15 Years of Love--A Feline Tale

stephmckenzie (62)in #animals • 8 years ago (edited)

On July 5, 2017, I celebrated a very special anniversary....15 years with my cat, Ellie. That's a long time for a cat. And, she's still going strong.

My Ellie is a Special Kitty

(she's in there....look closely)

Ellie is short for Eleanor Rigby, and is the second in a long line of cats in my house named after Beatle-esque things. This precious girl came into my life shortly after I moved from my native home of Florida to Albany, New York in 2002. I loved Albany (still do....it's one of my favorite vacation places), but it was a little hard getting settled in, so far from all of my family and friends.

On the pretext of getting a companion cat for our older cat, Penny (short for Penny Lane), who moved up from Florida with us, we went to the local PetsMart on July 4, 2002, about a month after we arrived in Albany, and saw this adorable blonde tabby kitten. I kind of had my eye on a tuxedo cat, but we came back the next day, when the adoption personnel were there, and adopted the blonde.

I fell in love.

She was a trickster from the beginning, and loved to tear up paper towels and toilet paper, as well as block doors so Penny couldn't get by her. She had a ton of energy, and was constantly playing and getting up to shenanigans she wasn't supposed to.

She wasn't very bright, either. Whereas Penny was highly intelligent, and seemed to be trying her best to evolve into a human, Ellie sometimes didn't seem as smart as your average dormouse. She licked a lightbulb once, when it was turned on, and then went back and did it again a week or so later, learning nothing the first time, and leaving her with a front whisker that was curled for months afterward.

To this day, she is the only cat I've ever had who never learned her name. She still doesn't know it and won't answer to it.

(Ellie on left at nine months old, with Penny, age six)

What she lacks in intelligence, she more than makes up for in affection. She is one of the sweetest-natured, most cuddly, affectionate cats I know, and likes nothing more than to curl up on the lap of her favorite human (me).

Little Ellie's Big Adventures

Ellie is a frustrated outdoor cat, meaning she has always wanted to be one, but has been forced by her human captors to be an indoor one. This doesn't mean she hasn't escaped into the wild on many occasions. To this day, even in her old age, she is a flight risk....she's just easier to catch now.

This cat has fallen through loose window screens, slipped past inattentive humans standing at slightly open doorways, crawled through a hole in a screened porch, and once, even appeared to teleport outside, so great was her desire to be there.

That happened when we were living in New Hampshire. It was freezing and the ground was covered with snow from the day before. No one was going outside, and all the doors and windows were closed. Yet, I walked by the living room and she was in it, then walked back by a few minutes later, and saw her out the window in the back yard. How she got there, I have no idea. We checked for holes in the wall where she could have escaped, and found none. It seemed by sheer willpower alone, she used her cat magic to go outside.

She was usually never gone long. Most times, I caught her right away. A few times, she was gone for several hours, and all afternoon once. The longest she was ever gone was for a day and half when she was 14 years old. I'm just thankful she returned, wandering through our front yard, going toward another cat, seeming to have no intention of coming back inside. but did when I offered her cat treats. Even earlier today, she slipped out the door when it was slightly cracked, but I got her back inside not even a minute later, as she is much slower than she used to be.

Ellie and Penny--True Friendship

(Penny, age 11, and Ellie, age 5)

Ellie survived the loss of her first cat friend and companion, Penny, in 2010, an event that left her depressed for a year. I read online cats usually exhibit grief at losing a companion cat for six months at most, but Ellie took it far longer. We had some of Penny's fur we saved, and would cheer her up for brief periods by letting her sniff it.

She eventually came around, but never again chewed up paper towels or unrolled a roll of toilet paper. Instead, she became the senior kitty in the house to younger arrivals, such as Abbey Road, George Harrison, Desmond and Molly Jones, and Emma (the only non-Beatle-named kitty in the house, though I did try to name her Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, but after a few weeks of this, it was obvious she was an Emma).

Ellie doesn't show much interest in any of them, except, sometimes, Abbey. They all defer to her as the granny kitty of the house. Even the ones who are bigger than her will lay down in a submissive posture before her.

Ellie--Still My Sweet Kitty After All These Years

Ellie will be 16 in October (or, possibly, January, depending on if you go by the shelter's estimated date of birth for her, or the vet's at her first visit). She still plays with toys like a kitten sometimes, but for much shorter periods of time than she used to. It's clear she has some arthritis in her legs, as she has a slight limp that you wouldn't notice unless you knew her, and has trouble getting in the litter box sometimes. She spends most of her time sleeping now.

However, when she is awake, she is looking for kitty treats, slapping down younger upstart kitties, on her favorite perch looking out the window and dreaming of being free, and cuddled up with me.

I love you, Ellie. Happy anniversary.

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