Photo Roulette Friday!

When visiting Candace's blog today, I found this new Friday Photo Roulette meme, which she had participated in and linked to, so thought I would join in, too!!

You will find the Photo Roulette Friday meme at Cara's blog, Mischiefs and Laughs.

Here are the guidelines:
- Please be random! It's really OK to post a not-so-wonderful photo.
- You are more than welcome to edit your photo if you wish.
- Please include my button in your post, so people can find this bloghop and link up.
- You have until Tuesday night to enter.



My photos are not nearly as organized as Cara's....into folders, by year....oh, but I wish they were! Sooooo, I just counted to the 8th photo in my pictures ANDDDDD.....


Here she is! Our adorable Ellie, the kitty of the house! :-)

When Ed, my dear hubs, retired, he decided that he would like to have a house cat.

Really? Wow.

So, we were listening to our local radio station's Swap and Shop program one morning, where you call in and tell what you have for sale or to swap or listen to hear what others have for sale or trade.

Well, someone had free kittens to give away. So, he got the phone number, called and in just a couple of hours, after we had gone by the world's largest retailer and gotten the needed items, we had us a house kitty. She was soooo adorable!!

Daniel named her Eleanor Diane Cavinee. He got the name Eleanor from the silver car named Eleanor in "Gone In Sixty Seconds". :-) We shortened it to Ellie, and that is what she has been ever since.

Well, actually, we call her alot of things: Elzie, Els, Elzo, Furrball, Hairball, Hey-you-dumb-cat, Pretty Girl, Ellie Mae....and, amazingly, she seems to respond to all of them. :-) Well, sometimes. It depends on her mood. You know the mood. Remember....she's a cat. 'Nuff said.

A short while after she had come to live with us, we noticed that Ellie was grooming excessively, to the point of pulling the hair off her belly and down the backs of her legs and in patches off her back. We had no idea what was going on, so we took her to the vet...."Here we go", I heard the hubs say more than once.....only to find out that she was allergic to fleas and before we had put Frontline on her, she must have contracted one, so we laid down $100.00 to get her all better and eventually he hair grew back, thankfully.

Trust me, we keep current on the Frontline.

Next, were the claws. Owwweeeeeeeee. I mean, I appreciate the fact that she expresses her affection through "kneading" her little paws on my legs or stomach but those little daggers would pierce into my skin with each press. Soooo, it was off to the vet again to have those babies ripped out removed.
Aaahhhhh....that is much better. Knead on, dear Ellie.

Oh, but we're not done yet. Oh, no. We had to make sure this little kitty wasn't going to be multiplying her kind any time soon, so it was off to the local Rescue Shelter Spay and Neuter Clinic. For $25 we had THAT all taken care of! :-)

AND just when we think we have her all taken care of, she starts pulling her hair out again!

So, we are off to the vet with her again, only to find out that it is not a flea allergy causing her to pull her hair out this time. They don't know why she is pulling her hair but give her a steroid shot just in case something's wrong that steroids might fix.

After researching "hair-pulling in cats" on the internet and going to several message boards, I discovered that some cats do this when they are stressed. Some cats do this for unknown reasons. One gentleman says he has just learned to live with his ugly cat that has bare patches all over it, after spending $100's, if not $1000's of dollars only to NOT find out what was causing his cat to do this.

BUT, I do tend to think that Ellie's is stress-related because our son's Boxer shot through the door of our house one time and went straight for Ellie and had Ed not been right there to grab Heidi, the Boxer, she would have killed Ellie.

Ellie started pulling her hair out almost immediately and it was quite some time before she grew it all back.

ANDDDD since Ed and I went away for the weekend, two weeks ago, she has been pulling her hair out AGAIN!!! There were some pretty severe storms here while we were gone and we hadn't left her at home alone for a long time AND when we returned home, she was completely out of water AND down to crumbs in her food bowl, so I don't know how long it had been since Daniel had tended to her food and water.

Anywayyyyy....I just couldn't bear to see her pulling out any more hair, so one afternoon this week, when I was resting while Jaylon napped....she always jumps up on the bed with me....I laid my hand on her back and just prayed for her, asking the Lord to heal whatever is wrong with her..... AND I haven't seen her pulling any hair out since!!! AND I haven't had to sweep up any stray clumps of hair on her favorite rug or other places that she likes to lay!!!

He said that we could cast ALL of our care upon Him!

Soooo, I am trusting and believing that she is over the worst!!

I know there are those who will say that she is just a cat, but she is OUR kitty and we love her. She is part of our family and I take care of her daily and love her so much. AND I love her even if she does have ugly bare patches on her back but I do want her to be well and to feel good.

The above picture was taken a few years ago. I was walking through the kitchen and happened to look over and there she was just sitting up at the table like she belonged there....which she didn't!! :-) Oh, but it did make a beautiful picture of the kitty of our house....Ellie!!!! :-)