senoritafish | Remembering Stimpy.

In fond memory:

Stimpson J. Cat
? 1996 - May 23, 2012

While I was at the Tuna Conference, I noticed John left me a voice mail in the morning. Not bothering to listen to it, I called as soon as I could on the morning break between talks. He was rather frantic and traumatized, and told me our neighbor found Stimpy on his front lawn before John took the kids to school. After he came home, he had to deal with him, all by himself; it was pretty gruesome. We think it might have been coyotes. John said he saw two of them running down the street the next night, and there have been several missing small animal signs in recent months.

I've lived here since I was in second grade and I don't ever recall seeing or hearing of coyotes in this neighborhood. They do occur at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve several miles away, not too great a distance for coyotes to travel, but we aren't near any of the flood control channels they usually use to move around urban areas.

Stimpy was two years older than Angus - he was getting rather creaky and I believe his kidneys may have been starting to fail, as he had been losing weight and starting to drink a lot of water. We knew he wasn't going to last too much longer. But we didn't want him to go like this. From the state of him though, John thinks it was quick, and he probably didn't feel anything.

With buddy Bob.

He was the first kitten John and I got together, sort of our firstborn. John picked out a tiny smoke tabby kitten with a big voice from the adoption people at Petsmart, and when he slept on our bed those first few nights, John kept waking up in a panic thinking he'd rolled over and squished him. We named him after the nearly-unrecognizable-as-a-cat character from the cartoon- Space Madness was one of our favorites at the time. Our older cat, Bob, at first tolerated, then got to be friends with him, although he always made sure Stimpy knew his place. John decided Bob was definitely the top cat of our four, but Stimpy was his enforcer. And while Bob was mine, Stimpy was always more John's cat.

I'm not deaf, I'm ignoring you.

When he was outside, he liked to pretend he was feral, except for John. He got in a some trouble over the years - somehow his tail got injured and had to be amputated, so people often thought he was a Manx. A number of years later, I thought he had an abscess, but it turned out to be a severe laceration on his rear leg, and the vet found some of his paw pads were almost worn off. She thought he might have been hit by a car and dragged. He recovered well from both though.

Pensive.

After Bob passed away about eight years ago, Stimpy became the top cat. But I think he missed him. He still liked to act wild, but occasionally he wanted attention, and would climb in my lap and want petting. In the winter especially, he'd seek out my father and sit with him watching TV or on his bed with him after everyone else had gotten up for the day. I think he's missed my dad for the past year, too. Sometimes, he'd sit in the bedroom doorway for long periods as if waiting for him.

Waiting for Dad.

In the last few months, it seemed he was having problems thermoregulating; he was always cold, and always wanting to get in someone's lap - kind of uncharacteristic of him. He'd become very demanding at 3 o'clock in the morning wanting to go out or get a drink of water because his bowl was empty; he communicated that by jumping in the tub first, to see if it might be dripping. He had a very Siamese voice and was difficult to ignore. I didn't mind though.

Last pic -Taken by Angus during the recent eclipse.

That evening after John phoned me, the conference center had a fresh tuna barbecue for dinner. I saved a bite of mine for Stimpy and left it under a small tree down by the lake's edge. And poured a little Captain Morgan on it for my own benefit. While most of what he got was canned, he did love some tuna.