OK, here’s part one of a story for all you out there with a question at the end maybe you guys could help with or opinions on. Thanks for reading! Keep reading part two to see the question and the rest of the story!
When I was nine-and-a-half, ten years old, and in the third grade in the spring of “93” is when I got my first real cat, Ellie May. We got her from someone we knew of at the time—their cat had a litter of kitties and I got one of them. My Ellie was black all over, white tummy, four white paws, and white whiskers—the purrrrrrrrfect tuxedo-looking kitty! I was the happiest little girl in the whole world at the time cause I had a little kitty all to myself. My mom and dad chose to name her Ellie May after Ellie May Clampett from the Hillbillies! They asked how I would like the name and I said, “OMG! I love it! I think my new kitty will love it as well.”
The day I brought her home, I put her in the kitchen and used the string from the little yellow yo-yo I had for her to play with. She tried to bat at it as best her kitty self could. I was laughing and all smiles because I had a kitty all to myself. My mom asked me how I liked my new kitty and I was like, “I love her, Mommy! She’s great!”
The next day I went to school and was like, “I got a kitty, I got a kitty, I got a kitty, I got a kitty …” and my teacher was like, “Wow, you got a kitty—how nice! What does she look like?” So I told her all about my new kitty. Then I found out from her vet (her vet is my cousin on my dad’s side. My cousin’s mother has a brother who is my grandpa. Also, my grandpa has another brother) that she was pure-bred American short-hair cat (defined by pointy ears and short fur on their bodies) and that she’s very healthy. My cat never missed any vet appointments. I remember coming home from school one time and she’s lying on the kitchen rug with a purple bandage on her paw cause they had to draw blood. We gave Ellie May a heart-shaped nameplate for her collar because she was born on Valentine’s Day. How cute is that?
When Ellie May was the right age, she was neutered and de-clawed. (We didn’t want her to have her own kitties and we didn’t want her to be taring up the furniture and be giving the family scratches galore.) So fast-forward seven years later, when we find a little all black kitty on my porch in one of my dad’s work boots. My family kept hearing something meowing from the boot (it was fall when we found it). We were so worried about the kitty, we took her some dry food and water. The kitty would follow me in the yard and stuff like that. Then one night, we were taking the garage out when the same cat came up to us like “Hi there!” We got the hose and squirted her off our yard but then she comes up to us like, “What’d you do that for?”
After that, we took the kitty to our vet’s place (my cousin, who is a vet!) and he said, after giving the kitty a check up, that the kitty was a girl who was healthy, about four months old (he figured that she was born in July so we came up with the 4th of July) and an American short-hair breed (like my Ellie May). Our vet said, “I can keep her here a week to see if anybody wants it but after that, I have to, you know …” We were like, “Ok fine!” A week goes by, when we get a call from the vet, who told us, “A lady came in wanting the kitten but then brought her back because she changed her mind.” He said to us that we’d have to take the cat or he’d ... you know.... So my parents were like, “Do we want another cat? We have Ellie May; will it get along with her?” So in the end we got the cat and named her Midnite or “Middy” for short sometimes! And we got her a star-shaped nameplate for her collar because she was born on the 4th of July and she will be eleven years old on the July 4, 2011. Also, when Midnite was at the right age, she was neutered and de-clawed too. (Again, we didn’t want her to have her own kitties and we didn’t want her to be tearing up the furniture and giving the family scratches galore.) She’s a great cat. Ellie May didn’t like her (like she would hiss at her when she got to close to her stuff like that) but Midnite loved her.
