This is a too good a forum, friendly. Knowleable, interested people. And cats. And cats. Those whom cant speak for themselves, they gets here help from those whom wants to help them, whom are willing to speak for them.
Thanks for sharing the story! I, and I'm sure many others here, are very happy you decided to leave the military and start TCS!!
@betsygee asked me elsewhere about what got me to TCS, or rather what got TCS to be, and I figured this is a good thread for the reply. I hope it's ok, since this is no longer the question of the day
18 years or so ago, I was a young officer in the Israeli Defense Forces, living in Tel Aviv with my boyfriend/fiance. He kept saying he didn't really like cats, so we didn't have any at the time (although I've always had cats since I was a child and had "my" cat at my Mom's house). One day, he went out for a walk and came back with a box. In it were five tiny kittens. He rescued them from some kids who found them and were close to abusing them.
We fostered the little ones and tried finding them homes. We found homes for all but one, so we ended up keeping her. We called her Mishmish.
I now suspect Mishmish wasn't entirely domestic. We do have some cross-breeding with actual wild cats here (not feral, but wild), and both her markings and her temperament lead me to believe there was something wild there. She was always suspicious of people and other cats, and would quickly become aggressive. Still, she was out cherished Mishmish (she crossed the bridge over a year ago).
The challenges of raising her brought me to do a lot of research about cats and specifically cat behavior. These were early internet days, but Amazon was already in operation and I ordered literally dozens of books. I did a LOT of reading about everything related to cats and developed an expertise of some kind. I also joined the Israeli Cat Welfare Society (the only cat-only organization at the time, which no longer exists) and volunteered there for a while, working with cats and cat people and gaining more expertise.
I started a website in Hebrew about cats and it was hugely successful locally. I was interviewed a lot and spoke for cats in various media outlets. The site became so large, I realized at some point there wasn't actually anything in English as extensive as my site (this was almost 15 years ago). I decided this was what I wanted to do for a living and with the huge .com bubble that was growing at the time, this seemed like a potentially lucrative venue. It took me over a year to leave the military and launch TCS. By the time that happened, the .com bubble had already burst, so I never became a millionaire. In fact, financially speaking, leaving the military probably wasn't a good move, but I'm really happy with the choice I made. I now work solely on TCS and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to work on such an awesome topic and with such wonderful people!
Thats a great story. Thankyou so much for TCS. I Love it here. It's so friendly and positive. I consider the people here my "friends".@betsygee
asked me elsewhere about what got me to TCS, or rather what got TCS to be, and I figured this is a good thread for the reply. I hope it's ok, since this is no longer the question of the day
18 years or so ago, I was a young officer in the Israeli Defense Forces, living in Tel Aviv with my boyfriend/fiance. He kept saying he didn't really like cats, so we didn't have any at the time (although I've always had cats since I was a child and had "my" cat at my Mom's house). One day, he went out for a walk and came back with a box. In it were five tiny kittens. He rescued them from some kids who found them and were close to abusing them.
We fostered the little ones and tried finding them homes. We found homes for all but one, so we ended up keeping her. We called her Mishmish.
I now suspect Mishmish wasn't entirely domestic. We do have some cross-breeding with actual wild cats here (not feral, but wild), and both her markings and her temperament lead me to believe there was something wild there. She was always suspicious of people and other cats, and would quickly become aggressive. Still, she was out cherished Mishmish (she crossed the bridge over a year ago).
The challenges of raising her brought me to do a lot of research about cats and specifically cat behavior. These were early internet days, but Amazon was already in operation and I ordered literally dozens of books. I did a LOT of reading about everything related to cats and developed an expertise of some kind. I also joined the Israeli Cat Welfare Society (the only cat-only organization at the time, which no longer exists) and volunteered there for a while, working with cats and cat people and gaining more expertise.
I started a website in Hebrew about cats and it was hugely successful locally. I was interviewed a lot and spoke for cats in various media outlets. The site became so large, I realized at some point there wasn't actually anything in English as extensive as my site (this was almost 15 years ago). I decided this was what I wanted to do for a living and with the huge .com bubble that was growing at the time, this seemed like a potentially lucrative venue. It took me over a year to leave the military and launch TCS. By the time that happened, the .com bubble had already burst, so I never became a millionaire :lol3: . In fact, financially speaking, leaving the military probably wasn't a good move, but I'm really happy with the choice I made. I now work solely on TCS and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to work on such an awesome topic and with such wonderful people!
