New here & future cat owners!

Hello everyone!

This account is going to be used by two different people, but you can think of us as the same entity lol. We don't have a kitty yet but I figured we should join a kitty forum so that we can learn as much as we can before we do.

So I guess since this is an introduction I should introduce the two of us and our experiences with kitties.

Well, when I was little my mom found a red himalayan being abused by the stranger. We named her Kitty and had her for several months before my mom's allergies got the best of her and we had to find Kitty a new home. I have been hooked since, and I spent the better half of my childhood begging my mom for a cat. I've had just about every kind of pet, from dogs to rats, but there's something different about cats.
My girlfriend is just the opposite. She has never known a life without cats. She spent the better half of her childhood taking care of the feral colony on her great-grandparent's farm. Her great-grandparents are very old fashioned and wouldn't let the cats inside their house, but everyone enjoyed having them around and they were very well taken care of. I spent some time there and fell in love with her so-called "feral" cats. She taught me the names of the ones that had names, and we named the ones that didn't. Due to a series of unfortunate events we had to move from her home in Florida back to my home in California, and even though we really considered bringing along a kitty that captured our hearts in the end we left him there. It left a small hole in both of our hearts.

In June we are moving to Colorado, and we plan on getting our first two kittens together. I have my heart set on a rescue kitty. I'm keeping my eyes open for a good cat rescue. My girlfriend has her heart set on a ragdoll. She spent a lot of time researching and found a wonderful breeder in Colorado.

It's nice to meet all of you, and I hope to learn a lot in the months to come so that I am prepared when it's time to get our kittens.

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone!

I suppose there will be a bit of confusion as to who is posting, so I suppose we'll sign each post with our own names. My name, the original poster (the one who had Kitty), is Ilissa. My girlfriend, who was raised by a feral colony, is Sarah.

Since there are so many replies, I am only going to reply to a few posts. I thank everyone with all of my heart for your warm welcomes, and please don't be offended if I don't reply to you.

Mrblanche; I think I may be winning her over to a shelter kitty, but these kittens are not just a couple of pets to us. They're going to be our adopted children (but shh, don't let them know they're adopted!) Since we plan on having these kitties as a major part of our lives for the next 10+ (hopefully 20+) years I am going to let her choose whatever her heart desires.

xocats; Not only will there be posts and stories, but there will be pictures and videos! I am going to buy a digital camcorder with my tax return so I can capture all of the precious, and silliest, kitten moments.

kluchetta; Smudge is gorgeous! If you don't mind me asking, did you get him from a breeder or a shelter? We should keep in touch, and perhaps even arrange a playdate for our kitties some time. I don't know anyone in Colorado besides my brother, and I think it would be nice.

Catbehaviours; Oh, I think maybe you misunderstood lol. Sarah can't fathom the idea of having "just one" lonely little kitten. So we're going to be adopting two kittens together. I plan on going to a rescue for my baby, and she has been put on a waiting list for a kitten from a beautiful pure white ragdoll. That is, unless, I can talk her into a shelter kitten before then.

c1atsite; Thanks for the welcome! I've been reading links posted around (and wandered from there) and I have learned a lot already! For example: I didn't know some kitty litters were actually potentially dangerous, and I'm learning about raw diets. This site has a lot of valuable information and I'm really glad I found it.

Sarah and I stopped at a Petco on our way home from dinner today and there was a lady cleaning the cat adoption cages. She let us come back there to play with their kittens (which we fell in love with). She's looking for volunteers every day of the week to play with the kittens - she already has people to clean cages. We start next week!

We may look into moving a little closer to home, which means Sarah needs to start looking for another ragdoll breeder. If anyone knows of a good ragdoll breeder in Northern California PM it to me. =D