How'd you meet your cat(s)?

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-14-2004
How'd you meet your cat(s)?
12
Sat, 08-21-2004 - 5:27pm

Hi everyone,


I was curious how each of you got your cat(s)





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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-19-2004
Sat, 08-21-2004 - 7:09pm
Wallie (actually WalMart) was a foundling. She was huddling under my car in a parking lot (guess where LOL). She was a baby and my older son was about 8 months at the time. I have some of the CUTEST pix of the two of them sleeping in the crib!!! She is part Siamese. LOL She has abandoned me at night now to sleep with Daniel instead! She's about 7 1/2 years old now.

Libby is my 8 1/2 yr old Scottish Fold-that-doesn't-fold. I adopted her at a cat show in Santa Monica. Her previous owner wasn't going to breed or show any longer. Basic brown tabby markings and just really sweet kitty! She is purebred but I never bothered with the CFA papers. I wanted the cat, not the documentation.

Sam used to be my brother's cat. He moved in with us nearly 2 years ago but moved back to Iowa last December. He couldn't take Sammy with him and now Sam is so much a part of the family that my brother doesn't get him back. He's solid black and pretty muscular. Sam's 5 years old.

Rusty is the baby. Pure Heinz 57 Kitty and *very* spunky and talkative!! DH just could not leave him. He is still trying to catch Rusty's sibling but Mom and sibling are on the other side of a big chain link fence that security doesn't want people climbing over.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-23-2003
Sun, 08-22-2004 - 12:53am
How fun this is!

I grew up with cats ALWAYS and so must ALWAYS have them around. My two current cats are Fatty and Bat-girl. (Or if I am talking too fast, Fat-girl and Batty) Fatty was born into my house to my parent's cat before I got married. We found homes for all of the kittens, but Fatty was so cute, I couldn't let him go. My dad was also attached to another kitty, and we always would bicker over who got to stay. We bickered so long, they both stayed. Fatty has had quite a succession of names. First he was Shrimp, then Riff-Raff, and finally he was just so fat and fluffy that Fatty was inevitable. Then I got married and had to have Fatty come with me, of course. We moved into a 200 square foot shack at the back of someone's garage and Fatty was fairly happy, I suppose. But if we went out of town and brought him to my parent's, we could tell he was so much happier with the other cats. So we thought if we got him a friend, he'd be happy. I had been begging my husband for a new kitten, and he kept putting me off.

Then while we were searching for a new apartment, Fate brought us our next kitty. We walked into the office, and they had two kittens in a box. One was orange, and one was black. The black one had already been claimed. (The litter had been found outside in some bushes.) My husband said I could keep the orange one, but I was honestly torn. I'd had DOZENS of orange cats growing up. I kind of wanted something different, but I also wanted to help this kitty. But then the girl who claimed the black kitty said, "I have a dark gray cat at home already, would you be interested in trading?" I was so happy, I had always wanted a pure black cat. So we took her home. Her name was Persephone for about three hours, but I woke up in the middle of the night and she was staring at me, her ears were so big...she just looked like a bat. Plus she had a super-hero like personality, so Bat-girl she was. I just knew it as soon as I opened my eyes that night. And she has lived up to her awesome name!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-15-2003
Sun, 08-22-2004 - 5:32am
Somewhere about two years ago I started hanging out with my nephew. He had two cats. One was a striking male calico and one was a very pretty female tuxedo. The male was fixed, declawed while the female was neither declawed or fixed. I have never been a pet person, but the calico was such a friendly, open, lap cat that I really liked him. The female? She seemed a bit moody and "sneaky." Sneaky was a word I used out of ignorance, I simply didn't understand cats. After a couple of months of socializing with my nephew everyone noticed that the female cat, Cookie, really took a shine to me. She wasn't a lap cat, but she would always sit next to me on the couch and she would always come to me when I visited.

First impressions were so wrong! I really started to like Cookie. She was moody to most people, but very warm and affectionate with me. She grew on me. At one point I moved in with my nephew for a few months and it was no surprise that she immediately decided to sleep with me in my bed. This was all new to me and I wasn't sure if I liked it, but again her warmth won me over. She slept with me. A few months later my nephew decided to move out of state. He had by this time added a dog, but decided he would move alone. Well he found a home for the calico and the dog, but as he said to me, "After 7years with Cookie, she gave me up for you so I guess she's your cat." I thought it over very carefully, researched cats and decided to make the committment. Cookie and I moved out.

One would think this was a traumatic move for Cookie, leaving a prior owner and some friends behind, but she was right at home with me. Oddly enough the dog and cat that my nephew still had grieved when Cookie left. Well, it really wasn't so odd. Even though Cookie would swat a paw at both of them from time to time, and neither animal was allowed near me, she was the "queen" of the household. They were very sad when they lost their queen.

Meanwhile, I made an appt with a vet-7yrs and one vet visit in her life! I wanted her fixed and she looked to have a problem with ear mites. The first visit she got an initial shot for the mites and a month later she was scheduled to be spayed. (loaded with mites the vet said) Of course, Cookie went into heat before I could get her fixed. And how terrible it was for her. I read about the process of going into heat for female cats and I realized this was not comfortable for her. For 7years she had gone in and out of heat, always an in-door cat. To see her cry, I thought it was so cruel not to do something for her. She would pace back and forth and finally jump on the bed with me and continue to pace. I started to sing a lullabye and she wrapped her legs around my arm and fell asleep. Until she saw the vet a month later, that's how she fell asleep each night, hearing my wretched singing. But she was fixed, had her final ear mite shot, and I caught her up on her required injections. Even though the vet highly recommended it, I said no to declawing.

Well, it's a year and 1/2 later and I have learned alot from my little friend. She does her own thing each night, but pretty much sticks with me. Like most cat owners I have learned what her meows mean and we both have each other trained! And after many years on this planet, I am now a very happy cat person.


John

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Sun, 08-22-2004 - 7:57am

*WELCOME* to Cats Carin!

Cat =^..^=
Avatar for cl_lcni
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Sun, 08-22-2004 - 11:55am

Hi Carin.


Photobucket

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-12-2010
Mon, 08-23-2004 - 10:54am
I adopted 3 adult girls on the same day. I knew I wanted adults, so I looked at the tags on their cages, looking for ones that had been there the longest, & were the oldest, & were in danger of being put down. I wasn't thinking all that much about coloring, though I do have colors that I prefer & others that I don't. I finally had it narrowed down to 5 cats. One was a young boy w/the extra toes that some cats have. I took him out of the cage & put him down. He was a little awkward w/his exrtra toes, & was more interested in exploring around than in greeting me. So I eliminated him. Another was a boy who was considerably older. I was taking so long deciding, that another couple chose him while I was still deciding. The person working there told me I could have him--that I had seen him first. I said, "Oh no. This is the best possible way to eliminate one--by having somebody else take him." :o) So I came home with Abby & Daisy, who had been surrendered by previous owners & who already had names, & my soon-to-be-named Miss Moxie, who had been a stray. Part of the reason she got her name was that she had the moxie to bust out of her cardboard carrier on the drive home. LOL. Abby died only 8 months later. :o( But my other 2 girls are still the joys of my life. :o)
Katz

 

 Katz

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-24-2004
Tue, 08-24-2004 - 2:14am
This is the story of how we came together with our daring (spoiled) Zelda, a very beautiful (and she knows it) Turkish Van:

My husband and I moved into a new apartment a little over a year ago and were dying to get a pet. We live upstairs, so our only option was to get a cat (dogs are only allowed down-stairs). We went to our local animal shelter just to take a look and my husband immediately saw one that he was interested in. We looked at a couple of more and then left. About 2 weeks later, we went back just to take another look and I found one that I was interested in. After about a week, we went back, and his was still there. We took her out of the cage and let her walk around for a bit and she seemed very sweet. I went to put her back in the cage and, before I could get the door shut, she quickly turned around and put her front paws up on my chest and looked at me. Yeah, that was it. I melted! We adopted her right then! She is such a sweetheart and hilarious!! She 'talks' ALL THE TIME!! Even giving us a lecture when we get home from work LOL!!! Here lately she's become quite facinated with the idea of drinking out of the sink and licking the water off of the walls while one of us is in the shower. I'm waiting for her to actually jump in LOL

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-12-2003
Tue, 08-24-2004 - 4:37pm
My dh's and my first cats were Missy, who we got from friends because their cat didn't get along with her (my dh was crazy about her and vice-versa). Then we got Abigail from the SPCA, it took about a week for them to get use to each other but then they got along famously! Well, Abigail died when 7 years ago (she was 13), Missy died when she was 18. After about a month of being "catless" we adopted two sisters from the SPCA, Skittles and Licorice. Recently, we got a puppy....
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-23-2002
Thu, 08-26-2004 - 12:32pm

Great question Carin!


(Good to see you have a "Boots" also!)


My Boots, Patches, & Thomasina were all gotten within the same year as kittens by my dh's mother.


iVillage Member
Registered: 10-12-2010
Thu, 08-26-2004 - 4:10pm
Skittles & Licorice, huh? Is there a sweettooth in the house? LOL. It's nice that Abigail & Missy were friends. I never had cats who got along. :( Are Skittles & Licorice friends?
Katz

 

 Katz

 

 

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