As anyone that knows me is already aware, Ellie is my fur baby. She is also an absolute gremlin child. I have so many funny stories and pictures from the 8 years I've had her. To know Ellie, I guess you have to know how I got her.
Ellie is 9 years old. I actually moved her in with me during the Covid 19 pandemic, Labor Day weekend 2020. I got her in 2013 the summer before I moved away for college. One of my mom's coworkers at the time was married to a youth minister. I went to deposit some money into my account and she invited me to one of his ministries. I felt obligated to go, and I made one of my best friends go with me. When we arrived, they had this super cute and cuddly little white cat. She had to be no more than a year old. She let me pick her up, and nuzzled me affectionately. I jokingly told the minister and his wife that I was going to steal their cat. They then told me they were trying to rehome her because their youngest son was allergic. Of course, I had to take her home. I called both of my parents numerous times, and I even called my brother several times. No one answered their phone, so I made the executive decision that we were getting a cat. They were shocked, to say the least. Because my dad's allergic, she was forced to be an outdoor cat. If it were up to me, she would've slept in my bed every night. Unfortunately, I couldn't take her when I went to college because my dorm didn't allow cats. I couldn't take her to my first apartment because I couldn't afford the pet deposit. I couldn't when I moved in with my boyfriend and his mom because of their dog. Their dog passed in August of 2020 and I saw my chance. I petitioned with his mom, and she gave me the green light. It was has been the best having her finally living with me again. She is thoroughly enjoying indoor living and is thriving
Because Ellie now lives indoors, I have to manually clip her nails or take her to the groomer. Because I would feel bad subjecting some poor groomer to the rage contained in her little body, I decided to clip them myself. Because I would prefer my skin to stay attached to my body, I knew I had to take protective measures. I tried to find some old-school welding gloves, but apparently, Lowe's doesn't sell those. I tried to use Frankie's mechanic gloves, but they were too big for my hands and I couldn't grip well with them. Unfortunately, I inherited my mom's bony fingers so most work gloves don't fit me, so we really had to think outside of the box. I went to Amazon and inspiration struck, "Do they make grooming harnesses?" Yes, they do. Cats are roughly the size of a small dog if anyone is wondering. I ordered one and with expedited shipping, it got here the next day. Before you see the picture, I should warn you to make sure you aren't drinking anything because I can promise you'll get a good laugh at her.
As you can see, she was upsetti spaghetti with me. It was a struggle to even get her in the harness. I had to fight with her for a good 10 minutes. You can see the homicidal intent in her eyes. Of course, Frankie and I got a good laugh at her because how could we not? Look at her face! This was also taken after I had finished trimming her nails with her grumbling and struggling for 15 minutes. Ellie absolutely hates having her feet touched (so much so that I've been attacked for accidentally touching them before). As you can see, she was quite mad I kept touching them intentionally. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my Ellie stories.
For whatever reason, Ellie loves getting in our bathtub after we take a shower. One night she kept jumping in and out of the tub. She even got her claws stuck in the shower curtain. She was on full tilt that night and was driving me nuts. Eventually, when Frankie came to bed, I heard her get in the tub AGAIN for like the eighth time that night. I told Frankie, "Go get your daughter" to which he said, "Oh, I'll get her alright." He then went into the bathroom and turned on the water faucet in the tub. She busted out of the tub and the bathroom so fast that I swear she left a dust trail.
Please disregard the dirty tub. She will literally just sit in the tub! I don't know why she enjoys it so much, but she does.
She also loves my heating pad (well, I guess it's technically her's now). I used to run a small space heater in our bedroom because Frankie keeps the house like a damn icebox and I would get cold during the day. However, eventually, it would get too warm, and I would have to turn off the heater. Ellie loved sleeping in front of the space heater. I could tell she missed it when I moved it to my office, so I gave her my heating pad instead. She can stay nice and toasty without me boiling alive. That's become her absolute favorite napping spot. She will literally sleep there all day while I'm at work, and sometimes she'll sleep there at night instead of cuddling with me.
Normally, she sleeps all cuddled up. Frankie and I call it her being a cinnamon roll. However, when she sleeps on the heating pad, she just falls out. She will completely sprawl out. My dad once called this sleeping position "roadkill" and it kind of stuck. Sometimes, she's so sprawled and still that she looks dead. I have to double-check to make sure she's still breathing. Additionally, whenever I walk into our bedroom and she's sleeping on her heating pad, she'll wake up and do a biiiiig stretch just to yell at me for pets. She is basically a husky trapped in a cat's body because she is very vocal and talkative. When I say she hollers at me, I mean she meows at me with her whole chest. I love her to death, but she is a bossy little MF.
When the Texas Blizzard hit in February of 2020, me, Frankie, and Ellie were stuck in the house with no power for four days. Because of this, Frankie and I had to charge our phones in the car and warm up a little while we were at it. I could not in good conscience leave Ellie in the cold house while we warmed up in the car, so she would come with us. I would load her up in her carrier and sit her in the back seat. Of course, we ended up letting her out to roam the car because it was stationary. When she was little, she loved riding in the car. Her favorite spot was the center console. Of course, when we let her out, she had to sit on the center console.
As you can see, she had to be involved in our conversation. Sorry, I look a mess. It was a long four days. As someone who grew up on the border of the Gulf Bend and Piney Woods regions of east Texas, I know how to live without power in the heat. We lost power to Katrina and Ike. Our original plan was to go stay with my parents because they have a generator, but the roads were definitely not safe enough to drive that far. I know all the protocols to stay cool with no power, but staying warm was a very different battle. Thankfully, I get blankets and candles as Christmas gifts nearly every year, so we had a bit of a stockpile. Frankie slept with at least 3 blankets every night and I slept with 6. Each night, Ellie would get under the blankets with one of us because she was so cold. We also found out that Ellie does not like snow. On the first day of the storm, we took her outside on her leash to see how she would react to the snow. We put her in the snow. She took one step, stood there for maybe 5 seconds then bolted for the backdoor, begging to be let back inside. She did not like the snow.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg with Ellie stories. I have so many more and so many pictures that will absolutely get shared in the future.
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