How did you get your pet?

jessie gray

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I obtained my 10 month old kitten Miss Mia through a local no-kill cat rescue called The 9th Life. 

At first, I was going to adopt both Mia and her sister, Lilly, but it didn't work out.  They both came in as sisters, but as soon as they were fixed and separated for a couple days, the sisters became enemies.  So, I decided to adopt another set of kitten sisters.  They were black and white, and I named them Dolly and Misty.  Unfortunately, they were so terrified to be around people that they hissed, scratched up my hands and legs, and literally wouldn't let me near them at all.  They got returned to the cat rescue.  Jessica, the owner of the cat rescue, asked if I wanted to adopt just Miss Mia by herself and see how it would go.  So, on August 5th, I brought Miss Mia home.

Miss Mia loved me from the very beginning.  She follows me everywhere in my apartment, plays with all sorts of toys, and loves to take naps with me.  She was a perfect match. 

Jessie
 

natalie_ca

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Spencer and Katie will be 6 years on September.  I adopted them from the Vet's office. I had taken my senior kitty Abby in to get a cyst removed from the top of her head and I happened to ask about kittens. They had 2, a brother and sister.  I held the girl and adopted both, the boy unseen.
 

littlewolf

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My parents had a huge fight and my mother had wanted a cat all of the 17 years she had been with him he refused to have an animal in the house. He was allowed to return under the condition that my mother got us a cat, which she bought for £20 from a student at the school she worked in as her cat had just had a litter. 
 

Primula

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Currently, we have: Pixie. First cat we ever had. Born in our backyard & still alive & well after we-don't-remember how many years. Sleeps in the basement when it's really cold, but otherwise will not come inside.

Billy. White deaf-in-one-ear cat who came to our backyard a long time ago & never left. Does not come inside. Fave things are eating & sunbathing. Keeps within the bounds of our backyard.

Mammy. B/W tuxedo. Came one day a couple of years back to our yard & never left. Husband found 3 kittens one day & nobody realized they were hers! Now she's fixed. Does not come inside. Keeps within the bounds of our backyard.

Kandy. Diluted calico. Sweet as her name. Found in neighbors' parking lot & rescued by me. Inside cat only.

Looby Loo. Diluted calico. Fostered her at 12 weeks last July. Very afraid of husband, but very affectionate with me. Inside cat only.
 
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roguethecat

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Rascal:

I had newly moved to the US and didn't know not to feed the raccoons... turned out I didn't exactly feed the raccoons. Rascal turned up in the yard, looking for food. The rainy season started. He was bedraggled and wet. He wasn't neutered and had never seen a vet. He had no place to be. Now he has (the landlord had a no cat policy, and we moved twice since then.)

The Rogue:

The Rogue was extracted from my car's engine department when he was about 4 weeks old. He wasn't supposed to eat everything but not tolerate your average store-bought cat food (I had to get educated about cat nutrition, spend half days making my own cat food and finally feeding raw). He wasn't supposed to be hyperactive, so that in desperation, I had to take more cats in to help deal with him. He also wasn't supposed to have a heart defect. He died having not quite reached the age of 3.

Grisou:

I actually went out to get him to be a playmate for the Rogue, since Rascal didn't bother. He was being harassed by a gang of girl kittens in an overflowing shelter. Then he was being harassed by the Rogue. I thought it an improvement. 

Oberon:

Oberon showed up on the front porch looking for food. He wasn't neutered and had a bad skin condition. He begged to be let in, where the Rogue was, in need of more playmates. Oberon graciously played with the Rogue, and everyone welcomed his calming influence (his fur is gleaming now with the food he gets).

Sassy:

Sassy was part of a small colony of feral cats in a home improvement store's garden department. The workers had been threatened with loosing their jobs if they continued to feed the cats. So I trapped all four and after adjustment and spaying (two had been pregnant
), they lived in the yard. Three of them left after a while. Only Sassy discovered the cat door and started a career as my bed warmer. She used her voice to keep the Rogue in check.

Geronimo:

Geronimo was a feral that seemed to have neither colony nor food,  just living on a parking place. I trapped him so he could live in the yard. Only he became the Rogue's best friend, and followed him in through the cat door. I still can't touch him. Now with the Rogue gone, he has attached himself to Grisou.
 

pookie berry

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I had two cats from the same litter disappear. I had never had cats, but somehow a pregnant cat found her way

to our doorstep. We took her in and kept her, and three of her babies. That was over a year ago in May. Last June, two

of them (fixed and chipped) didn't come when I called for them to eat.

I'm still devastated and looking, however...a week later while combing through

found ads, a desperate ad appeared for someone to care for a four day old white kitten found in a parking lot. I attached his picture from that ad.

I immediately called. They met me at our vets office. His eyes weren't even open.

Now he is over two months old, clearly Siamese, and such a sweetie. So loving.

We named him Bumbles, after the abominable snowman in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

When he was four weeks old, still looking for my two escapees...another ad appeared for someone to adopt a four week old kitten.

She was at the shelter on a red alert day and wanted to save this kitten from euthanasia. I named him Harleywood.

It was about two weeks ago when I discovered that the growing and hairless spot on Harleywood was ringworm...it's a pain,

but he is worth it! Maybe I should've named him Ringo?

to give him away

I discovered he had ringworm
 

raina21

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We got our first cat, Snuffy from our neighbor, whom didn't fix her cat in time and her cat had kittens. She had them in a hole in a tree in my neighbor's yard!! All 3 kittens were boys. My neighbor was pretty neglectful. So we started feeding them (though my dad wouldn't let them inside because at that time he said he hated cats, well that has clearly changed since then!). After a while we began letting them in during the day. As time went on, Snuffy's 2 brothers were hit by cars and his mother disappeared, but he stayed and eventually became a pampered indoor-outdoor kitty. He eventually developed an inoperable cancerous tumor on his nose. And one day, he went outside and never came home. We knew ge was too sick to have survived. He was my first pet and I still miss him to this day [emoji]128546[/emoji]

We also used to have a semi-feral cat (We named him Fred) that we fed and treated for fleas. He was pointed, and had very pretty pale blue eyes. We knew he had to have been abandoned because he was neutered (with no indication that he was TNRed, and he wasn't microchipped either). After a while we could get close to him and pet him. He was VERY friendly and VERY vocal! I used to go out and sit on our porch swing and he would jump up on my lap, demanding pets and meowing and rubbing all over me. But as soon as you tried to pick him up, he became very agressive and would bite and scratch. My dad made a cat house for him. It was avery nice, well insulated cat house too (and yet he still said he hated cats at that time!). And in the winter, he had a heated water bowl and we put a heating pad covered with a few towels inside his cat house.

A few years before Snuffy passed, Fred began to lose weight and became frail. We knew his illness was not from mites, worms, ticks or fleas (since we regularly treated him for these). He seemed to be just old and frail (he was at least 6-8 years old when we began feeding him and we had him for about a decade). One day, we noticed he had not eaten the food we put out for him, so we looked for him, found him curled up inside the cat house we made for him, he had died in his sleep [emoji]128546[/emoji]


Fastforward 3 years after snuffy died: we adopted Zazzie (now age 3)


I don't know much about her kittenhood other than she was born with distemper and she was the lone survivor out of a litter of 6. She was our first Indoor only cat.


1 year later we adopted Kiwi:


She and her bother were found inside the engine of an abandoned car. My mom's friend fostered them, once he sent us her picture, we knew we had to have her! She is also indoor only.


And then there is Tesla:


He was abandoned by the side of our busy road at 6 weeks old. We had been seeing him around our yard but every time we went out to try to catch him, we couldn't find him! So, a day goes by and my dad comes home from a concert with 2 of his friends. I guess Tesla was in our yard when they pulled up. My dad was DRUNK (like fall on you face drunk). I guess my dad saw him in the yard and stumbled over and scooped him up (i don't know how ge managed to do that without falling over, but he did). And Tesla was friendly from the beginning. He didn't mind being held at all (which is one if the reasons we know he was abandoned, he had been socialized). So my dad's friend opens our front door and yells "Rita! (My mom's name) Don't get mad!" And my dad stumbles in holding the kitten that we had been trying to catch for 2 days. And all the while he was saying "Look at this cat! Isn't he amazing. Oh my god this cat is so cool. I'm gonna name her Penelope (my dad thought Tesla was a girl at first haha)! Then I got home, took one look at the kitten and said "Dad, this kitten is a boy." And he was like "Oh, then I guess Penelope isn't going to work then."

We tried everything to see if anyone was looking for him. We went door to door to every house within a mile of us and nobody was missing a kitten. He wasn't microchipped either. So he is ours now and he is a beloved family member. He is also indoor only.
 
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misty8723

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The short version:

Swanie came from a shelter where we had gone to "window shop."  He was this cute little black & white guy climbing up his cage, meowing, trying to get our attention, and he got it. Naturally, he came home with us that night, even though we were not ready to bring a cat home.  Had to run to the store to get some litter boxes, litter, etc.  Swanie when we brought him home settled right in, made himself at home, and because my wonderful lap kitty. Even though he has more than doubled in size and pushing 25 pounds (we are working on that), he is still my sweet lap kitty.

Cynthia came from the same rescue, because we wanted to get two cats at the same time. DH left it up to me, but I had no idea which other cat to get, none of them really compelled me. Then the adoption counselor said what about Cynthia?  She was in her little bed in the back of her cage the whole time and we had pretty much passed her by. We brought her into the meet & greet room and she flopped over on her side, kneaded her paws, and purred - so we were sold.  She was a sweet little dilute calico. It took her awhile to realize that she was safe and in a home where she was loved and cared for, but eventually she did and because DH's soul mate heart cat and also a really good friend and I think surrogate mama to Swanie.

When Cindy passed from cancer in 2014, we wanted another cat, so went to another rescue that a friend volunteered at. We had a false start getting a kitty who ended up bullying my Swanie. We took her back with the assurances that nothing bad would happen to her that she would just go back in the mix looking for her own forever home, which she found with a young guy who said she was the "perfect cat."

So, then we met Darcy, and I fell in love instantly.  She was perfect, very friendly with Swanie, loving with us, lap kitty - but we didn't have her very long because she got FIP and passed. So the second cat we lost in 2014. Our hearts were broken.  It still hurts so much missing those two kitties.

But of course there is always room for more love in your heart, and we still wanted Swanie to have a friend, so we went back to the rescue. They were so wonderful there, and they said they admired us for taking care of Darcy until it was her time to go and giving her as many loving days as she could have, so they knew we would take good care of a kitty.  We didn't meet "the one" until Cricket, who was new to the program, not spayed yet, etc. She was slow going through the program (all the health care stuff) because she wouldn't eat for awhile, they had a hard time getting her to eat.  We began visiting her. We would take her in the meet & greet room and she was so scared she would just squash right up next to me and not want to move around at all. It got to where DH was wondering if she actually could walk.  We wanted her, but had to wait. The day she was supposed to be spayed, the volunteer forgot to take up her food dish so they couldn't do it.  We were all disappointed, but the rescue arranged to have her spayed and actually paid for it so we could take her home sooner. We thought she would be a "project" like Cynthia was - who we had to convince she was in a safe  loving home - but she fooled us. After a little initial shyness, her very outgoing, playful personality came out. She is sweet and loving, but definitely not a lap cat.

And the rescue was so awesome as I got to know them and what they do, that I have been volunteering there for almost 2 years now.
 

gearpunk

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Not a heart felt story, but cute no less.

My sister has Oakley's twin brother, Oliver, and together they're Oliver and Oakley~

My sis talked me into taking in Oak a bit ago from some teenager who was handing them out at a very, very young age. We both felt we were more equipped to handle very young kittens over potentially someone who wasn't, so we took them in. They're separated because my sister lives really far away, but I make sure to give her every ounce of attention that I can give her. We got them at 8 weeks, so not terribly young, and they were already litter box trained, but Oakley definitely has some serious separation anxiety we need to work on. All in all they came into our lives at the best possible time!
 

pegleg

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I wanted to adopt a cat now I'm a bit more settled, I've moved about a lot recently. I wanted an adult cat.

A friend's friend volunteers for a cat rescue (as there aren't really any official charities here) so numbers were passed on and I was told about the perfect cat. The problem was when I met this lovely cat she didn't like me at all. So I was then told about a lovely friendly calico who'd be brought up to my city at the weekend, but she was so lovely she was adopted by her foster carers.

So one not bad match and one gazumped. I mentioned that I liked black cats and was sent a photo of a lovely little thing who was only six months old at most. Taken in off the streets when his mother disappeared. I got him on the Sunday and he was settled in my flat in an hour. He's adorable and I was delighted, such a character and a shouter too. But pretty severe separation anxiety. He clearly wasn't entirely happy.

I rang my cat lady to ask to speak to his foster to see if she had any information that could help and it turned out he had a sister, it was just the two of them until they were separated so one could be adopted. I wasn't having that, it's one thing to separate three month old litter mates but six months after living together in one room, so asked if I could take her too.

They were reunited after a fortnight apart and luckily remembered each other. The only problem was that she was knackered after a long car journey which she hates, and he was following her all over the flat shouting 'let me love you'. Within 20 minutes she was spark out belly up on the sofa.

So I wanted one older cat and ended up with two kittens. They're a great pair and I'm very happy to be their human.

 

pegleg

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What are their names? What is the cat situation like in Spain? Many strays?
Biffs and Leeloo.

Terrible but getting better. The pet culture is improving and people are starting to learn that spaying and neutering are a good thing.A lot of people get an adorable little kitten then baulk at the vet fees. My 'older' foster was clearly abandoned, she was found pregnant, has had her kittens and is with me until she finds a home. She's such a sweetie this is her saying hello to the nice human voice coming out of the small box.


There are a lot of strays, but there are also a lot of people who look after them. The local council here have even started a project to spay and neuter feral. The problem is keeping up.

ETA: hit submit before finishing.

I'm also fostering three little kittens as they simply have no space and would have had to put them down otherwise.

I've been asked to contact shelters abroad because they're that desperate to home these kitties, we'll send you one. Seriously.

They=the various rescues around here.
 
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Primula

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Same problem where I live - one of the poorest cities in America. Dogs spend 10 days only in police pound before being euthanized. People love cute kittens, but will not get them fixed. They feed to breed - very bad idea with outside cats. If you feed them - get them fixed!
 

meowsaremusic

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Mine are a brother and sister pair. I got them 2 & 1/2 years ago from an ex coworker who had an accidental litter. Therefore, my babes have been bonded since birth :) They eat, sleep, and play together constantly. And if one has to go to the vet and the other is home... Oh boy... There goes carpeting, decor, anything. They will tear our rooms and house UP in search of one another. 
 

tabbytom

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My boy January is a rescue, not from a shelter but from a drain. Found alone in the dark with an injury close to his anus, a gaping wound. He was just 3 weeks old and scrawny and weak. That's how we got him.
Took him home, fed him and nursed him. He is 9 months old now. [emoji]128149[/emoji][emoji]128149[/emoji][emoji]128149[/emoji]

Here he is at 3 weeks


Now at 9 months

 
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