Today is my baby boy's 16th birthday. Granted, I don't know the exact day he was born, but I gave him Earth Day as his birthday when I first found him.
I was outside doing some gardening in early May and heard a kitten screaming from inside our storm cellar. I didn't know that there were any kittens about, so went inside to investigate. I saw a little hissing/spitting machine in the corner trying to hide under some crates that we had stored in there. I reached down and snatched him up, the entire time he was spitting, hissing, trying to claw me and wriggling frantically as feral kittens are known to do. I noticed that half of his tail was missing, and there was blood oozing out of the end of his tail.
I brought him inside where my DH was laying on the floor (don't ask me why he was doing that). I told him I found a kitten and decided to drop him on his chest. He immediately calmed down, curled up in a ball next to his chin and fell asleep. DH's comment was simply, "he's a keeper". They both slept like that for the next 2 hours. A vet trip later that day proved that his tail amputation was clean and we only needed to watch it.
Here he is a few weeks later - sorry not many baby pictures as these were the days before digital cameras. Stumpy still has the exact inquisitive stare 16 years later:
Stumpy idolized our alpha cat Max (a tail less Manx) when he was young. We always joked that perhaps it was because he could relate to them both being tail-impaired. When Max dialed suddenly from heart failure 18 months later, Stumpy immediately stepped into the role of alpha cat.
Stumpy has always had an attitude. When he was in his "teenage" years, he didn't accept discipline from me very well. When he did something wrong and I would wraggle my finger in his face, he would either swing at me with claws extended or try to bite my finger. I was very glad when he out grew that age.
Stumpy loves dogs and in particular loved our OTB dog Jethro. They would spend hours playing together. Even though Jethro was 90 pounds with monster snow-shoe paws, Stumpy taught him to bat like a cat. Jethro would bat at Stumpy, sometimes causing him to fly across the room, but Stumpy always came back for more, often wrapping his body around his head and rabbit kicking him. They both loved it. Oh I wish we had a video of those days!
Now he's found that our Sam (75 pounds) is a very snuggly dog. Stumpy has always been a snuggler, and I find the 2 of them curled up together all the time. I know I post this picture a lot, but it will always be one of my favorites:
The irony of Stumpy's love of dogs is that it took us about 8 years to realize that he was allergic to one of them. Stumpy started losing the hair on his torso when he was about 2 years old and stayed basically bald for 8 years. All of the skin and blood tests we ran on him turned out negative, but since he wasn't uncomfortable with it, we let it be. Within a week of losing our dog Ellie Mae, his hair grew back. Go figure!
Five years ago we noticed a severe gum inflamation. Turns out that he has an auto-immune disease where his body thought that his teeth were foreign invaders. It also turns out that the skin allergies he had for all those years were the start of the auto-immune disease that morphed into his oral problem. He's been toothless and on steroids for about 4 years now.
Stumpy is one tough cookie. When he had the first set of teeth removed, the vet explained that he would need to be put on wet food (he's a dry food junkie) as he wouldn't be able to eat dry food. While recovering from the surgery at the vet, they opened up his cage to let him wander the room. Stumpy jumped up on an exam table (he was still groggy from the meds) and pushed the vet tech aside so that he could attack the dry food bowl she was preparing for another cat. When I went to pick him up that afternoon, they told me that they finally understood what we meant when we kept telling them that Stumpy was a tough guy. That was a first for them.
Stumpy has slowed down a lot in the last year, and in particular since our other old cats have been crossing. He was always close to Bob Marley and Eightball (we suspect that Eightball was a half-brother of his), and their passing really bothered him. He spends as much time as possible in my lap, and there isn't a night that goes by without him sleeping pressed against my chest (we like to spoon together). He's gotten a little testy with some of the other cats of late (Pinky, age 11, has always and still tries to nurse from him), but I just give him extra scritches when they try to snuggle with him and he settles back down.
Stumpy is larger than life in my household and this birthday makes me pause. With all his health issues, the vet told me at his last check up that we need to prepare ourselves for his demise this year. While his health scares me sometimes, he still chases balls, still demands obedience from the dogs and cats, and still eats like a little piggy.
So this is a very special birthday for Stumpy this year. I hope that my little tough guy surprises all of us and lives another 5 years.
Here he is - in your face as he likes to be!
I was outside doing some gardening in early May and heard a kitten screaming from inside our storm cellar. I didn't know that there were any kittens about, so went inside to investigate. I saw a little hissing/spitting machine in the corner trying to hide under some crates that we had stored in there. I reached down and snatched him up, the entire time he was spitting, hissing, trying to claw me and wriggling frantically as feral kittens are known to do. I noticed that half of his tail was missing, and there was blood oozing out of the end of his tail.
I brought him inside where my DH was laying on the floor (don't ask me why he was doing that). I told him I found a kitten and decided to drop him on his chest. He immediately calmed down, curled up in a ball next to his chin and fell asleep. DH's comment was simply, "he's a keeper". They both slept like that for the next 2 hours. A vet trip later that day proved that his tail amputation was clean and we only needed to watch it.
Here he is a few weeks later - sorry not many baby pictures as these were the days before digital cameras. Stumpy still has the exact inquisitive stare 16 years later:
Stumpy idolized our alpha cat Max (a tail less Manx) when he was young. We always joked that perhaps it was because he could relate to them both being tail-impaired. When Max dialed suddenly from heart failure 18 months later, Stumpy immediately stepped into the role of alpha cat.
Stumpy has always had an attitude. When he was in his "teenage" years, he didn't accept discipline from me very well. When he did something wrong and I would wraggle my finger in his face, he would either swing at me with claws extended or try to bite my finger. I was very glad when he out grew that age.
Stumpy loves dogs and in particular loved our OTB dog Jethro. They would spend hours playing together. Even though Jethro was 90 pounds with monster snow-shoe paws, Stumpy taught him to bat like a cat. Jethro would bat at Stumpy, sometimes causing him to fly across the room, but Stumpy always came back for more, often wrapping his body around his head and rabbit kicking him. They both loved it. Oh I wish we had a video of those days!
Now he's found that our Sam (75 pounds) is a very snuggly dog. Stumpy has always been a snuggler, and I find the 2 of them curled up together all the time. I know I post this picture a lot, but it will always be one of my favorites:
The irony of Stumpy's love of dogs is that it took us about 8 years to realize that he was allergic to one of them. Stumpy started losing the hair on his torso when he was about 2 years old and stayed basically bald for 8 years. All of the skin and blood tests we ran on him turned out negative, but since he wasn't uncomfortable with it, we let it be. Within a week of losing our dog Ellie Mae, his hair grew back. Go figure!
Five years ago we noticed a severe gum inflamation. Turns out that he has an auto-immune disease where his body thought that his teeth were foreign invaders. It also turns out that the skin allergies he had for all those years were the start of the auto-immune disease that morphed into his oral problem. He's been toothless and on steroids for about 4 years now.
Stumpy is one tough cookie. When he had the first set of teeth removed, the vet explained that he would need to be put on wet food (he's a dry food junkie) as he wouldn't be able to eat dry food. While recovering from the surgery at the vet, they opened up his cage to let him wander the room. Stumpy jumped up on an exam table (he was still groggy from the meds) and pushed the vet tech aside so that he could attack the dry food bowl she was preparing for another cat. When I went to pick him up that afternoon, they told me that they finally understood what we meant when we kept telling them that Stumpy was a tough guy. That was a first for them.
Stumpy has slowed down a lot in the last year, and in particular since our other old cats have been crossing. He was always close to Bob Marley and Eightball (we suspect that Eightball was a half-brother of his), and their passing really bothered him. He spends as much time as possible in my lap, and there isn't a night that goes by without him sleeping pressed against my chest (we like to spoon together). He's gotten a little testy with some of the other cats of late (Pinky, age 11, has always and still tries to nurse from him), but I just give him extra scritches when they try to snuggle with him and he settles back down.
Stumpy is larger than life in my household and this birthday makes me pause. With all his health issues, the vet told me at his last check up that we need to prepare ourselves for his demise this year. While his health scares me sometimes, he still chases balls, still demands obedience from the dogs and cats, and still eats like a little piggy.
So this is a very special birthday for Stumpy this year. I hope that my little tough guy surprises all of us and lives another 5 years.
Here he is - in your face as he likes to be!
