A Couple and A Couple of Cats: The story of Ellie

We’ve added another (furry) member to the family. Here is Ellie’s story.

Kittens!

Rose actually rescued Ellie the day she was born. Her mom is a street cat, and had just had her litter in a field near our house. We had been feeding the Mom for a few weeks and knew she was quite pregnant. She was also severely malnourished and VERY grungy (runny eyes and nose, fur hadn’t been cleaned in weeks). But she liked us! She’d come sprinting out of whatever gutter she was hiding when we came around her part of the neighborhood shaking the food bowl.

Anyway, while I was out on a hike with a friend, Rose was making her cat-feeding rounds. The Mama came running up to Rose mewing and acting distressed. Rose, quick on the uptake, realized she’d given birth. She heard a squeaking and found newborn kittens strewn all about the field. Rose rushed home to grab some Tupperware and returned to begin quickly searching for all the baby kittens. She found four in total, tossed them into the Tupperware, and dropped them off at home. Then Rose returned for the Mama.

We set up a cage for the Mama and her litter on our back porch and gave them some food. We took care of them during the spring and summer.

Two of the kittens died really early. Mom was pretty unhealthy at first. She was super skinny and (for lack of a more kind word) filthy. We’re told that we are lucky that two of the litter survived. We buried the two babies that didn’t make it under olive trees near our home.

The two surviving kittens were inseparable. At first they didn’t do much but sleep on one another.

Then they started to clean each other and play. We named the boy Marvin and the girl Elenor (Ellie for short).

Mama, Marvin, and Ellie Come Inside

We got Mama some shots and other medicine and she started cleaning herself. We gave her a ton of high quality food and she started putting on weight – even while she was nursing! As she started trusting us more and looking a little less gross, we let her come inside on occasion. Mostly to let the kittens explore.

We introduced the kittens to Goldie and they all got along pretty well!

As the spring turned into summer and the kittens grew, we started thinking about what to do with them. We decided to try to adopt them out. We do not want three cats (too many!! 🙂 ) and we did not want to separate Marvin and Ellie.

We plastered posters all over town and told all of our friends.

We had no takers. There are a lot of street cats in Greece, and (it seems) all the people who want a cat already have one (or two, or three).

Everyone continued to get more and more comfortable in the house.

Into the Fall

Towards the end of the summer, we had some travel planned and were away for two months. A heroic young neighbor (with some support of our other friends in town) kept everyone alive, well fed, and loved.

We came back at the end of September and found that the kittens had grown up! They had personalities.

Ellie was a snuggle machine. When she was not doing (play) battle with Marve, she would be nuzzling and snuggling with Rose, Goldie, or me. When Rose and I watched Netflix at night, Ellie would be on our laps, or sleeping between us. While Marve was outside exploring, Goldie and Ellie would hang out together.

Marvin would follow Goldie everywhere. If Goldie went to get some food, Marve would come and bump Goldie off the food. If Goldie went to another food bowl, Marve would abandon the first bowl and stick his head in Goldie’s 2nd food bowl. This would continue and Goldie would not be able to get any food until we put Marve in a different room. Goldie was getting stressed out and was starting to not be nice to either kitten.

Marve Leaves, Ellie is Adopted

After a few weeks of us being back, we heard that a family member of our good friend here in town (Olympia) was looking for some cats to help out on his farm. He (Ilias), promised that the cats would be well fed and taken care of. We had grown quite attached to Ellie, but knew that we could not keep Marvin or Mama long term.

Despite his harassment of Goldie, Marvin and I had bonded quite a bit. He too loved to snuggle and it was very entertaining to watch him and Ellie play around the house. I was VERY sad that the time had come to give him away.

Now it’s down to two cats (the max we can reasonably travel with). Ellie and Goldie. Ellie has adjusted well after the departure of her brother. She and Goldie play each morning. Goldie has been able to relax now that she can eat in peace again and has really accepted Ellie. We often find them cuddling together and Ellie loves nuzzling Goldie.

So I guess now, we are A Couple and A Couple of Cats!