How did your cats come to adopt you

2 of my kitties (Kit - a large short haired orange male and Tiger a gorgeous maine coon mix) came from my sister in law........she was not good about getting her cats fixed in time and ended up having a few "accidental" litters. Of course I fell in love and had to have a kitten each time. One of them was very sick and I almost lost him as a kitten. He is very close to me now because of all that he went through I think.

Guppy, a quiet black/white tuxedo cat (male) was given to my husband by his sister-in-law as a Christmas Present. He was one crazy kitten! Literally.......he would hang off the little window at the top of the door and scream at the top of his lungs because he wanted out! He may have been given to my husband, but he is definitely "my boy" LOL. He curls up with me all the time and sleeps right next to me at night.

And last but not least is Baby. She has an actual story to go with her. She is a cat with bit of a cat-itude lol. My husband and I would visit a friend that lived near a rooming house. Well, one day we noticed this little kitten roaming around outside. Very friendly- loved everyone. Over the course of a month we watched her and my friend kept an eye on her. She was living under the dumpster and picking through it for food. It turns out someone in the rooming house left her to fend for herself. We were over my friends one day when someone tried to take her, we yelled out that she was ours to please put her down. They said they would drive her over to us......we said NO PUT HER DOWN! So the lady quickly put her down and peeled out. It was decided right then that she would be coming home with us. So we took her home. She sat on my lap purring the entire way.......looking out the window very curious. She is a very curious kitty always has to be involved whether its helping my husband use his tools or help me read my book lol. But dont irritate her, she'll smack you in the face with her "mittens". She has an extra toe.......so I guess she's polydactyl. Sometimes she'll even spray you with her anal glands if you make her really mad!!!!!! My husband and I have never had a cat like her. When we took her to the vet for her checkup she screamed bloody murder and the vet just tossed a cotton ball at her and she started purring like crazy playing with it and he gave her the shots and she didnt even notice. Anyway, those days spent over my friends house - she chose us......it was just a matter of time for us to realize it and bring her "home".

Freya showed up a few days after we bought our first house. We were hanging out on the back porch discussing landscaping when we heard a bunch of meowing. I didn't pay attention because I already knew the neighbours had an indoor-outdoor cat, but then this tiny, skinny tabby with a bad eye and a necrotic tail pops out from under the porch looks at us and promptly joins us for a BBQ. Since we're all so strict , we got her a bit of food but couldn't bring her in since DH and I are both allergic. The next morning we woke up and the little cat had speent the night curled up on our doormat and was perfectly happy to join us on the porch for breakfast. So we got a carrier plopped it down in front of her and told her "okay little cat, if you want to stay you have to go in the box so you can see a vet" and she went right in and sat down. That's how we got Freya.

Cotton was featured in a Rescue group newsletter as the poster-boy for a sponsorship program they'd started to support some of thier 'unadoptable' kitties. I fell in love and the rest is history.

Siamie came from the humane society years and years ago. Speck was adopted from the animal shelter...he was there waiting patiently for me. My newest cat is a stray at my bil's business; she'll be coming home Thursday after her vet check and spay. If we can't find a good home with someone we know, we're keeping her.

I went to the shelter to adopt a cat. I had no idea whether I wanted a cat or kitten. It was so hard to pick. I went on a Saturday a couldn't decide. There were just too many. I went back and Sunday and it was between a sweet little one year old white male cat that kept jumping on my lap every time I went in the playroom. Then I found Toby in another room. He was just so sweet. It was so hard to decide, but Toby captured my heart. I took him home. I wanted to go back the next day and get the white kitty too, but something came up and when I called about him a couple days later, he was already adopted.

Sorry this is sooooo long....

Kricket was found by my neighbors dog. The dog got out(like it use to do) and came home with little Kricket, dropped it on the deck and barked til my neighbor came to see. My neighbor called me since she knew i was a vet tech, told me she had a chipmunk, cat or squirrel on her deck she couldn't tell. i went over and fell in love but tried to convince her to keep it cause I knew my mom would kill me if i brought her home. I ended up bringing her home, my mom fell in love right away and i ended up bottle feeding my new 2 week old polydactal kitten. Kricket is daddys lil girl now.

Worm came into the emergency hospital where i worked and i heard his little crying from halfway across the room. I ran over right away and named him mine. I had no clue as to what was wrong with him but he was perfectly healthy. A good samaritan brought in him and his sister, his sister was pts because of violent seizures. I had been looking for a male black and white tux for a while so i brought him home and didn't tell my DH until we showed up at 4am. He was a little mad but became sooo attached to Wormie then i was. Unfortunately Wormie is Mama's boy and could careless about daddy now.

Possum was a mutual agreement between the hubby and I. I gave in found him a dog and he said I could have another cat just that it had to be grey. He loved the huge feral grey male that lived around (tried to catch him but hes way to smart and way to feral) I found an ad in a newspaper for kittens, so i called and they said they had a handsome grey male. They would only hold him for like 2 hours since they had a bunch of people coming to look. I jumped in my car and took off....they lived like 2 1/2 hrs from me. I have no idea how i made it there in the 2 hrs (i was flying) but i called my hubby on the way to let him know i would be coming home with a kitten....lol. They called him Sterling and he was poorly taken care of, it was sad, he was sooo afraid of people and underweight. He came home with me right then and there, was the best cat on our 2 1/2 hr ride home and took about 5 weeks to get him use to people. Hes still very quiet and independent but loves attention when he wants it...i love my possum.

Last but not least is Sloth. Sloth was found by Ecko (the pitbull) on our morning walk. I heard this noise and Ecko definitely heard it, pulled me halfway through this wooded area to a helpless kitten. I had no idea what he was until i picked him up.....umbilical cord still attached, eyes sealed shut, MEWING over and over again. Ecko was going nuts and then i had to call my hubby, wake him up and ask him to come downstairs. (i wasn't bringing him upstairs to possibly infect all my guys) Hubby didn't want to keep him just wanted to get him better and find him a home....well 7 months later hes here to stay. Mr Sloth is the biggest love bug i have ever met. He will do anything to get close to your face and headbutt you and rub against you. He does have the devil in him though, but hes extremely loved.

I was looking for 2 kitties to adopt me when I moved a few years back. I checked out Petfinder and found a rescue that I thought I could take the bus to. (I live in New Jersey without a car). I spoke to a lady from the rescue, she was showing cats the following Saturday in my old neighborhood in Manhattan. I went to fill out the paper work and look at the kitties she had. She told me I could not have a cat until she checked my references and checked my apt. to make sure they would be safe. After a couple of weeks she called to say she had 2 "older" cats and would I be interested. Of course I was, I didn't care how old they were (she said six, turned out to be seven 1/2). Maggs and Jazz came to me 10/2002. Maggs walked right out of the carrier to look at her new home, Jazz hid for 3 days. After about a week I was sleeping on the couch and Maggs was sleeping on my stomach a Jazz had her head resting on my neck. Now every night when I came home Jazz is on my lap and Maggs sleeps with me every night! I could not ask for 2 better kitties to adopt me! I will end this with saying please when considering having a cat adopt you please consider and "older" one (or two). The love they give is phenomenal!

I, too, will try to keep this short, but I know myself...

Up until Niko, I had never had a pet- save for a couple of fish when I was little, so when I finally convinced my mother to allow me to have a cat (yes, I was 27 at the time, but technically.. mom lives with /me/, not the other way around, hehe). She HATED cats. And when I say hate.. I mean, she had said if I ever came home with one, she would promptly put it outside and allow it to run away. :/ It took over a week of cajoling and arguing to finally get her blessing, and the very next day, I was off to my local kitty shelter to go take a look around.

Originally, I was looking for an older female cat that was already out of her kitten phase.. just a sedate, hopefully cuddly, cat who I could give a good home to. I must have spent at least three hours at the shelter, getting to know the various personalities of all the free roaming cats that would give me a second glance. None of the ones I met seemed to be 'the one' and I was about to leave. That's when the shelter manager brought me back where they had some of the caged kitties, who were either unneutered, too young, or special needs/ill. And that's when I saw him.. this skinny little male, 6 months old, who was curled up in his empty food bowl. A bright green sticker on his cage said SPECIAL DIET/SPECIAL NEEDS, and I'll be honest, it put me off a little. Before I could even walk past to look at someone else, he was rubbing against the cage and sticking his paw out to touch my arm. I said eh.. what the hell, lemme see him and how he reacts to me. Well, that was the end of that.

The moment the manager took him out of the cage, he was literally reaching for me. I scooped him into my arms and he was all purry and excited- so excited that the very tip of his tail was vibrating. He didn't try to clamor out of my arms and jump down, he was just content to let me hold him. I walked around with him, for about an hour, while he groomed my chin and rubbed his sweet little face over any part of me he could find. Every time I'd put him down, he'd find a cat tree or a shelving unit to climb on so that he could crawl or jump onto my shoulder and settle back into my arms. He simply would NOT let me go, not even for treats when the manager tried to get him back to his cage. I stayed, that night, till the shelter closed and let him fall asleep on my chest. I remember all of the shelter workers walking past me with big grins, "Aww, Crackers (his first name was Firecracker), is in love! I've never seen him like this!"

After a couple of days, I was approved for adoption and took him home... he's been by my side, almost 24/7, ever since.

Oh.. and his 'special needs' was only an upper respiratory infection, and a tummy problem which was found out later to be worms. Now, he's as healthy as a horse (and eats like one, too!) And best of all, mom is utterly /in love/ with him, just like I knew she'd be.

See... I knew I couldn't keep this short. LOL

This is really the Reader's Digest version of mine. All of them were born to feral moms that showed up on our "farm". We simply rescued them all. Any barn cats (that is, the friendlier ferals) that we had were spayed.

Muddy, Koko and Scarlett: their feral mom's died before they were weaned and we took them in and bottle fed them.

Stumpy was found with half a tail in a storm cellar.

Bob was found in a box in our garage.

Eightball and Tigger (OTB) was born in the rafters of our garage.

Pinky showed up on the 4th of July one year with brother Ruby (OTB) in tow.

Lucky's mom moved her young litter from the woods to our house a few hours before a tornado went thru those woods.

Pinky and Oscar were most likely a neighbor's "barn clean up" effort. They showed up with another kitten (all 3 different ages) one day. All of our ferals were fixed by then and the kittens were too young to have traveled so far on their own.

I'm enjoying reading all the stories of how the TCS kitties adopted you.

Jamasmom, I agree with you about adopting older kitties. Granted, I did get my cats as kittens, but I would have no problem adopting an older cat. I love them big or small.

Beturtlement, that's so sweet that Niko followed you around. I'm so glad to hear that he's all better now.

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories.

Nabu, and his litter mate Raven came from a coworker when I was in college. He thought he had found them a home but she changed her mind and was threatening to take them to the pound. I was looking for 1 cat at the time. He was so right, about them being very friendly cats.

Stimpy came from an animal shelter I worked at. He's a great cat, but had a urinary blockage and no one wanted a cat who needed "special food". I think he picked me from day one anyway.

Lola showed up on our back patio at our last apartment. It was 9 months after Raven had to be put to sleep and I was already starting to look for another kitty (Mike, my husband, wasn't really looking though). Lola had 2 bot fly wounds and was extremely underweight for a 5 month old kitten. It took a couple weeks and a cat trap, but we caught her and got her into the vet the same day we caught her. We knew she wasn't feral because she had meowed at our back door a few times but was too scared when we opened the door. She blossomed under our care.

as my birthday was coming up and me and scarlett had talked about giving a kitten a home for a while so we decided to call round and ask about a few kittens. we ended up going to visit one family who only had one kitten left.
the woman at the house said "there she is" and pointed at an empty sofa. on closer inspection there was a tiny little cute face poking out from between two cushions and we both fell in love straight away and knew we had to have her. the next day we picked her up and thats how we got our Nala!


i really like finding out about how other people got their cats! this is a great thread.

After losing my two girls my husband suggested we get a Himmy instead of one the same colors of the two we lost. We went to look at a litter at a local breeders and he fell for one and I fell for a different one. We couldn't agree so we ended up with two

Brownie, RIP, strolled on to our deck when we were eating almost 16 years ago. I fed him ice cream. Enough said.

I had Brownie fixed but he was always an outdoor kitty, coming in to eat and for the daily loving he required. He didn't come back for a week and I knew he was gone. He was 13 and that is a long life for a mainly outdoor kitty.

I realized that I could not live without another kitty and went to our shelter for another cat, not a kitten. The staff became even more interested because I was interested in a black male cat. I didn't get a black male, but I got a gorgeous female cat, Butzie, and she is the love of my life. She is pretty much an indoor cat now but still goes outside some days. We are working on that. She has a chip and is registered.

Mine were both gifts. Now, I usually would NEVER approve of giving pets as gifts, but since DH knows me well, I think this is an exception.

Tailer was my birthday present. DH was visiting a customer of his...a local municipality. As he pulled into the parking lot he heard a LOUD screaming. Figuring somebody needed help, he followed the screaming to a set of cages behind the building. DH knew that those are where they put animals who had run out of time at the shelter. The county picked them up there and took them to be euthanized. Inside one of the cages he found the source of all the noise...a two-pound orange kitten. As soon as he approached him, the kitten started rubbing himself furiously against the cage. DH just had to pet him...and that was all it took. DH sprung him from the cage, loaded him in his car, and took off with him. DH called and told me about it and asked me what to do. (Seriously, he should have known what the answer was...bring him home!) So DH said we could keep the kitten as my birthday present.

Forest was my first anniversary present. We found him in our vet's office. Forest and his brother had been tossed into a dumpster behind a local pet store. The store owner found them but noticed right away that there was something wrong with them. She took them to the vet and found out that they had cerebellar hyperplasia, a motor function condition similar to cerebral palsey in humans. The vet agreed to keep them and find homes for them. When I saw him I fell in love with that funny, wobbly kitty at first sight. It took me a week to talk DH into adopting him as my gift for our upcoming anniversary. (I told him that fur was the traditional first anniversary gift...and he knows I only like fur that's still breathing. What's a little lie when a kitty's at stake?)

My two orange boys are the most valuable gifts I've ever gotten. After all, diamonds can't love you back.

Flash was one of a litter of kittens born to my uncle's cat. We had her for fourteen years. She was a great cat!
Scratch was a barn cat on a farm about 30 minutes away. I'm guessing she was a feral; she is still a little skittish and doesn't like being held.
JC we got from the Humane Society. We saw her on TV and I knew I had to have her! She had been there for a month, was about 3 years old and spayed. I don't know why anyone didn't want her! We had her for eleven days before she died of distemper.
Squee belonged to a lady who had a small litter of kittens. She couldn't keep them all, and I saw her ad on a local website, and that's how I met little Squee.

Originally Posted by Tari

Mine were both gifts. Now, I usually would NEVER approve of giving pets as gifts, but since DH knows me well, I think this is an exception.

Tailer was my birthday present. DH was visiting a customer of his...a local municipality. As he pulled into the parking lot he heard a LOUD screaming. Figuring somebody needed help, he followed the screaming to a set of cages behind the building. DH knew that those are where they put animals who had run out of time at the shelter. The county picked them up there and took them to be euthanized. Inside one of the cages he found the source of all the noise...a two-pound orange kitten. As soon as he approached him, the kitten started rubbing himself furiously against the cage. DH just had to pet him...and that was all it took. DH sprung him from the cage, loaded him in his car, and took off with him. DH called and told me about it and asked me what to do. (Seriously, he should have known what the answer was...bring him home!) So DH said we could keep the kitten as my birthday present.

Forest was my first anniversary present. We found him in our vet's office. Forest and his brother had been tossed into a dumpster behind a local pet store.

The store owner found them but noticed right away that there was something wrong with them. She took them to the vet and found out that they had cerebellar hyperplasia, a motor function condition similar to cerebral palsey in humans. The vet agreed to keep them and find homes for them. When I saw him I fell in love with that funny, wobbly kitty at first sight.

It took me a week to talk DH into adopting him as my gift for our upcoming anniversary. (I told him that fur was the traditional first anniversary gift...and he knows I only like fur that's still breathing.

What's a little lie when a kitty's at stake?)

My two orange boys are the most valuable gifts I've ever gotten. After all, diamonds can't love you back.

Click to expand...

Your two boys are definitely great gifts.

I'm with you on only liking fur that's still breathing. That's too funny.

I love diamonds, but I'd rather have my girls!

Originally Posted by Tari

he knows I only like fur that's still breathing.

Click to expand...

Me too! This is long . . .

Rocky and Oliver's story: My cousin Heather and I were sharing an apartment back in 2001. She is an architect, and her firm was doing extensive renovations on an old housing project in University Circle. She came in one Friday afternoon in July and said, "Come help me get some stuff out of my car." I said "OK" and went down to the parking lot with her and when we got to her car, I spotted these two adorable orange kittens and fell in love right away. Unfortunately, they were terrified of us and stayed in the bathroom, hiding behind the toilet and hissing at anyone who came in.

At their first vet visit, they got the usual workup that kittens get. Rocky had a URI, but they were otherwise healthy. The vet told us (I went with Heather to help) to hold them for an hour every day so that they would get used to human contact. Of course, I was more than happy to oblige. When we moved out of our apartment in October 2001 and got separate places, Heather took the babies with her and I missed them terribly.

Fast forward to February 2003. I'd just gotten an apartment by myself, and I was lonely and thinking about adopting a cat. Heather decided to move in with her boyfriend (now husband), who had an 80-pound wolf hybrid (Ace ) and a very temperamental black DLH (Spooky), and she was worried they wouldn't accept Oliver and Rocky. Since I already bonded with them when they were little, she naturally thought of me. I'm so grateful she did; they're my best friends and the sweetest cats I've ever known (and I've known some sweet ones!)

My mom's RB cats:

My Mom found Silly under a car in her apartment building's parking lot, covered with oil and absolutely miserable. She cleaned him up and got him to the vet, and he lived 15 years before crossing the Bridge in 1985 when I was 10.

Samantha came from a pet store (this was in the 1970s when no one really knew differently) when Mom was looking for a friend for Silly.

Thomasina wandered into the St. Thomas Hospital emergency room while my Mom was working there. (Hence her name.)

Whiskers and Kitty came from the Humane Society in Summit County.

Nibbles and Peaches were born to a feral tortie who lived in our next-door neighbor's yard. Their mother ran away, and my Mom rescued them and gave them to a friend whose female cat had just had a litter and was more than willing to nurse two more babies. When the kittens were older, they came to live with us permanently.

My Mom (do you see a pattern here?) found Miles when she was doing home care. She was at a patient's house, and as she was leaving, she saw a tuxedo kitten outside and asked her patient if the kitten belonged to her. Her patient replied "No" and said she had been trying to shoo the kitten away. Of course, Mom couldn't resist and picked him up, got him some kitten food, and took him home.

Peaches developed renal failure when she was just six years old and had to be PTS. My Mom, my brother and I were all sitting around the house crying after burying Peaches, and my Dad (who claims not to like cats) left for a while, saying something about going to the store. He came back an hour later with a half-Siamese kitten, whom we named Taffy because she was sort of taffy-colored. She lived to be 16, and my Dad was the only man she ever liked.

Lucky wandered into our next-door neighbor's yard (different house, different neighbors), covered in fleas, starving, suffering from pneumonia and a collapsed lung, and terrified of humans. My Oma was going to take her to the Humane Society (my Dad had said two cats was enough), but she changed her mind when she realized Lucky would be PTS. Oma took her back home, we cleaned her up, and she lived to be 13 before crossing the Bridge in 2005.

With one exception (detailed below), all our cats were feral. There were plenty of feral cats around our previous home.

Our last cat was Bris (I think she was semi-feral). She came to us sort of by accident.

One of our next door neighbor's daughter's had Bris for awhile (couple years or so). But daughter had to move or go away for awhile. So next door neighbor looked after Bris while daughter moved or whatever. However, neighbor had to move out of home for awhile while it was being rennovated. Neighbor took Bris with her to the new (temporary) home. But Bris came back to neighbors home!

My father wound up feeding Bris on behalf of neighbor (and her daughter) at neighbors home (while home was being rennovated). Eventually Bris came over to us, and the first time she did, she was sitting on a tree branch on a large tree we had at that time watching us! Basically, we looked after Bris from then on, as it wasn't fair for her to be moved around here and there, and she came to us anyway!

Elmo was born in my bedroom. He will be 10 years old in November.

Sophie was born at my Nana's house - my Mum picked her out at 4 hours old and she came home with us at 10 weeks old.

Flutterby was my 17th Birthday present - she's from Gore in the South Island.

Fluffy was my late 18th Birthday present to myself - she was born in my bedroom too.

As were Sonic, Secrets, Paparazzi, Tales and CC - they were 6 weeks old yesterday

I got Mi-ke from the Humane Society because I'd been jonesing for a cat since I (finally) moved out of my parents' house. It's like a drug craving. Mi-ke was 12 weeks old, a little tortie in an enclosure with her (black) siblings. I didn't "get to know her" or anything--I just got her. It was only later that I realized it'd have been better if I'd gotten a sibling as well, especially as she tore the place up while I was away all day.

A second cat never seemed to be an option because I figured additional cats would be too hard on the first one if they hadn't been raised together. Then I had my snakes (both died), and I suppose I'd liked having two pets around to talk about...at the same time, I was going to be going on a trip out of the country and thought it'd be nice for Mi-ke to have someone to talk to (even if they weren't the best of friends) during my absence. So I researched and found out that actually, a second cat was a good idea and always had been.

I poked around different rescues and wasn't getting anywhere--honestly, I just wanted a cat, not a bunch of weirdness. So I went to another shelter to find a young male (as a supposedly good match for an adult female) and saw Tora in his cage. While I was watching, a worker came by and opened his cage to say hi, and he was all over her, poor thing. He's "just" a regular old tabby and maybe wouldn't get the attention of the kittens and the more interesting colorings, but he just looked so sweet and friendly and was 1 year old exactly, so I went and "met" him, and he was kneading me and licking me, so...here we are.