Spiffy Land

Dimitri the Huge

As befits a cat, Dimitri has lived several lives. In his first incarnation, Dimi was a stray living under my father's front porch. My dad started feeding him and Dimitri stayed on, furnishing his outdoor lair with Ikea furniture and a big-screen TV. My dad repeatedly tried, and failed, to get Dimi to come into the house. I can't blame him, really; his digs were pretty cushy, and there were plenty of mice to eat, and besides, there were already a couple of dogs in the house. Dimi wasn't yet comfortable with people of the canine persuasion.

One fateful night, Dimitri got into a heated debate with a raccoon, and left one of his toes behind. The next morning, my dad followed a trail of blood to the seriously-injured Dimitri, captured him and rushed him to the vet. The vet took what was left of his toe and pronounced him an "indoor cat" from that day forward. It was the beginning of a new life for Dimitri. He learned to coexist with the dogs, but he mainly kept to himself on the third floor of my dad's home. His only true companion for the next few years was my dad.

My dad passed away in September of 2007. In the preceding weeks, he had become too weak to climb the stairs to feed and care for Dimi. I offered to adopt Dimitri and take him home with me.

Things started out a little rocky, not so much with the dogs, but with Linnie, who was not about to share her space with a new cat. She had lost her beloved Pink a few months earlier, had finished grieving (the process was real and profound), and was beginning to enjoy her status as an only cat. Little by little, though, the kitties began to bond.

Dimitri is now a fully assimilated pack-member, and a happy resident of Spiffy Land. He occupies the whole house, not just one floor. He and Linnie have occasional skirmishes, but they really just consist of a lot of noise. He has become a very playful cat, and he especially likes to tease Linnie by tapping her on the head or the tail. She hates/loves that. In his best life so far, Dimitri has become the classic, bratty little brother.