Monday's Question of the Day - October 12, 2015

[kntrygrl256]

 
I got my first cat in February of this year, so less than a month before I turned 23. My dad violently hated cats, so even though I always wanted one I was never able to adopt a kitty until I moved out. Sometimes my friends would ask me to come over and I'd be more excited to pet their cats than to see my actual friends haha.

LOL I will go to my BF's parents house and they have a beautiful white kitten (she looks like she will be a light flame point Siamese) about Zander's age and I will pick her up and love on her. I will get a picture of her. She is gorgeous, white with light flame points, a Siamese face with the brightest blue eyes I have ever seen. I am trying to talk his mom out of her but she don't want to let her go. When I go to their house she comes running to me wanting me to pick her up and love on her. She's precious. 

They have several barn and yard cats so I don't see why she don't just let me have her. LOL

 

[Winchester]

I'm not sure of my age, but I do know that I was probably in first or second grade at school. 

 

[troub95]

11 - Unfortunately, she got out of the house and some how broke her back. RIP Ziggy

I was about 13 when I got my next cat. Mom, a friend and I stopped at Little Cesar's Pizza after dance class and he was outside. I had Cesar for about a year; when we moved, he ran away.

 

[larussa]

I must confess I was never a cat lover when I was younger, didn't even like cats.  I couldn't have a dog since I lived in an apartment but when one of my co-workers said he was going to adopt a kitten, I thought about this.  I was 49 at the time.

I went out and bought a book about how to raise a kitten and then looked in the newspaper for a kitten to adopt.  I found a woman who fostered and told me she had a black and white kitten about 7 weeks old and I could come to see her. 

The rest is history, I fell in love with that kitten who I named Misty and she lived with me until she got very sick and I had to let her go, she was almost 16 years old, I miss her still.

Now I have Autumn and will never be without a cat again.  I tell people you have to live with a cat to really know them and you will fall in love with these mysterious creatures. I know I did.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

 
I was 2 years old and often visited a very nice elderly woman down the street. She fed me home-canned salty dill pickles and homemade bread (SO GOOD), and let me pet her kitties and play with the kittens. 

Aw that is such a sweet story about her spending that one night on your chest. And letting you dress her up like a baby!  Too sweet!  My cats, one in particular, were basically therapeutic for me during a particularly difficult time in my childhood.  I can relate on that level. 

 
It was a no-brainer that when I adopted my black DSH last year I didn't waste time coming up with a name for him. He is Keeker IV 

I love that family tradition! 

​

 I learned a VERY healthy respect for cats growing up with her

(as did many neighbourhood dogs, who used to rush past our drive before she could ambush them!)

 

Kitty was a boss! 

  My mother's dogs know Bunny is the boss; but I've never seen them run from her!  Wow!

 
I was 9 when my sister and I got the neighborhood stray to follow us home. We think that she was either the outdoor cat of someone whose house burnt down and they left her, or she was a stray that they were feeding.  She was really skinny when we found her and she was hungry enough to eat the only food that we had on hand, a fortune cookie.  I've always loved animals, although we only ever had fish growing up.  I remember wishing that I was Snow White so that animals wouldn't be afraid of me so that I could pet them.  We rented a house that didn't allow non-caged pets and my parents were too practical and we were too poor to provide for an animal.  Anyways, my sister and I decided that if the cat HAPPENED to follow us home, there was nothing they could do to stop it.  I named her Nelly (not after the rapper, she was the NEW stray in the neighborhood that we've seen, NEW+ly=Nelly to my 9 year old mind) and she was never really tamed or fully ours.  We fed her whatever scraps we could sneak out and she came to trust us, but she wouldn't let us pick her up and would leave on her own terms.  One day, she went missing for a few days and, worried, we left a box lined with a towel for her.  The next day, we discovered that she had brought her kittens to us!  (Didn't even know she was pregnant.)  We all picked out our very own kitten and mine was an all black female that I named Midnight.  I don't remember too much about her other then she was very tolerant of being held like a baby and being cuddled, etc.  As kids, we did our best to take care of them without money or help from adults.  My parents didn't have any extra money laying around for cat food or vet visits, and I worried about my sweet kitties so much.  We couldn't keep them inside, couldn't feed them on a regular basis, and couldn't provide any vet care for them.  I know it sounds like we were terrible people, but we were seriously poor. They didn't live long lives and I am still haunted to this day about how I couldn't take care of my Midnight.  I got my second cat when I was 14 and she has been spoiled crazy.  I have always bought her high end cat food that I had researched extensively, got her spayed with my summer job money, forced my parents to take her with us when we moved, and she has always been an indoor only cat.  I don't know if it sounds crazy but I still feel guilty about not being able to properly take care of them.

You did the best you could for a kid in your situation.  

Up to the age of 8-9 I was TERRIFIED of cats and dogs. We went to a farm for our summer holidays and my mum must have told Mrs. Farmer about my fear as she kept dumping cats into my arms to take to Mr. Farmer who had no idea what was going on. While we were there a cat gave birth and we brought a kitten home with us. After some time he disappeared but by then my fear was gone. When I was 22 we got a tortoise cat and when we took her to the vet and we asked what sex she was the vet laughed. She died when I was already here. I cried and cried and lit a memorial candle for her. Her name was stewball!

There was a kid (now teen) at my church who was afraid of cats.  He may still be.  He was at my mother's house for a party once.  I tried to teach him about cats a bit.  I hope it helped him to have someone explain cats and their behavior.