7 Questions • Sue of FirstlightPhoto

Sue is the woman behind FirstlightPhoto, headquartered in Elgin, Illinois. The dreamteam caught up to her recently, during a rare moment when she was actually standing still.

Poppy Feathers, firstlightphoto

1. Where do you live?
I live in Elgin, Illinois. It's a city 35 miles northeast of Chicago. I've been here all my life — not that it's a great place, but my family is all in the area and we have never talked much about moving. We're near the country where our horse, Herbie is. We acquired him last summer. My daughter, now a freshman, has been riding horses since she was in the third grade.

2. What are you obsessed with lately?
I guess I'd have to say my business. Last school year I got laid off, and so I started my business. (I did get recalled for this school year, though.) That camera goes with me everywhere. Sometimes I just keep it in the car. And I love the photo editing part the best. I usually do have something in mind when I take a photo, but with all the different possibilities on the computer, things can really change. I hardly ever watch TV because I'm always on the computer, working my website. That's going to have to change now: summer is here and I want to get outside.

Horses Grazing, firstlightphoto

3. Coffee, tea or both?
Coffee, definitely. I don't drink alcohol except on a holiday. I'll drink regular or decaf, I don't care, I just like the way it tastes. I could drink it all day!

Blue Ford Fairlane, firstlightphoto

4. What is your favorite thing about being on Etsy?
I'd have to say joining a team. I discovered teams last year and have loved them! I have made some e-friends on the teams and would love to sit down for that coffee with them, too! I've also made wonderful friends with some photographers from that team, too. They're a great bunch!

Care to share a photo of you when you were little?

5. And what is your least favorite thing about being on Etsy?
Hmmm. Selling fine art anywhere is a huge challenge. What sales I do have, I think are because I've worked so hard to get them. It's not Etsy's fault. I just have a medium that is hard to sell. The Etsy admin does seem to like a certain kind of photography, and that's about all they promote.

6. What are you afraid of?
Easy to answer ... spiders! Any kind, any size! Next question!


7. Who are you in love with?
I've been married for 24 years to my husband, Dave and we have one daughter, Gillian! Oh, yeah, I also have my miracle cat, T.J. (that's another story).

pets and gardens

The Tale of a Cat

by Firstlightphoto

Let me introduce you to T.J. He is my little miracle cat. I acquired him from the vet's office after I had to put another cat to sleep. He just kind of wandered into the office one day, and my vet thought of me. I took my then three year old daughter with me to check him out — and that was 12 years ago. The vet did an exam on him and gave him to me, no charge.

Therein lay the end of my free cat. That very night he was limping in pain. I took him back, they shaved a hind leg and it burst from an infection. Right away I had to give him 10 days of antibiotics. Over the course of the next few years and many vet visits for puffy paws, I found  out his little body was trying to grow back a dewclaw (he was already declawed and neutered when I got him). Surgery was needed to completely remove the dewclaw on a front paw.

A few yeara later we noticed he was losing his hair, and ended up with only his guard hairs left on him. He looked so thin now with all that hair gone that I ended up taking him to a vet dermatologist! They did skin and eyelid biopsies and found out he had got something that the vet medical book only has two lines about. They hadn't ever seen this in a cat, and only rarely in a dog. After a lot of money spent, tears and frustration we decided to put T.J. on some nasty autoimmune medicine.

Hallelujah ... T.J.'s hair ultimately grew back. They wanted me to take him back occasionally for bloodwork to make sure he's okay.

Last summer, the bloodwork didn't look good. So they wanted me to take T.J. off the medication to see if that's what was causing his red and white counts to be low. I was told he either has feline leukemia or bone marrow cancer. By this point he was doing nothing but sleeping — ALL the time, and in unusual places. Needless to say I spent three days crying. I called the vet and asked her if it was okay to put him back on the medicine and shegave  me the okay.

HE IMPROVED! And improved. They didn't, and don''t understand it at all, and neither do I. But I just took T.J. back to the vet a couple weeks ago, and his bloodwork still pretty much looked the same with a bit of improvement in his anemia. So I consider T.J. my little miracle cat. I treasure his time with me every day. He does have his bad days, but so far he always gets better.

And I just love all the bad and naughty things he does. Because to me that just means he's feeling good. Now, don't get me wrong: I don't like to find him sleeping on my dining room table. But now instead of getting mad at him, I just remove him.

One of the photos I have in my shop is T.J. It's called "Keeping Watch." It was taken in my upstairs bedroom window. When I'm up there he likes to sit on the hope chest and look out the window. He sleeps next to me at night curled up under the covers. He pesters us at 5:30 in the morning for his moist food (where I hide his medicine). He has a fetish for plastic. He pretends to eat it and makes weird chewing noises making us think he's eating it, but he's not getting anything off. Plastic grocery bags are his favorite. He likes donuts (we'll give him a couple little pieces if we have one). He sits in the chair next to me at dinner and patiently waits for tiny meat offerings. He's sitting in the window next to me as I'm writing this right now.

I love my little miracle cat, T.J. and I cherish every day he's with me.