Have no fear, Miss Ellie is here!

Jezibel and the three kittens who stayed with us
Lexi, Grady and Ellie 3 months old

This afternoon I was sitting in the livingroom reading a magazine. The house was quiet, I had the radio playing low. Then I heard Ellie coughing and gagging upstairs. I went up to check on her. About an hour earlier we had given her one of her asthma pills. She had been wheezing really loud. The pill was starting to break up the congestion in her chest and it always sounds like she’s going to drown in the run off down her throat.

I brought her downstairs with me and held her on my lap. Sitting there, petting and soothing her, I thought of how we had taken care of her when she was born. She was the smallest of the kittens that Jezibel had, but she was the feistiest. Just plain fearless.

Ellie with Chelsi at 5 weeks old

When we were bottle feeding the kittens, Ellie was always a ravenous drinker. She would suck from the bottle, her little eyes would water and her ears moved back and forth with each swallow. Just watching her, you knew she was just loving that milk.

When Ellie was five or six weeks old, we made a pen in the family room for the kittens so anyone who came over to look at them would be able to see them in the open. Ellie was the first of the kittens to climb the fence and escape. She struggled all the way to the top, went over and dropped to the floor. She had set her sights on Charlie and ran across the room to where he was sitting on the couch. Of course, it wasn’t long before the others learned the trick of climbing the fence and then none of them stayed in one area.

Ellie at 8 weeks old

Ellie also used to be close to her mother, Jezibel. They would sleep together and wash each other. Then when Ellie got older, Jezibel no longer wanted to be near her and they drifted apart.

Ellie’s back legs started getting weak a few years ago and she is wobbly now. Even so, she is still fearless. She doesn’t like Jason (or any of the other cats for that matter). She used to stay in Charlie’s office with him, but then decided that she wanted to be in the middle room which has the day bed. There’s a set of steps so she can climb up to the bed if she wants to.

Jason and Kaci like to come in that room and sit in the cat tree to look out the window. I was in there putting some blankets in the closet the other day. I heard a scuffle behind me. I turned around in time to see Ellie “running” down the steps from the bed and “rushing” at Jason. Ellie loses her balance when she tries to run fast and she’s unsteady, but she does move. It always seems to take Jason by surprise when Ellie confronts him. He’s always the loser. I have to give him credit, he does not fight back. He somehow knows that he will lose against Ellie. We rush to break it up when we hear the loud growls. Usually we find Ellie with Jason backed into a corner or up against a wall. She is all puffed up and about to attack. Jason is wide-eyed and hoping someone will come and rescue him from her.

Since Ellie has asthma, we try to keep her from getting too stressed out. We used to allow her to have the run of the upstairs rooms, but she got to where she would sit just inside one of the rooms and wait for Jason to come upstairs. Then she would attack him. Charlie refers to her as “building her spider web” near the door like a black widow spider. Now we put a gate up and keep her in one of the rooms. The other cats usually don’t bother her either.

For awhile she ignored Jonesie, but he’s no longer safe from her. She’s attacked him a couple of times. He doesn’t know what to do since he’s so young. But, our biggest worry is that Ellie will have an asthma attack from all of the activity. Jonesie forgets about it pretty quick and is on to something else.

Ellie is breathing pretty easy now and will probably sleep well tonight. She was 11 years old last month. When we hear her gasping and wheezing we know that each time she goes through these attacks, she gets weaker. With the physical problems she has, like her weak back legs and asthma, she doesn’t let that stop her. She is still fierce and inside she is still that fearless little kitten we remember.

Ellie

More later..........