Enjoy the heartwarming story of Stinker Dinwoodie.  His mom was kind to allow me to publish and share it with all of you.

MY STORY by Stinker Dinwoodie and my Mom

The story is going to start at the end because I want my Mom to smile and feel good and not cry when she finishes this short story.
One day in late August 2016, I decided to go for a stroll through the woods. Mom and I live in a forest. There are all sorts of fun things to do. When I do this I usually bring Mom home a lizard, just so you know I don’t come back empty handed.

This time though I got stuck in a building for a few days (not sure where it was) and when I got out I just ran. After a couple of days I found myself at this log home. No cats around! When I went up the stairs to investigate and looked into the huge windows, I did see a cat. She told me her name was Missy and was not allowed outside. Poor thing! We chatted and then I went off to play as there are lots of buildings on the property, including one that is being built. So you can see, plenty of entertainment.

Poor Mom, I knew she was worried. I was having so much fun though and stayed around for a while longer. Missy and I were chatting one day when two people came out on the deck. Low and behold, one was GEORGE. Oh boy. He is Mom’s ex-husband and I do not like him. He was with a woman he called Joan. Guess they live there. Joan was really nice and petted me. George did too, so I put all my charm on. I am cute and very spoiled.

After a few days I decided it was time to go home. I took a short cut through one of the barns. BIG mistake. I saw two big (and I mean big) dogs. Of course I ran and so do they…after me. They were snorting too. They have such long legs they caught right up to me and one ran over me. Oh, did that hurt. I screamed in pain, which scared them so I could get away. I ran under a fence, across a small brook, through another fence and hid in the dense underbrush. It sounds like a long distance but it was not. I later found out these monsters were not dogs but llamas. (No matter what anyone says, they do chase cats!)

I don’t know how long I lay there, but it seemed like quite a while as I felt weaker and weaker. Then I heard Stephanie calling me. (She is my friend in California who talks to us when we have problems or concerns. We contact her sometimes by ourselves also.) She said Mom is desperate to find me. We talk. She calls Mom and tells her, I am alive but having trouble breathing. She explained to Mom what happened . I was crying because I knew this was breaking Mom’s heart and mine too as I would probably never see her again. Stephanie’s big concern was that no one could get me out of the place I had ended up in. I kept trying to tell where I was and she would tell Mom. When Mom was searching I could hear her but I couldn’t meow loud enough to make her hear me. They next time she came that way I could hardly hear her. I told Stephanie I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to make it home.

I spent the night talking on and off to Stephanie. Mom and two of the other cats in our house (Mango and Cooper) spent hours looking for me in the woods. I never did hear them. It makes me cry to know I will never be able to put my paws around her neck, kiss her and then tuck my head under chin. We used to sleep for hours like that, both in bed and on the couch.
The next time Stephanie spoke to Mom she said I told her my throat was swelling and I was getting cold. I am so grateful to Stephanie as she stayed with me until the end and comforted me the entire time.

THE BEGINNING: Don’t remember much about my early kittenhood, but someone cared enough to take my brother and me to Dr. Ferguson’s veterinarian office for adoption. The first thing I remember is being in a large cage with several other kittens. Lots of people came in with their animals and then left again. I found out from Morris (the counter cat) that this was a veterinarian clinic. People would look at us and watch us play. Occasionally someone would pick a kitten and take it home.

We didn’t think we would ever get adopted. Then one evening just before closing a pretty young lady with blonde hair came in and said she wanted to adopt a kitten and it would be ME. She already had a kitten who looks like by brother. THANK YOU, GOD!
Her name was Amanda. I was so excited. We left together and got into her pickup. I was very good and sat on the seat the entire way. Although, I must admit I was very nervous and had a little gas. When we got home she said she wanted to call me Stinker because I stunk the truck up the entire way home. SORRY!
So Stinker I am. And…I lived up to my name in many different ways.
This looked like a great home. There were two adult cats (Rexy and Cooper) and another kitten named Mango. He later told me he had been rescued from the highway from someone who gave him to Amanda who gave him to my Mom. As an aside, Amanda already had two young cats (Precious and Foxie).

I think Mom was a little disappointed with my coloring. She had recently lost a black and white girl kitty. But with my charm and the sparkle in my eyes as I sat upon her treadmill she was won over immediately. At that moment we belonged to each other. I loved her from the beginning. This did not sit well with Rex.

Mango and Cooper became attached to each other very quickly. Rex and I kept our distance.
She eats great food, something called Lean Cuisine. She found out quickly that I like to taste any food that is being cooked. She really doesn’t cook, just uses those microwave meals. We all know that the loud ding means food.

My first successful dip into her food was an Italian dish. YUM! She took a photo of me with sauce all over my face. YES, it is cute. After that everything had to be shared especially with me and sometimes the other cats. If she wouldn’t share with me, I just reached up and pulled her arm down so she would get the message I was there waiting. Sometimes I was not very polite about it.

I was a very good cat. Only occasionally, did I get in trouble…such as running around the house and up on the couch and then across Amanda who was in the way. She screamed at me. I was told that she was taking a test on her laptop and my toes hit a few keys when I ran across her lap. Apparently this made her fail the test. She said some things to me that were not very nice. Anyway she got it straightened out the next day and retook it without my help. That saved my skin.
At our first Christmas I was very, very good cat and stayed away from the Christmas tree. Foxie did not. She loved to climb it and never knocked it down much to my amazement.

When Mango and I got large enough, we were allowed outside. You see, there are eagles and hawks around here that like to snatch up little kittens and eat them. In order to make it easier for us to go in and out, she had a kitty window made. What fun. We could come and go as we pleased.

After we got home from getting our first yearly shots, Amanda was admiring how large my feet were getting and how pink my ears were. Before I knew it Mom grabbed me and shoved me into the cat carrier. She told me we were off to the emergency vet because I was having an allergic reaction to the shots. That was scary…after another shot though I was fine.

That winter (I was still pretty young), I caught a cold. Mom wanted to stay home with me but had to go to work. When she got home, after midnight, she called me and I crawled to her from under the bed. I could barely breathe. Once again, I got shoved into the car and we were off to the emergency vet clinic. I was really sick. They did a whole bunch of stuff to me and wouldn’t let us leave for a long, long time.

When we got home and went to bed, I laid in the crook of Mom’s left arm. I was so sick and scared. She held me every night like that until I was all better. I really love her.

As time went on we had great fun helping her outside and playing in the woods. The flowers were great places to hide and then pounce.
This is not bragging! Mom told me she loved the way I would stretch my hind legs. She said I had delicate legs. Because she liked this so much I would do it often and when I did I would wiggle my toes. One thing she could not get over was that when I drank water I had to chew it. I guess I was loud, but it made her laugh.

We had a really nice kitty window to use, but I wanted to train Mom to open the door for me. This was for both inside and outside. This is how I trained her. Sat down in front of the French doors and made a pitiful meow over and over again. Of course there had to be just the right amount of time between meows to annoy her enough. I could do this forever as Mom soon found out. When she couldn’t stand it anymore she got up and opened the door. I WON!

One of my favorite things was to climb up on her chest, put my arms around her neck, kiss her and then tuck my head under her chin. We would lie for hours like that and sometimes sleep like that. I did this when I wanted to and whenever she kissed me on the head, which told me she needed me. If it was night time, I would pull on her arm until she woke up and cuddled me. Sometimes I slept on the other pillow. The other cats knew not to interfere.

Mom did not like us to bring live animals that we caught into the house. We have all been screamed at, but still do it for fun sometimes. I liked to go up the trail in the woods and hunt for lizards. It was hard to carry them in my mouth all the way down the hill and keep them alive. But it was worth it. One time I got a very rude lizard. When I put him down, he actually charged me with his mouth open ready to bite. Imagine my surprise.

Another game we would play was to go under the couches, do our scratches, twirl around and beat the edge of the couch up. We all did this. Rex would take it a step further and wiggle his way through the interior of the couch and come out on top. Lots more stuff, but I won’t bore you.

We had a floor to ceiling cat tree that Amanda’s father made for us. It was wow! It was a real tree and where the branches came out he put carpeted seats on the end of the branches. We had it a long time, but had not been using it lately. So what does Mom do? She gives it away. Just because we weren’t using it did not mean we didn’t want it.
Whenever Mom went outside to work or read, we helped. That was a lot of fun. She took some good pictures. We even went for walks in the woods. Unfortunately the other three cats came too.

Last of all I will tell you about Rex and me. According to Mom, Rex is a gorgeous cat. He is yellow with stripes and sea glass green eyes. I loved to intimidate him, chase him around and get into a little bit of a fight. We did this a lot. Mom would get sick of it and put a stop to it by telling me to be nice. She thought I was turning my head away from Rex to be nice. Ha Ha. I was really laughing my socks off. After I left I heard that Rex went around the house screaming. My friend, Stephanie, said he missed me and wanted everyone to know it.
Mom gave me a charmed life.