Happy Tail – Stinkey
Happy Tail – Stinkey
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We adopted Stinkey in 2009 while living at Ft. Meade, MD. We fell in love with him at one of your Petco promotions.
He was a very shy rescue with an eye injury. After all the necessary paperwork was completed his foster parent brought him to our home. Since we had both a rescued Oriental Red (named Fang) and a Doberman Pincher (named Lily), the foster mom advised us to put him in a separate room for a few days to get used to the home, then slowly introduce his brother and sister to him. We weren’t too keen on that idea so we put the cat carrier on the living room floor and opened the door. Fang immediately sniffed the carrier all over and started talking to whatever was inside. Fang was quite a conversationalist by nature. Lily just sniffed and went and laid down out of the way. Well, it was only a very short time before Stinkey came out his carrier to meet Fang – it was friendship immediately and they started playing. Even Lily got in on the act until running up and down the staircase – too much for her poor legs!
Fang and Stinkey were inseparable. They ate together, played together and slept together – sometimes the 3 amigos could be found snoozing on our bed – all cuddled in together.
We lost Lily in the fall of 2011 due to cancer. We retired & took our motorhome to Florida in January of 2012. The animals had no problem adapting to travel mode. Our plans to continue traveling were stopped short when we decided we loved the warmth and no snow and the perfect home hit our radar. The “kids” loved it because they now could run in and out of the house onto/from the lanai, chase each other around the pool, and lounge in the sun all day long or sleep out there all night if they wanted too.
We continued camping during the summer months up in the Great North Woods of NH. Here, they were free to play outside, become great hunters and even take walks with us into the woods, along the stream. We lost Fang one night towards the end of the 4th year. I think one of the other campers may have taken him home with them, or he ended up trapped in a camper due to his insatiable penchant to explore everything & everywhere. Only God himself knows where he ended up but we still miss him terribly to this day.
Stinkey was noticeably sad for almost a year. He eventually began enjoying all the attention being on him and he grew more and more independent. He will now let us pick him up and cuddle him for a few moments while scratching his tummy or patting his nose & forehead. He sleeps on the bed again sometimes, but prefers the floor or couch. He is still a great hunter in the summer and a “house bunny” in Florida. He has begun, this summer, to “talk” to us like his brother did and his confidence in himself is amazing. He goes in and out of the 5th wheel at will (except at night), let’s us know beyond doubt when he thinks he deserves a “treat”, and get’s along famously with our grandson’s Pitt Bull. He is now a no nonsense hunter willing to take on whatever comes his way. Chipmunks, squirrels & birds beware! He rules the roost without a doubt.
Though he continues to have problems chewing some times and the eye that was injured as a kitten is now clouded over – he is the biggest and most loving part of our family. Thank you for the blessing of having saved him, thereby giving us the biggest blessing of comfort, humor and love on four furry feet that anyone could imagine!
I’ve attached some pics of both Fang (originally named Prince) & Stinkey (had the name of Junior when adopted- why the name changed is another story, lol).
~Edna & Jim W.