Fourteen years ago, I picked up a smelly, sticky, scrawny black amd
white kitten from the subway tracks, put him in my tote bag, and
brought him home.  

Mimi smelled him, and looked at me, and clearly said. "WHY did you
bring me this stinky kitten?"

I took him to the vet, and had him wormed, flea-d and snipped.  When I
came back to get him, the vet, techs and receptionist all coo'ed "We
LOVE him!  He is the sweetest little guy."

And so he was.  He was frantically energetic, raced through the house
countless times a day, tried unsuccessfuly, but indefatigably to
ingratiate himself with Mimi, was most often found on top of windows,
shelves and doors, ate like the proverbial starving Armenian, stole
food off everyone's plates,  and would fall over asleep in his tracks.
Every night, he would crawl next to me, put himself right next to my
head, and purr his little face off.  Before I knew it, he went from a
weird-looking, weird-smelling, rough-coated, kind of alien-looking
little guy, to a beautiful, soft, shiny, black and white guy-- the
white on his coat was just blinding.  We never could take flash pics
of him, the white bounces the flash right back into the camera.

But his personality was always the same.  When I first brought Mimi
home, she hid under the bed for a week.  Stinky looked around, and
said "I LOVE it!  Got anything to eat?"   I used to call Mimi the
"no-nonsense cat."  Stinky is the "All-nonsense" cat, the class clown,
a cat with a little fake arrow through his head.   Friends have said
that he "glows with amiability."  He has always been the friendliest,
most completely open, trusting, loving, happiest, cheerfullest being I
have ever known.  He has the sweetest nature and disposition of any
creature I have known.  And every year this time, I briefly reflect
that someone threw him away.  He has long ago forgotten that, of
course, and I wish I could.

I have had all these wonderful years with my dear little buddy, and
I'm grateful, but greedy.  I just want more and more.

Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com