Our condolences on your loss. Purrs, Quicksilver et al