ELLEE & THE FAIRY GARDEN
Written by Karen Lease on 26th November 1996
The story so far: Ellee, a rescued brown Burmese, was blind as an act of cruelty by mindless young thugs. Life with Ellee was lived each day at time as a blood clot from a fractured skull could cause her death at any time.
Ellee’s road to recover had many lapses. She would forget to eat and would need to be hand feed. She would lose her orientation and fall clumsily to the ground but she never forgets her personal hygiene. I had put litter trays in every room in my house, but the only one she used was in the second bedroom in the cage that was her hospital prison for so long.
As Ellee grew stronger, her total devotion to me was remarkable. From sharing my pillow to blindly follows at my heels as I walked. My husband grew accustomed that no cuddle would ever to complete without her. Ellee was my shadow. Seemingly an animal who only existed to be with me.
She trusted no one else. A sudden movement from my husband would cause her to growl. She would blindly strike out in attack at each and every noise. Smell was her greatest sense and if it didn’t smell like me. It was to be killed. Don, our vet, said that sometimes he believed it would have been kinder for her not to have survived.
The villas where I did lived was next door to the Doll’s House, a beautiful white two storey terrace with a wonderful flower garden in the front yard. Each day as I went to work, I would tell the gardener how beautiful the flowers were especially when the roses were in bloom. As the roses began to fade on the vine, Mr. Nelson would give me one each morning.
Usually I took them to work but having time off to care Ellee, I would take them inside. As I did physio on Ellee, the rose was often at our side. Roses, Ellee and me. My husband said, if Ellee never trusted anything else, she would trust roses or the smell of roses.
One day, I asked Mr. Nelson if Ellee could visit his fairy garden filled with roses. I hope that exposure to sun and other noises would make her less dependent on me. He said he actively discouraged cats from his garden due to their destructive habits in the soil around his roses. When I explained that Ellee was blind and would only stay in my immediate presence, he relented.
What an outing! As I carried her downstairs in a protected cage, I am certain she thought she was going to be vet and cried her soft miaows in that old so worried tone. When I opened the cage in a sunny spot, she moved her paws and trapped my hand between them. The first day, we spent but 10 minutes outside. She remaining in her cage with door opened clutching my hand in her paws.
Gradually over the days, which turned into almost 3 weeks, Ellee slowly came closer to the front of the cage. I would lay rose petals at the cage opening for her to smell. The day that she decides that she would let me hold her on my lap in the sun and among the smell of the roses was one of the milestone of her recovery.
Perhaps, now in time she would learn to trust others people again. I hope maybe Mr. Nelson, the rose growing man, who generously allowed her into the fairy garden among his precious roses. For if any one deserved and needed the magic of a fairy garden, it was EL-LEE.
TO BE CONTINUED: