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- Oct 12, 2014
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I just realised I probably should have done this sooner and I apologise for the lack of etiquette! lol.
My name is Ash, 34, Scottish. Social phobic with pink hair, whacky sense of humour and a fat black cat by the name of Sabbath. I'm not really good at introductions and I'm not really an interesting person but I'll tell a bit of a story as to how I became a cat owner.
We moved to my current house four and a half years ago and there was a cat that used to come here (I won't name him) who we all loved (despite mother saying she hated cats). his owners had lost interest in him (they lived a few doors along), he was an old cat who had become an inconvenience. He would sit on their windowsill all day waiting to get in and they wouldn't let him in (basically out of laziness), even in the rain, even in the snow, the wind, the worst weather imaginable.
The cat eventually started coming to us, just to visit, he wanted attention, maybe a few treats, but he loved to come in and just have a nap on my bed. I was quite allergic to him (watery itchy eyes, etc) but eventually somehow the allergy seemed to disappear through exposure to him (I think he was a ragdoll mix) and the longer we had him around, the less irritated my eyes got, the less my eyes would weep. Sometimes when hanging laundry outside with the back door open, I'd go in and find the cat sleeping in my room. If I heard the weather getting bad outside, I'd go down and do the "Psst psst psst" thing at the back door, lo-and-behold I'd hear the cat bell jingling, and he'd come running in, usually soaked through and looking rather pathetic. I'd dry him off and put him upstairs with me where he'd sleep until the bad weather died off (then he'd want out). When we'd get back from the store, this cat would actually walk to the car to greet us, and follow us to the door. He'd actually meow to tell us to hurry up and open (I think he adopted us in the end since his real family had given up on him, and he used to sit at my side most days, cuddling up - I really think he just wanted a new home for his final years and in particular had picked me to be the one to give him most of the attention).
December 2013 came a long, and the cat got very ill. We tried to take care of him as best we could, but he was barely eating and wouldn't move much. We had to take him outside to the toilet, and then lift him back in, he was so weak. As he was chipped, we couldn't take him to the vet ourselves without basically getting our neighbours in trouble even though they probably deserved it, so in the end we had to get tough with the neighbours and say the cat needed to be taken to the vet, he was their responsibility and they shouldn't have just left him outside. The owner said "Yeah well, he's sick so I figured he'd go off to die somewhere under a bush" (owner then got upset saying she couldn't handle it because he was sick and it was too upsetting and she thought that's what every cat just did). Needless to say after much provoking, the neighbour took him to he PDSA and he was put down - it had to be done, poor animal had a heart problem and fluids were leaking into his belly. This was on Boxing day (dec 26th).
We heard nothing for weeks but as we did not see him, I knew that he had been put down. I'd had permission to get a dog to try and help cope with the misery (I was severely depressed over the loss of this animal which wasn't even mine!), but in the end I said to my mother (who hates cats) that it made more sense to have a cat, as A: less maintenance, B: so many cats in the area already that a dog might cause a lot of noise, C: We sometimes get mice and it'd be helpful to have a cat, and D: we had a LOT to offer a cat...that we could rehome a cat that much like the neighbours cat, had simply just been abandoned or lost a home for whatever reason (I think it was point D which nailed it, she hates cats, but she doesn't like the thought of animals suffering or being neglected).
Off me and dad went to the Lothian cat home, girl asked what kind of sex, colours, breed, hair types, size, etc I was looking for. I laughed and said I was looking for a companion, not a handbag cat to match with an outfit, which she sort of laughed (I don't know if this was a test or not lol) and took me to see what I now realise was the pens exclusively for the black "Hard to rehome" variety. It was the third cat I saw that was love at first sight; the girl opened his little pen and he came running out to greet me as if he'd been waiting for me...which she said he never usually did. He kept pushing against my hands, I tried to get out of the pen but he kept getting in the way, looking at me, that weird way as if to say "no". I spent some time in there with him because simpy, he wouldn't let me leave, lol. It felt almost like the cat knew me, really HAD been waiting for me. When I did get out of that pen I went to see a small black cat my dad was looking at that was right next to the third cat, but the third cat just looked through the wire mesh at me in that desperate way (to this day he doesn't come to others like this). I knew right then there was no getting out of it...he was going to be the one. He'd chosen me.
I named him Sabbath and to this day I have NEVER regretted the decision of letting him to be the one to decide he should come home with me, lol. He has brought such joy into my life and really helped ease some of the depression and heartbreak of the other cat's loss. He makes me laugh every day, and I couldn't have asked for a better companion (even if he isn't a lap cat, brings me live mice and is a few lbs over weight, lol). My "cat hating" mother even dotes on him and obsesses over him, he's made the perfect family pet.
And to think, A: I was allergic, B: I wanted a dog, and C: my mother hated cats, lol. Sometimes things just work out in odd ways. If it hadn't been for that beautiful neighbours cat needing attention and some shelter, I don't know if I'd have become a cat owner. I miss that cat so bad, I still get misty eyed thinking about him, but if it weren't for him, Sabbath might still be sitting at the Lothian cat home now like so many of the others he was there with still ARE (sad
).
- Ash
My name is Ash, 34, Scottish. Social phobic with pink hair, whacky sense of humour and a fat black cat by the name of Sabbath. I'm not really good at introductions and I'm not really an interesting person but I'll tell a bit of a story as to how I became a cat owner.
We moved to my current house four and a half years ago and there was a cat that used to come here (I won't name him) who we all loved (despite mother saying she hated cats). his owners had lost interest in him (they lived a few doors along), he was an old cat who had become an inconvenience. He would sit on their windowsill all day waiting to get in and they wouldn't let him in (basically out of laziness), even in the rain, even in the snow, the wind, the worst weather imaginable.
The cat eventually started coming to us, just to visit, he wanted attention, maybe a few treats, but he loved to come in and just have a nap on my bed. I was quite allergic to him (watery itchy eyes, etc) but eventually somehow the allergy seemed to disappear through exposure to him (I think he was a ragdoll mix) and the longer we had him around, the less irritated my eyes got, the less my eyes would weep. Sometimes when hanging laundry outside with the back door open, I'd go in and find the cat sleeping in my room. If I heard the weather getting bad outside, I'd go down and do the "Psst psst psst" thing at the back door, lo-and-behold I'd hear the cat bell jingling, and he'd come running in, usually soaked through and looking rather pathetic. I'd dry him off and put him upstairs with me where he'd sleep until the bad weather died off (then he'd want out). When we'd get back from the store, this cat would actually walk to the car to greet us, and follow us to the door. He'd actually meow to tell us to hurry up and open (I think he adopted us in the end since his real family had given up on him, and he used to sit at my side most days, cuddling up - I really think he just wanted a new home for his final years and in particular had picked me to be the one to give him most of the attention).
December 2013 came a long, and the cat got very ill. We tried to take care of him as best we could, but he was barely eating and wouldn't move much. We had to take him outside to the toilet, and then lift him back in, he was so weak. As he was chipped, we couldn't take him to the vet ourselves without basically getting our neighbours in trouble even though they probably deserved it, so in the end we had to get tough with the neighbours and say the cat needed to be taken to the vet, he was their responsibility and they shouldn't have just left him outside. The owner said "Yeah well, he's sick so I figured he'd go off to die somewhere under a bush" (owner then got upset saying she couldn't handle it because he was sick and it was too upsetting and she thought that's what every cat just did). Needless to say after much provoking, the neighbour took him to he PDSA and he was put down - it had to be done, poor animal had a heart problem and fluids were leaking into his belly. This was on Boxing day (dec 26th).
We heard nothing for weeks but as we did not see him, I knew that he had been put down. I'd had permission to get a dog to try and help cope with the misery (I was severely depressed over the loss of this animal which wasn't even mine!), but in the end I said to my mother (who hates cats) that it made more sense to have a cat, as A: less maintenance, B: so many cats in the area already that a dog might cause a lot of noise, C: We sometimes get mice and it'd be helpful to have a cat, and D: we had a LOT to offer a cat...that we could rehome a cat that much like the neighbours cat, had simply just been abandoned or lost a home for whatever reason (I think it was point D which nailed it, she hates cats, but she doesn't like the thought of animals suffering or being neglected).
Off me and dad went to the Lothian cat home, girl asked what kind of sex, colours, breed, hair types, size, etc I was looking for. I laughed and said I was looking for a companion, not a handbag cat to match with an outfit, which she sort of laughed (I don't know if this was a test or not lol) and took me to see what I now realise was the pens exclusively for the black "Hard to rehome" variety. It was the third cat I saw that was love at first sight; the girl opened his little pen and he came running out to greet me as if he'd been waiting for me...which she said he never usually did. He kept pushing against my hands, I tried to get out of the pen but he kept getting in the way, looking at me, that weird way as if to say "no". I spent some time in there with him because simpy, he wouldn't let me leave, lol. It felt almost like the cat knew me, really HAD been waiting for me. When I did get out of that pen I went to see a small black cat my dad was looking at that was right next to the third cat, but the third cat just looked through the wire mesh at me in that desperate way (to this day he doesn't come to others like this). I knew right then there was no getting out of it...he was going to be the one. He'd chosen me.
I named him Sabbath and to this day I have NEVER regretted the decision of letting him to be the one to decide he should come home with me, lol. He has brought such joy into my life and really helped ease some of the depression and heartbreak of the other cat's loss. He makes me laugh every day, and I couldn't have asked for a better companion (even if he isn't a lap cat, brings me live mice and is a few lbs over weight, lol). My "cat hating" mother even dotes on him and obsesses over him, he's made the perfect family pet.
And to think, A: I was allergic, B: I wanted a dog, and C: my mother hated cats, lol. Sometimes things just work out in odd ways. If it hadn't been for that beautiful neighbours cat needing attention and some shelter, I don't know if I'd have become a cat owner. I miss that cat so bad, I still get misty eyed thinking about him, but if it weren't for him, Sabbath might still be sitting at the Lothian cat home now like so many of the others he was there with still ARE (sad
).- Ash
