# Hello, from myself and my new kitten Ellie! Pictures inside :)



## Mandy and Ellie (Oct 22, 2013)

Hello, Cat Forum! My name is Mandy and I am from Southeastern Ohio. :daisyI currently reside with my boyfriend of 5 years, our new doll face Persian, Ellie, our two Fantail goldfish and our six hamsters! 

A little background on me: I'm 19 years old, and currently attending my local university to obtain my Bachelors of Science in Nursing. I hope to eventually get my Masters degree. 

Also, I'm a huge animal lover. Aside from the pets who live with me, I have two Pomeranians and a cat back at my mom's house that are our family pets. I've had two cats other than Ellie that lived/live at my mom's house currently. Sheba passed away at 17 years old in 2011. During her lifetime, my mom fed her dry Iams. She had dry skin, dry, dull fur, and Sheba suffered from many UTI's and kidney issues. She ultimately succumbed to her kidney failure. :sad: At this point, I began questioning the food.

My other cat is Cuddles, a big black cat who is currently thriving at the estimated age of 15. She was a stray that found us about 10 years ago (literally, she would open our screen door in the summer and sneak in... sometimes being mistaken for a black pillow on our beds ). My mom also fed her dry Iams. When she began exhibiting symptoms similar to Sheba, I began doing research. I then realized how awful Iams was (my mom thought it was the "best quality"), and how awful feeding dry food was. The second we started her on a wet food diet, she started thriving and has ever since!

Anyways - that's a little background on my cats. Those were the cases that prompted me to do constant research on the things I feed my pets, and what also led me to this wonderful forum! Now I'm curious about feeding a raw diet, which is something I couldn't have imagined years ago. 

We got Ellie last Monday and have absolutely fallen in love with her. She's definitely our four-legged child. Here's a few photos of her! 










































She loves belly rubs! 










Thanks for reading this super long post, hehe. I'm excited to be a member of this wonderful forum!


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## Mandy and Ellie (Oct 22, 2013)

Thanks for the warm welcome, lol.


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## feralkit (Oct 20, 2013)

Welcome! I am new and just saw this thread.
I love the photo of her sleeping. She is transformed into a different cat. Haha! Is it hard to groom the long haired cat? They are so beautiful.

I am always afraid that hamsters will bite me when I look at them in a store. I usually attempt to pick them up anyway, but scared the whole time. lol Sometimes they rear back and do that terrifying posture! Maybe they are frightened from being gawked at in the stores. Though, my brother's hamsters were friendly. 

I have too many cats, 2 betta fish, and keep many arthropoda (bugs and spiders and such).


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## Astarael (Feb 20, 2013)

Welcome to the forum! Your little girl is so cute!


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## Jetlaya67 (Sep 26, 2012)

That is probably one of the cutest kittens I have ever seen. It is like a big fluff ball with eyes!


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## Mandy and Ellie (Oct 22, 2013)

feralkit said:


> Welcome! I am new and just saw this thread.
> I love the photo of her sleeping. She is transformed into a different cat. Haha! Is it hard to groom the long haired cat? They are so beautiful.
> 
> I am always afraid that hamsters will bite me when I look at them in a store. I usually attempt to pick them up anyway, but scared the whole time. lol Sometimes they rear back and do that terrifying posture! Maybe they are frightened from being gawked at in the stores. Though, my brother's hamsters were friendly.
> ...


Thanks so much!  She's a breeze to groom right now, but when she gets older it'll be a lot longer and she'll have an undercoat, so we're brushing her everyday to prepare for it! Haha. :smile:

Yeah, I consider myself to be very comfortable around hamsters but pet store hamsters even scare me! I worked at Petsmart and the hamsters were just terrified of people. I think it was the mixture of them being shipped to us with no human contact, then being tossed into cages where it's noisy and they're always bugged. Haha poor little things! Mine are just the sweetest little things, I can play with them and hold them without an issue. They're wonderful pets! :smile:

Sounds like you have an awesome crew! I'm interested (and a bit freaked out) by the bugs you own! 



Astarael said:


> Welcome to the forum! Your little girl is so cute!


Thanks so much, Astarael! She's our little baby, she has us wrapped around her paw already! :love2



Jetlaya67 said:


> That is probably one of the cutest kittens I have ever seen. It is like a big fluff ball with eyes!


Aww, thank you so much, Jetlaya67! It's funny because her legs are so short and stocky she's pretty much all head and eyes, hehe. :love2


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## NBrazil (May 16, 2013)

Those eyes! That cuteness! Must resist... m u s t. Augh! Cannot turn away from cuteness! LOL


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## feralkit (Oct 20, 2013)

Good luck with all that hair! I am sure it will come in beautifully as she is already so stunning. 

Thanks for replying about those hamsters! I had a couple pet rats when I was young, at different times. My first rat was awesome and didn't need his cage closed. He was so smart, sweet, vocal, and potty trained. The next was very defensive and vicious, the poor thing.
I also worked for Petsmart, around 12 years ago, for only 3 months. I had experience with exotics, fish, and mammals, but never want to work in a pet store again. :-( 
Just not for me. I hated coming in to the hamster cages first thing in the morning, and doing the "count" on all the creatures, if you know what I mean. There was a nice brave girl there that would work with the hamsters. <3
I left for other reasons, although I am glad I did.

Yep, I have some bugs. I breed some mantids, darkling beetles, and roach species. I like to keep spiders too. I forgot to mention the ball python. 
I have a full house, I tell ya!

The kittens and of course my daughter are taking most of my time now. Arthropoda are low maintenance in comparison. Except for a handicapped mantis that needs to be fed by hand as her claws were damaged in a low molt. She will probably repair herself and be normal on the next.


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## cat face (Apr 4, 2013)

Awwwwww! <computer "cutness" crash>


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## Heckle& jeckle (Feb 16, 2013)

Too cute ...


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## bluemilk (Oct 3, 2005)

Welcome-Mandy AND Ellie! Seriously, she's SO cute! Kettering?


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## chuck72 (Jan 30, 2012)

Oh come on!! She is too cute!! You do realize we are going to need pictures constantly right? My wife melted when she saw your baby. We have a solid white girl ourselves. She is in complete control of the house as will Ellie be. :catsm I hope you enjoy the forums.


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## Mandy and Ellie (Oct 22, 2013)

feralkit said:


> Good luck with all that hair! I am sure it will come in beautifully as she is already so stunning.
> 
> Thanks for replying about those hamsters! I had a couple pet rats when I was young, at different times. My first rat was awesome and didn't need his cage closed. He was so smart, sweet, vocal, and potty trained. The next was very defensive and vicious, the poor thing.
> I also worked for Petsmart, around 12 years ago, for only 3 months. I had experience with exotics, fish, and mammals, but never want to work in a pet store again. :-(
> ...


Thank you so much, feralkit! 

I must say, hearing your experience working at Petsmart sounds extremely similar to mine. I was so excited to work in the Small Animal section because I was knowledgeable in almost every animal there, and especially knowledgeable in hamsters, which my manager was excited about.

However, once I realized what the work actually entailed, it made me sick and I couldn't stand waking up for work everyday. I left after 2 months of working there in the end of 2012. It just became too much, everyday was the same - picking the deads from the fish tanks, finding the deceased hamsters and other small animals, and/or treating extremely ill animals in the back and realizing that most wouldn't make it. It really dragged on my spirit. :sad: Even with me being experienced in handling, rescuing and owning hamsters, it was difficult for me to help and treat them since the hamsters had never been around human contact due to the place they source their animals. :sad: To be honest, it's almost best if you _aren't_ an animal person to work in the Small Animal section. I just took it too personally because I loved every little one.

It sounds like you do have a full house, but that's how I like mine, as well! It never gets boring, that's for sure. 

Your bugs sound fascinating - although I'm terrified of spiders! 



NBrazil said:


> Those eyes! That cuteness! Must resist... m u s t. Augh! Cannot turn away from cuteness! LOL


LOL - thank you so much, NBrazil! 



cat face said:


> Awwwwww! <computer "cutness" crash>


Hehehe, thank you so much, cat face! 




Heckle& jeckle said:


> Too cute ...
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Thank you so much, Heckle& jeckle! 



bluemilk said:


> Welcome-Mandy AND Ellie! Seriously, she's SO cute! Kettering?


Aww, thank you bluemilk! I see you're from Ohio, too!  Do you mean myself, or where we got Ellie? I'm actually living in Fairborn right now, close to Wright State! 



chuck72 said:


> Oh come on!! She is too cute!! You do realize we are going to need pictures constantly right? My wife melted when she saw your baby. We have a solid white girl ourselves. She is in complete control of the house as will Ellie be. :catsm I hope you enjoy the forums.


Hehehe, thank you so very much, chuck72!  Tell your wife I said thank you, as well! No worries - I'll be coming back with more photos and hopefully a few videos soon!  I'd love to see your girl, I bet she is gorgeous! And you bet, Ellie is already starting to run the house and she isn't even 10 weeks yet. :wink:


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Absolutely Precious!!! Cuteness overload!!


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