OUR STORY

In 2017, I was on a three-month work stay in Istanbul. It wasn't easy for me because hardly anyone there spoke English, and I didn't speak Turkish. One day, I heard loud meowing outside the house where I was staying. There was a small, dirty kitten trying to escape from a pack of stray dogs. I went outside and took the kitten in. It was tiny, scared, but seemed relaxed inside the house. I cleaned the kitten and bought some food. The kitten immediately snuggled up to me. Unfortunately, the homeowner didn't want a cat inside, so I had to let the kitten out. Every morning, she would come back to the house, and I would feed her regularly.

 

One day, the kitten came back injured. Her paw had been bitten by a dog. I treated her and decided it would stay inside. The homeowner disagreed, but since there were mice in the house, I told him I didn't want mice inside and if the kitten managed to catch mice over the weekend, it could stay. Finally he agreed, saying a kitten couldn't catch mice. The first night, I heard the kitten running wild around the house. Despite her injury, my little friend caught a mouse, and I recorded it on my phone as proof. That's how the kitten got to stay in the house.

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I named her Benny, initially thinking she was a boy. One of the homeowner's friends, Ben, was afraid of cats, so I decided to name her after him to help them bond. Eventually, it turned out she was a girl, so I renamed her Bennie. Nevertheless, my plan worked, and over time, Ben and my cat Bennie became friends.

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Bennie gradually grew close to my heart and after a while, I decided that I couldn't leave her in Istanbul because she probably wouldn't survive on the streets. She was smaller in size and there were many wild dogs and various sick animals in the area. But how could I take her with me to Europe? I went to a vet who had been recommended to me. The vet examined Bennie and said that in order to travel abroad, she needed all the vaccines, blood tests, and a passport. The process would take 2 months. I didn't have that much time. The vet said he could arrange everything for $200. I agreed. Bennie received all her vaccines and about 30 minutes later, a man appeared at the door of the clinic with a thick envelope. That envelope contained all the documents of another cat. Blood tests, passport, etc. I don't know exactly how it works. Bennie get all the documents and her new chip. The doctor said, your cat is now named Bow. That was the name in her passport. So, Bennie Bow!

 

Bennie flew with me to Vienna, and everything went smoothly. We spent 3 years together in Austria and were briefly in the Czech Republic. In 2020, I lost my job due to the pandemic and that was the period when I started 3D printing and often printed something for Bennie just for fun. Bennie loved these toys. Some of my friends asked if I could make such a toy for their cats too. And so my business was born.

 

Now I am in sunny California and Bennie is my daily inspiration in my work. Bennie tests every new toy herself and only the successful ones appear on my pages for my customers.