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Stinky -

“The best cat ever...”

? - 1/2/2009

Stinky has been our shelter mascot for the past several years. To the shelter staff and volunteers, he was a special cat who represented courage and determination. As a feral cat, he had taken up residence in a laundry room at a local apartment complex. Two of the maintenance staff decided to get rid of him by torturing him - including dowsing him in kerosine and burying him in the snow. Fortunately an anonymous call tipped off the police and they and our animal control staff arrived in time to save him. For a while it was touch and go but he survived. 

His torturers were taken to court by the NJ SPCA.  Murray Rothblatt was the NJ SPCA officer and it was the first abuse case that he and Katie worked together. Thanks to Murray, Katie, our town lawyer and Judge Wright, the men were found guilty. They were fined, did community service, paid medical bills and shelter expenses and one served jail time.

In the meantime, Stinky endeared himself to the shelter staff. During his treatment it was found that he was FIV positive. That and the fact he was a feral cat made it not feasible to put him up for adoption. So he became our shelter mascot along with Maggie.

In the beginning he only trusted Katie but over the years he came to trust the rest of us. For the volunteers it was a great day when Stinky allowed us to pet and hold him.

Friday evening, 1/2/2008, Stinky suffered a seizure - probably related to HIV. He died in Katie’s arms.

This has been a tough year for us - we lost Maggie earlier this year and December 22st, Murray Rothblatt left us after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. It is comforting to think that perhaps Stinky has joined his shelter buddy, Maggie and his defender, Murray.

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