How Did You Acqire Your Cat?

well i got my godly cats from some vet for free (but why buy a stinky in-bred cat that has hundreds of problens?)

I acquired Isis from a friend who knew I wanted to have a kitty. She brought me Isis who was the runt of the litter. She was picked on a lot so they knew she needed a home where she would be on the only kitty. Unfortunately I already had one cat (Misty) so we were concerned she would need to find another home instead. In the end it was Isis who liked to tease and torment Misty! lol Those two ended up being the best of friends. When Misty passed away my mother picked up Denali, who is a gray furball, from our Vet's office. She's prone to play with fire and eats twice her weight in food but I love her to pieces.

I got a call one night at work from my grandmother who said there was a small animal apparently trapped somewhere in her carport. She couldn't tell where, but the animal had been crying for two days and she was afraid it was going to die if not found. I came over after work. In the back corner of the carport was a tall box and inside the box was a tiny black kitten. I couldn't reach the kitty, so I got a roll of paper towels and put down in front of the kitty. Soon, the kitty caught on, and climbed onto the roll, which I then lifted out of the box. I'd called some friends to come help me get the kitty. They arrived just as I was able to get it out of the box. We all cooed over the kitty. I told my friends I would take it to the animal shelter in the morning, but my friend Tracy was insisting that I keep it. I didn't want a pet and kept refusing until I made the mistake of looking at the kitty just as it looked up at me with big puppy-dog eyes (which is really strange, since it's a cat ;)) and called me, "Mama." OK. Maybe it didn't call me "Mama," but it sure seemed like it did. From that moment on, I knew I was doomed. :P So, for the next two weeks, day and night, every two hours it was: Wake the baby, wash the baby, dry the baby, keep the baby warm, fix the baby's food, feed the baby, more food goes on the baby than in the baby so ... wash the baby, dry the baby, keep the baby warm, play with the baby, clean the baby's bed, put the baby to bed, then two hours later ... wash the baby, dry the baby, keep the baby warm .... Exactly one year to the day that I found Beastie (which is what I named the 'baby'), my friends who'd helped rescue Beastie brought me another abandoned kitten. This one they found in the woods outside their house. It was just a few days old. After first protesting and refusing to even look at the kitty (cuz I wasn't going to fall again for that "Mama" thing they do), I accidently looked into the wee face of the kitten just as it called me "Mama." :P And so, for the following two weeks, it was: wash the baby, dry the baby, keep the baby warm .... Ten years later, Beastie and Skinner are still with me, and I consider them my children. I'm just glad I don't have to wash and dry them anymore. :)

Very interesting discussion. :-) I have an odd story to share. My daughter and I went to a yard sale, a feat that rarely occurs as she is a teenager now and prefers not to "hang out" with mama on the weekends! Anyway, I located one of the big multi-family sales going on, got out and began looking around. My daughter remained in the car to contiue listening to yet another one of her favorite songs. I had just lost much weight, and was finding many excellent deals in my new size so my hands were full. A bit of time went by before I realized I had been shopping for nearly a half hour! My daughter who became impatient and curious decides to find me so she can rush me. As soon as she stepped foot out of the car, a little black kitten began following her around. Of course, I think the little fellow was actually stalking her. Of the ladies came up to me and told me that if I wanted it that she could give me supplies. I had no clue what she was talking about yet. Then my daughter approached me with cat in arms. She was the only person who had ever handled this kitty! He would scat if anyone came near him. The group of ladies all agreed that I had to take this kitty home. He had chosen my daughter. Someone had dropped off a pregnant mom a month or so earlier in their neighborhood, and no one could catch the mama. She had her babies out in the woods behind the development but would come begging for food or would get into trash to survive. She was killed by a passing car and noone could find the babies. THey had to wait until they emerged from their hiding spot, which didn't take long. In fact, the babies screaming is how one of the neighborhood children found them. At that time, there were four. THe ladies believe the kittens were old enough to wean so they set out moistened food for the babies to eat. Three of the kittens were friendly, but the only male was too skiddish for human contact. He would run if you even made eye contact with him as I was told. Anyway, we had just moved to a new home, had reently lost our two Chocolate Labs, and my hubby had already laid the law down that we would have no pets for a while. But whenever my daughter would put the kitten down on the ground, he would immediately stand on hind legs as if saying "pick me up, pick me up." I finished up shopping and was beginning to head to the car when the little black kitten came running behind us to the car like "hey wait for me!" As we began packing the car with my goodies, one of the ladies came running to the car with a litter box, litter, and a bag of food. Kind of made it hard to refuse the little fellow who was now sitting on my daughter's lap, eager to ride! That was over two years ago, and I believe this cat did choose us as his family. While he dotes on my daughter, he terrorizes me, especially since I now at home more often due to unemployment. He made a special place in my hubby's heart too. Whenver he comes in from a hard day's work, our little black roommate will walk him to the bedroom and greet him on the bed as he sits down to take his boots off. Dobby (the cat) waits for kisses from my hubby where they simply rub noses. If hubby forgets, Dobby will object loudly. :-)

About two years ago we were staying on a campsite that was run by a farmer. About a week before we left a kitten of about 8 weeks started to walk into our tent. When I say tent in this case I mean the awning that was attached to our caravan. Under that pretty big awning we stored our stuff. All we did was watch the kitten, played a bit with her and noticed that she was a stray. She came back every day so we decided to take her with us if she did not belong to anyone. Eventually she walked inside our caravan and sat down on the top of the built in couch. The farmer told us that he had never seen the cat before and he knew every cat around (in fact he kept four stray kittens in his milking shed but our kitten and his were not related) So probably someone had dumped her out of a car near that farm. So what we did the day before we left was buy a travel basket and wait for her to appear. But she did not appear till early in the evening. She was running around in the vegetable garden behind our caravan and that's where we caught her and locked her in the travel basket. She never meeowed once all the way to our home. And we never regretted our decision to adopt her. Later I heard the strangest story. Our daughter watched an animal rescue program on tv and one of the people said that he been on holiday in the same area in the same period and that he rescued and adopted a cat that looked almost exactly like ours. There's no doubt in my mind that this cat must be the sister of ours so I'm really glad they both found a good home.

Right now I have a total of five cats. Three of my cats came from my sister-in-law when she passed away (she had 10 which she rescued and I found good homes for the other 5). I originally took 5 but 2 have since had to be put down. The 2 others I picked up as strays. 1 was last May, she was hanging around my church and people were picking her up and petting her and nobody took her so we took her home. I had noticed something was wrong with her mouth so when I took her to the vet he said her jaw had been broken in half and was never fixed. If you look at her, her bottom left fang and a two of the small teeth going towards the middle juts out of her mouth. Instead of the top fang going over the bottom lip it's the other way around. I felt so bad for her but she is the most loving little girl and very smart and outgoing, it's amazing. The last one was in September, she just suddenly appeared on our block and she was following everyone up and down the block, I guess hoping someone would take her home. Well, we took her home also.

My fiancee brought her home for my birthday on October 24th.

That is the sweetest story. Its sounds like gracie has found a great home. I have a similiar story. About 5years ago a cat came to my back door and was crying she was really thin so I gave her some food. She eat it all up and just stayed around. So I continued to feed her. The weather was starting to get colder and I was getting worried about her so I started leaving her in for a little bit. She acted like she was never in a house before. Well long story short she is now part of our family. We also have 2 other cats which I got from the animal shelter when they were just kittens. They all get along fairly well. But they do have their moments.LOL

I had a boy kitty named Bogie for over 10 years. He got very sick with kidney failure and had to be put to sleep. That was one of the worst days of my life. I held him as it was done. I must have cried for my whole weekend off. About a month later, I was at Petsmart with my sister getting stuff for her dog. It was an adoption day there where a local shelter brings some cats who need adoption. My nieces convinced me to look at them while my sister was getting her stuff. This one calico kitty girl reached out of her cage and put her paw on my shoulder and left it there. I fell in love with her instantly. I called my husband and told him I was bringing her home. He wasn't convinced because he wanted a boy cat. She rode home inside my coat. It was about a 40 minute ride. The moment my husband saw her, he fell in love with her pink nose and her super long tail. We named her Maya. She sleeps with us and is a total snugglekitten. We have had her for two years.

My Max came to me through my fiancee's work. The guys found a litter of 4 babies. I ended up with Max. We discovered they were only 4 weeks old. I had to bottle feed him and wipe his little butt. Well, I have a very spoiled cat now. He still has to climb up on my chest and cuddle my neck everytime he gets the chance.

Moomin walked into my kitchen towards the end of last summer and stayed. She was obviously hungry and also starved of affection too. She hung around until my partner and I gave in and fed her a little bit of chicken and the next thing we knew she was curled up on the armchair and settled down for a sleep. She came and went as she pleased for a couple of weeks, I wasn't sure if she was a stray or not but she was always hungry and always needed a lot of fuss. Finally we decided that she obviously wasn't*owned* by anyone and we put a flea collar on her and she was ours. I can't imagine being without her now, she is such a character and always loving and affectionate.

I have three young female cats. And I just can't imagine life without them. We have adopted them all from shelters. The last one we got had a tough start in life. Someone just left her in front of a shelter on a cold December morning. What is wrong with people. So she has had her share of being sick, but she is doing so much better. And like you we can't imagine not having her around.

My brother rented a house with some roommates. There was a stay cat - apparently it was left by a former owner (sadly). They fed it, but couldn't bring it inside because the cats they already had did not get along with the stray. So, she stayed outside and was known as the house cat. She was always nearby. One day, they heard the sound of crying kittens. They went outside and looked all around, finally realizing that the sound was coming from under the porch. My brother crawled under and found kittens there. I believe there were 6, but I could be wrong. They took the kittens (and the mother, I'm not sure how it worked out) inside and cared for them. However, their lease was up and they needed to move to an apartment. The kittens were weaned, so they found homes for a few and brought the rest with them. One was a little white kitty they named Forte. He was a talkative cat, hence the name. My brother and his girlfriend planned on keeping one kitten, their roommate another. But the little white kitty needed a home, and nobody wanted him. They were debating taking him to the shelter, because they couldn't keep him (between the cats they already had, the kitten they were keeping, and the kitten the other roommate was keeping, they couldn't afford another and were already breaking their lease with 4). My partner and I visited my brother one summer. The moment I saw this little white kitty, I was smitten. He was a doll, and tolerated being held and cuddled and carried around. My brother, partner and I were going to visit my parents (we lived in Florida, my brother in Mississippi and my parents in Ohio, so this was not a trip down the road!) as planned, so off we went. I thought about that kitty the entire visit. We'd planned on going back with my brother and staying a while longer. Of course, that kitty and I were never apart the whole time! He even slept with us. And that was that. We bought a carrier, some supplies, and headed home with Forte in in backseat. And he's been with us ever since! He's 4 years old now. He's the best kitty I know.

I found one of my cats in a plant-pot when he was just a baby. Poor thing, someone had abandoned him! My other two cats I saw being born :) ...

its terue, no one ever really owns a cat. Im convinced there is an agency somewhere who sends one round to inspect a home that doesnt have a cat in it. If your home is suitable, the cat may well move in. This must not be misunderstood. The human may well think it has an exclusive relationship with its cat, but the cat knows better and will almost certainly have six or seven homes that he or she can rely upon for a place to rest or for a nice saucer of milk. I am also convinced that the cat does not consider itself owned but rather as having staff. We aquired a small meuing ball of fur who walked in one evening, curled up infront of the fire and went to sleep. We had recently lost our family cat, after 10 years and were not expecting to aquire another cat for quite a while, but guinness had other plans. He quickly made himself at home. We still dont know where he came from, he has been wiith us 3 years now, and in my estimation he has five homes. What he has done is brought out the feminine side of my husband, who happily plays with the cat and cuddles him, lol blessed be

We acquired Cleopatra from a neighbor who saved her from being a stray. We both fell in love with her, but my husband and I already had several mamma cats we had saved that we were in the process of trying to find homes for. Several days later my neighbor came and offered her to me, telling me her hubby refused to let her keep the kitten. When she was about 6 months old we found a home for her and I drove her to a home about 12 miles from us. Three days later she was sitting on our porch, so we kept her. She turned out to be pregnant, and our male cat was one of the kittens from that litter. Our third cat was given to us by a lady who saved her, her mamma and several sibling kittens from growing up wild. I couldn't imagine our lives without our cats either.

Sounds great. Everyone in my family loves animals. At one time or another, we have several dogs, cats and rabbits in our place. About our cat, the latest one is a gift from a good old friend. He goes around chasing everything that moves! He also hasa habit of sharpening his claws on the furnitures!

That is a good story! My first baby, actually my husband's baby, was born at my house to a cat I had at the time, she is 9 years old now. My baby came about after we moved from Kansas to New Mexico. I had been wanting a kitten so badly, I looked in the paper and the Humane Society no kittens. Well my husband came home one night (he's a plumber) and told me that there were 8 kittens behind a customer's house and they were strays. We jumped in the car right away and rushed over so I could pick one out. When we got there and I saw how little they were I had my doubts, they were barely old enough to walk. One of them toddered over to my feet and meowed at me. I picked it up and brought it home, I had to bottlefeed her for about 2 weeks. She is a huge cat now, she is bigger than our other cat that had her momma all her kittyhood. She is also so full of energy, she shoots around the house from couch to floor to her cat tree to the floor like a crazy cat. She also come to "make bisucts" on my arm every night before I go to sleep, I think it is because I bottlefed her. I love her so much and can't imagine not having her.

Here goes, my husband & I had already thought about a cat or dog. We came up with a cat, because we are not home much and cats need less maintenance. I was waiting on a litter and since they lived in the country and the weather was extremly hot last summer, they kept on disappering. We would wait through litter after litter. I thought about going to the Humane Society but could never schedule a time they where open and I was off work. We do business with a cab company down the street from the shop and we dropped one of the cabs off. The supervisor ask if we wanted a cat. Found out it was a female and I just said NO.

I acquired both of mine from the League for Animal Welfare. It's a no kill shelter. I originally went in for two older cats and had made numerous visits over a month to pick two out. Then the day I go in to actually get two I find that one of them had already been selected. So I picked out one that was 5 years old and then decided to go with a kitten. Kittens are just so cute and dumb when they are young. And both of mine came spayed/neutered so I don't have to worry about anymore kittens.