Farewell Ellie

On Saturday night, Duncan and I arrived in Perth to visit Nan, where I was greeted with the news that I had lost a dear friend.

Ellie, my 18-year-old cat in Albany who had been a part of my family for the past 13 years, was put down on Friday.

I wrote in my post My Girls from 2007 about how Ellie and her sister, Marmalade (aka Marmers) were my much loved feline friends.  Marmers was put down in January 2008, and Ellie never quite recovered from the deep depression she went into after being separated from her sister for the first time in 16 years.  She had been doing better in recent times, but her physical health had been failing for a while.

I'm sad, but not devastated as I was the one who kept telling my mum the kindest thing we could do for her was to put her to sleep.  I didn't want her to suffer.

Some of my favourite memories of Ellie were when she had to learn to use a litterbox for the first time (she spent the first five years of her life as a outside farm cat), when she and Marmers were BOTH outsmarted by a very determined and clever mouse, the way they both used to follow us when we went walking down the street, and the night she lay so close to the fire, her tail got singed.  Ellie HATED dogs, even poor Maya who tried so hard to be her friend on her first visit to Albany.  Her attempts at friendship were met with hisses and a rather miffed Maya ripped up Ellie's bed in revenge.  Then there was the time we brought Ebony down to visit, and Ellie wound back the clock and gave my poor black kitty a beating she would never forget.  Ellie gave me the cold shoulder for a couple of days after she met Ebony as if she were horrified I had 'replaced' her with that 'black thing'.  I told Ebony that Ellie had passed on, and she looked at me smugly as if to say, "Good!"

Fat cats by the fire.  Winter 1998.

My girls in their younger days when their bodies worked the way they should.  April 2004.

Ellie meeting Maya for the first time.  26th December 2008.

Moments before the big catfight!

It's quite amazing really to think that my ginger girls had been around for some of the most significant moments in my life so far.  They came to live with my family in 1997, aged five, and have been there while I started Year 9, finished school, moved to Perth, became a Christian, finished uni, started working, and got engaged.  Then Ellie was still around when I got married and moved to Buntine.  If she were human, she would have her driver's licence by now and celebrated her 18th with a big party.

In the end, Ellie became Nan's special pet.  Duncan would remark, jokingly, when we saw them both by the heater, "It's the grumpy old Nana and the grumpy old puss."

Well, I've lost my puss.  I'm not ready to lose my Nana yet.

I always count myself blessed to have had such beautiful pets.  I love my dog, but there is nothing quite like stroking a contented cat.

Goodbye Ellie.  I'm glad you're not in pain anymore.  I'll miss you!

Ellie in 1998.  She never did like having her photo taken.