I know I've already talked your ears off about Ellie, but I wanted to post a final goodbye to her.
Sweet little girl...she passed on 6/29/11.
You were meant to be mine, weren't you? Everyone tells me that I attract the "trouble cats", but only because they know I will take care of them. Must be true. I went looking for you and a companion just weeks after my boy Rex passed away. The house was so empty and I was so alone. I couldn't bear to "replace" him, but I needed company.
I was looking to adopt two adult cats who needed homes and was directed to a lady who was fostering several in her home. When I walked into that room full of cats, you were high up on a perch in the corner like you were queen of the castle.
But you hopped down and walked right up to me and plopped yourself down like you wondered what I was waiting for. "Let's go!" you seemed to say impatiently.
You were a beautiful long haired dilute calico, but coming into the room I had my heart set on a brown tabby, and there was Cricket. The lady loved him and thought he was the best, so I agreed to take him and wondered which of the others would get along with him. "Ellie," she said, and so you both came home with me that night.
As soon as you entered my house, the sneezing began. Not me...you!
I called the lady and asked about it. She said she hadn't noticed it before, but with so many cats how could she have? I wondered if that's why someone had given you up, because testing at the vet showed that you were allergic to many things. Dust, feathers, wool, mice, various plants and trees and flowers, chicken, veal, beef, fish...what on earth??
And so I began giving you the pills and monthly injections and buying you the very expensive prescription cat food. You were such a good girl...never even noticed the needle when I gave you your shot.
At first, Cricket stayed up all night and was asleep when I got up in the morning, but you slept all night and got up with me, so I started calling you my "morning girl".
But then you both settled into a routine where you slept at night with me in the bed. You liked to lay up against me on my arm which I then wrapped around you, holding you close like a teddy bear. Or else you were sleeping on the pillow above my head, much like a furry winter hat.
Then in the morning sometimes you would sit on my chest and knead your paws against my neck, to which I would thank you for the "neck massage".
You were always a little more aloof than Cricket, so people tended to like him more usually, but how could they resist your beautiful face? Those big, round green eyes and that tiny nose. You were so soft and smelled so clean. And such a high pitched little meow. But make no mistake. You ruled the place. When visitor kitties (or raccoons!) looked in the patio window, you rushed them and scared them away...then usually turned on Cricket since you couldn't get the ones outside! :lol:
I'm so sorry, little girl....Ellie...Ellie Belle....Miss Ellie....that I gave up in the end.
I think you were tired tho. I think it was time to stop the tests and the fear and the pain. I know you are happy now, even tho I am so sad without you. I would so much love to hold you and feel your soft fur again. I'm so sorry that I wasn't with you, but I know Dr. Sue and Heather took good care of you. They loved you too.
It's easier every day now, but that's because your memory is fading. I hate that. The absence of you in the house weighs on me, but it hurts so much to think about you and miss you. You will always live on in my heart.
See you later,
Ellie-gator.
