I wonder if anyone is interested like I am.

Thank you all so much for sharing pics and histories of your fur babies. I haven't had time to read them all. I'm at work and unfortunately, they expect me to do some while I'm here, but will get to all the stories on my lunch hour. Look forward to many more stories!
Susie

Well, I might as well get into this one. As a small child, I had my first boy kitten, Pinky, but my parents didn't like cats so Pinky was left to run the streets. He didn't last long and never made it to his first year. I had dogs all my life until I married Brenda. Then I inherited her two Siamese cats, Amiah and Monkee. Later we would adopt another Siamese baby, Coco in 1991. Then a stray we named Mosby took up at our farm. Mosby, unfortunately disappeared for 3 days. I discovered her in the attic of our garage all filthy and weak. The vet informed us that she had Feline Lukemia and had to be put down. After a year we got a tortie by the name of Cammy whom we let have a litter. We kept the litter of two boys and two girls, Buckwheat, Twinky, Sugar Cakes, and Patty Cakes, respectively. Later we got J.R. who just died several days ago of liver cancer. After getting J.R., our brood would be augmented by Friendly who became our barn cat. He just sauntered up to our place one day and asked for a home. Then one day I popped the hood of my diesel truck to check the oil and lo and behold, there was a miniature tuxedo kitten perched atop the valve cover. he was hard to catch, but 2 weeks later we tamed him and brought his feral life to an end by giving him a permanent home. After J.R.'s death this recent Friday, my wife presented me with a darling lookalike for J.R. a female gray/white/black tabby we named Ripley for her fierceness. She ain't taking nothing off the other adult cats. She's just like the Ripley Sigourney Weaver made famous in the Alien series of movies. Well, that's my kitty brood in a nutshell.

Way back in college, my sister took a job working in a sort of group home apartment complex. All of the apartments were part of the Home. Its the next step towards total autonomy for the Downs Syndrome adults living there. While she was living there, she found a 5 month old kitten living in the basement. It was a full breed Maine Coon cat someone had abandoned. She took her in for the next few months. In the mean time, my landlord had finally given permission for us to get a cat to try to control the mouse population. As my roommate and I started looking in shelters, my sister lost the job and had to give up the apartment that came with it. My parents refused to let her keep the kitten, so I inherited her. Shalimar became my baby and lived with me till she crossed 5 yrs ago at the age of 14.

Once she died, I knew I would eventually get a new kitten. I put my name in at a few shelters looking for 2 long hair kittens to adopt. After owning Shali, I was in love with long hair cats. I got a call that a vet in the area had some 10 week old kittens..they're not long hair but they're pretty fluffy. I picked Pipsqueek out right away. He just cuddled up right away and fell asleep in my arms. Frantic took a few more minutes...it was between him and a totally black kitten. Franny's face won me over...his chin and nose is half white and half black.

Sandy

Sandy,
OH, we would all I'm sure love to see a picture of Pipsqueek and Franny if you get the chance.............thanks to all for sharing your stories.......looking forward to more!

Inky RB) was given to me by a neighbor who didn't want him. This was in the 1960's.

Shadow RB) came from a farm.

Cleo RB) I bought him at a pet store. He had FeLV. My vet said he could not transfer it to another cat.
Once I had to take Cleo to the vet for tests. The vet needed to call for permission before doing anything. I gave my mothers number instead, because my job at the time did not like employees getting phone calls. The afternoon after the testing was done, I called the vet as soon as I got home. Cleo was worse then expected, and had been "put to sleep."

Felicia: came from a pet store shortly after I lost Cleo.

Beau: He came from a cattery not too far from where I live. I wanted at least one purebred cat. So far my Burmese Beau is it.

Nancy,
Felicia and Beau are gorgeous, and lucky to have a mom like you! Thanks for the story...........
Susie

well i knew as soon as i moved out of my parents house the FIRST thing i was gonna do was get a kitten.. of course my landlords said no pets when we moved in, but i talked her into writing my a note for the aspca..i had already went there and picked out a baby! my boyfriend said we should keep looking because they really didnt have kittens there. the youngest was like 4 months, but i saw this one baby who was so sweet and had circles on his fur....well i brought baci home the next day!! then a month later i convinced my bf baci needed a friend, so back to the shelter.. i wanted to get another boy, but we saw this litter of black and white kittens ( my bf wanted a black one) and fell in love with the runt she has no white in her face, but white whiskars, so then system came home.. my friend found a kitten behind their washer and didn't know what to do so they brought her to me...i took care of her for a week or so brought her to the vet, but i gave her to my other friend i thought 3 would be too many....but a month after that this all white blue eyed baby found me...this lady saved him, but was moving to florida and already has 9 cats so she didnt want to keep him...well now im his new mommy! i've had surj for like 2 weeks now he's just about 8 weeks i got him around 6 the vet said. he's a little devil but they all get along great! if i had a bigger house i would get 10 more!!!

I grew up with all kinds of pets, mostly rescues, and my husband has learned to love animals over the past 24 years. Jamie Cat was an "impulse" on my part. His mother was abandoned when her owners moved, and she was caught by a rescue organization I belong to. She was fostered by the mother of a student from our school, and one day the girl came in late and told everybody about the birth of five kittens that morning. I simply said I'd take one or two. My husband wasn't exactly crazy about the idea of a second (or third) cat, but raised no objections. I planned on taking the "runt" of the litter and/or the "plainest" kitten (not that any kitten can be called ugly). When I went to see the kittens, JC, the biggest kitten with the most even markings) was all over me - biting my fingers, untying my shoelaces, jumping on my head. So he was the kitten who came home with me. Every other cat we've had has also chosen us, not the other way around.

I was lucky to have been born into a family of cat lovers, so I haven't been without a cat since the day I came home from the hospital. If I started from the beginning we'd be here forever, so I'll just tell the stories of my current brood

9 years ago I was living with a roommate (a friend I'd known since elementary school) and my baby daughter in a run-down apartment, which was all we could afford at the time. I was raising a child with multiple disablilities by myself, running from therapy appointment (O.T., P.T., S.T, Feeding Therapy, etc) to doctor's appointment and spending long weeks and even months in the hospital trying to keep my daughter alive. I was depressed and tired beyond belief (daughter was/is fed through a tube hooked up to a pump at night and had an apnea monitor that went of CONSTANTLY). I was a mess! And for the first time in my life I was having to live without a kitty companion. My elderly cat (I got her when I was just 9) had to live with my mom because of the apartment's policy. Just before I had moved in with my friend who was going through a divorce, my baby Sampson had been hit by a car and killed while I was in Utah visiting a friend. Just before that, his sister, Delilah, had been stolen right out of our yard by a van of Laotians (this was a very common thing where I lived in Northern California). I was also going through the loss of a child and the loss of a brother-in-law and a divorce. I was reeeeeally messed up.

Then one morning I was doing my usual feeding therapy for my daughter. She didn't eat orally at the time, but I always had to try. She was very distracted and kept looking at the floor of the kitchen and making a meow sound (Her first word was "MEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOW! ). I was frustrated and tired and not very patient, but she was going nuts meowing at my floor. I didn't pay attention to her signs.

She spent the next several days meowing at the kitchen floor. I was trying to be a good mom and do her exercises and therapies and so on and she wasn't interested. Just excited about the dang floor!

Then I heard it: it was a scraping, though, not a meow; a scraping coming from under my kitchen floor! I though, "oh no...we live in a RAT HOLE!" That, of course, made me more depressed! So I called the land lord but he was busy and couldn't come for another week.

Well, before the week was up the scraping got worse and Danielle's meows became louder and finally, I too could hear the meows coming from the floor! Then I came down one morning to find a paw sticking out of the linoleum! I touched it and it pulled back and a sweet little black nose poked through, meowing like mad. I immediately called the land lord and he rushed out and climbed beneath the foundation and found the cat...leading him through ANOTHER hole in the floor - a much bigger hole, obviously!

Three weeks before this my neighbor's cat had had kittens. Then the neighbor moved. I ASSUMED he took her and the babies with him...but sadly, he did not. He left them in the apartment with no food, but thankfully he left the toilet seat up and at least the mother had water. There were 5 babies in all, but sadly 2 were already dead. The mother was nearly dry and they were all emaciated. One could not even move, just meow faintly. I immediately took them all to the vet. The little one who couldn't move was very near death, but after a fully check up and shots, I took them all home and fed them and loved them back to full health. That's where I got Titania (the mom) and her fairies: Puck (the sickly one), Moth and Cobweb (I'm a Shakespear fan and esp. of Midsummer Night's Dream! )

As the kittens were about to be weaned we found an abandoned ginger kitten in the parking lot of our church. It must have just been born, as his eyes were still shut tight. We took him home and Titania treated little Punkin as one of her own. When my roommate moved out she took Punkin with her and I moved to a smaller apartment with the other four babies. Cobweb disappeared in 1997. Titania died 3 years ago from cancer. My Puck (who thought I was his mate!) crossed last July after a stray broke into our apartment and attacked him. The same cat broke in 3 months later and this time left a nasty abcess on his leg which didn't heal. I took him to the vet and discovered that he had been infected with FIV. I had to make the choice that day, as I was driving my daughter to the hospital. I just couldn't do it. After I discovered later that day that my daughter would be in the hospital for a long time, I knew that I couldn't be home to take care of my very sick boy, so I made the decision to put him down.

Last May my mother called and said that a kitten was found in the parking lot of her place of employment. She was so adorable...I couldn't resist! She was so absolutely adorable, everyone wanted her and everyone wanted to name her! So we all did (my family members and daughter's nurse) and we ended up with pixelPuff Anglebaby Thor Buttercup Bubblespot! She wore it well and she responded to all of them...except Thor I think she was offended by the boy name

We went camping in August when my daughter got out of the hospital and the sadness of losing Puck was overwhelming. I made the decision to go to the Humane Society when we returned home to get another boy kitty, this time for my daughter (she was depressed, too).

We returned home to Moth and Pixel, who were overjoyed to see us. The very next day we went to the Humane Society and as we walked in, a little red paw grabbed my daughter by the sleeve and she said: THAT ONE! And so Frodo Baggins (my daughter is a huge LOTR fan!) came home with us. He is the sweetest guy in the world! He lets my daughter cart him around and just lies there like a slug! He's amazing. Couldn't have found a better cat for my daughter.

In November my business partner, Steve, was visiting from Hong Kong (daddy to 4 cats of his own). We were trying to kill some time waiting for a film to start and ended up at the Humane Society. I said, "We are NOT coming home with a cat! We're just saying hi." And I meant it!!

Pookie had other plans, though I saw him in a quarantine area, hiding behind stuff, as they tried to capture him. I knocked on the door and the officer came out. I asked about the kitten and she said he wasn't adoptable and they were going to put him down. I asked what the problem was and she said that he was a "woodpile cat" and they had tried for 3 weeks to tame him, but he had made NO progress. I said, "can I try?" Since she knows me, she let gave me a chance. Or, shall I say, they gave Pook a chance!

It took me 2 weeks to have him following me around like a dang puppy dog He's my sweet little loverboy and he fills the space that Pixel left beside Frodo (they were best buds). Now Frodo and Pookie are inseperable and neither of them bug my sweet Mothy girl

Sorry this is so long-winded! I have a tendancy to be that way when talking about my babies!!

Here are some pictures of them:

http://www.flyingtigerwebdesign.com/...res/index.html

I love reading stories like this!

Ophelia was fate stepping in. Earl and I had been talking on a Sunday night about how nice it would be to have a little furry to come home to. He was trying to tell me how great kitties are, but I grew up with dogs and although I liked cats, I hadn't really thought seriously about owning one. Besides, the apartment complex wanted $250 for a pet deposit which we just didn't have.

The next night as I was getting ready for bed I heard the distinct sound of a kitten in distress. I made Earl go outside to see if the kitten was being beaten up by something outside out window. He didn't even hear her outside. After a couple taps, which were responded to by scratches, we figured out she was in between the walls, between our apartment and the next one over. How she got there I'll never know. So we busted a hole in the wall and after many hours she was finally brave enough to peek through the hole. A bit of tuna got her in the apartment. I was the first human she had ever seen, and she was SO scared! Poor baby kitty. We think she was 5-6 weeks old when she came into our lives.

Well, two days and $80 in kitty supplies later, we thought she escaped. Earl couldn't find her anywhere, and he looked everywhere he could think of in the bedroom. Both of us having grown quite attached to this feral kitten (even though I didn't know what a feral was at the time), we sought solice at the mall. In the mall is a pet store that takes in unwanted litters of kittens, and there was this little black fluffy kitten that was dying for our attention. So we asked to hold him, and he laid in Earl's arms and purred. Well, we had to think about it, and left to walk around the mall. When we came back, he perked up as soon as he saw us. I asked to see one of the tortis, and this black kitty was going insane to get our attention! When we saw him doing that, we knew he had to come home. He didn't react like that to anyone else in the store, just us.

As soon as Trent came in the bedroom, he meowed, and out of nowhere pops a little Ophelia! She was so happy to see another kitty! She hadn't escaped, just found a hiding place like only a feral can.

P.S. The apartment complex only allowed one cat, and here we were with two! When they found out, our lease was going to be up within a couple months, so they took the $250 deposit (for 2 months) and let us stay there until the lease expired. Then we moved to someplace that allowed two cats. Never a doubt that we could never "get rid" of either of them!

Hercules was 17 and had a tumour on his bladder I had to help him over to rainbow bridge and was heart broken. I hated coming home. This was last year. I went to the dogs home and amongst all these dogs were three tiny kittens. They were terrified. One was spoken for and I brought the other two home. Brother and Sister, that is Felix and Buttons. They are nearly 9 months old now. Two weeks after that I started fostering two sister, Tara and Pebbles, but fell in love with them, so I kept them They are nearly 14 months old. I love them all to bits, they are my life and my joy.

Princess was born in my parents' basement when I was 11. We owned her mother, Cindy, and my parents decided to keep one of the kitties. We knew right away that we wanted to keep Princess. She was the only girl in all the six kitties, and while her brothers were playing, she'd sit on the bulkhead, grooming herself. That's how she got the name "Princess." Luckily the other five kitties found good homes as well, and everyone got spayed after that.

Lily we just got in October. My DH is "not a cat person" but knew how I really loved cats, and really missed Princess, who we had decided was best off staying with my dad. So around my birthday, in August, he told me that I could get a cat! We were originally going to get a cat from a co-worker of DH, but she decided to keep that cat, so I went to the shelter to pick out a kitty. I fell in love with Lily at first sight. I put in my application, it was approved, and I picked Lily up the next day.

I have to say, we all have such great stories about how our furbabies came into our lives..........hope to hear from more of you. I've enjoyed reading them so!