Where Did You Get Your Cats?

Did they come from a breeder? A shelter? A former stray or feral? A rescue?

As for mine, Katara, my British longhair was brought home through an adoption. She was a failed breeder who had two litters of kittens and abandoned both of them so the breeder didn't have any use for her anymore so she came home with me and was immediately spayed. She's a complete doll.


Biscuit, my ragdoll, also came home through an adoption. He has strabismus which means he's slightly cross eyed. It's barely noticeable and sometimes you can't tell at all and it doesn't affect his quality of life. Since he wasn't "perfect" (he is to me!) I only had to pay a small adoption fee to bring him home.


Along with my two indoor kitties, I have two strays who I claim as my own. Their names are Louis and Leo. I TNRed them a year ago and they've really tamed down since then. I have been wanting to bring them in and make them indoor cats to give them a better life, but I just haven't taken the plunge yet.

Here's my indoor and outdoor cats checking each other out.


So tell me, what's the story of how you got your furbabies?

Lexi had been abused and we adopted her from the SPCA. She had a dislocated hip and a hole in her trachea.
Our 2 daughters adopted Loki from Animal Control (which fortunately is now part of the Humane Society) and gave him to my wife for a Christmas present.
We adopted Bonnie and Clyde at the same time from the Humane Society.

Charlie was born feral. He was found by my mother's coworker when he was two months old, with no sign of a litter anywhere near by. She wasn't able to keep him, so she asked Mom if she knew anyone who wanted a kitten. Mom immediately texted me. Three years later, he's (mostly) outgrown his feral ways, but is just as smart and confident as ever.

When I decided to get a second cat, I went to my local shelter. One kitten in the cat room kept crawling into my lap. When I picked her up, she immediately laid her head on my shoulder and started purring. I knew she was the one, and I guess she knew I was the one. Selene immediately made herself at home and bonded with Charlie. Nearly two years later, she owns the place.

Charlie and Selene, not long after I brought Selene home-

Chesterfield and Sir Eats-A-Lot came from shelters. Meep "came" from under my car.

Toby, a Himalayan we got from a breeder . Chickie a black persian from another breeder.
Butchie came from our humane society. Those are the 3 cats we have now.
Past cats would be Himmie , another Himalayan we inherited when my mom died.
Bucky a Himalayan from the humane society.
Sonny was from a litter of kittens at the vet.
Bingo was from a friends farm.
Augie was from the humane society and he was the 1st cat we got as adults.
We have a 3 cat rule which is really hard to stick to.

Aico and Nacho both came from breeders. I am obsessed with British shorthairs and I'm surprised I don't have more of them. I was considering getting another and decided against it since I have a baby on the way.

My sister lives with me and she also has a cat. His name is Achilles and he was a rescue cat that came from a hoarder situation. He was super skittish when he first came here, but after six months or so he blossomed into a confident cat.

By the way, Louis and Leo look like they're dying to come inside. Take the plunge!

I have gotten all of my cats from a breeder. I always loved how Persians looked so I wanted one. I keep get a new one when I lose one. I have had 2 Persians and am on my 3rd Himalayan now. I think they are beautiful.

My Theodore, a seal lynx point Himalayan. He just turned 1 year old in June. I got Theo from Cuddlepaws Cattery.

My cat came from a TNR that does adoptions - she was trapped at 13ish weeks, spayed and put in a foster home to socialize, and I adopted her through them.

My fiancé's cat apparently came to his parents' back door - he let her in, fed her tuna, she made herself at home and the rest was history.

We currently have two cats, one of which predates my relationship with Randall.

Randall had one cat, Trin (an adoption from a shelter) and he had recently lost his other cat Neo before we met. A friend called him up and told him a 5 week old kitten wandered into their back yard in Florida. Her son had named him rainbow kitty because he was grey, white, bloody, dirty and flea ridden. Randall decided he was one guy with one cat and didn’t need another one so he told them to take him to a shelter where he would be quickly adopted. A while late the friend called back and said he was hissing and scratching them and she thinks he just wants to be a wild cat and she was going to let him go. Randall took the bait and picked up kitten food and a carrier and drove over. This kitten had fleas, two types of parasites, and was missing a front fang. They are now inseparable 8 years later.





Olive was our neighbor’s cat that had been abandoned by the previous renters in our house in California. When the neighbor moved away, she told us the maintenance guy would feed her. She said that Olive has litterbox issues and just wants to be an outside cat. Well, we couldn’t let this sweet little kitty be abandoned any more times so we took her in. So far no litter issues at all and she is a snuggly pampered indoor kitty.

Five of our 6 were ferals that showed up at our house as kittens and became accustomed to us, and eventually came inside. Those are Burdock, Prancer, Stretch, Digger, and Bashful. The sixth, Miss Eleanor, was a TNR who found her way to us, hung around, and has now joined the others as an inside-only cat.

I adopted Blue very soon after loosing my other cat.
I wasn't really in the mindset to be looking so soon for another cat but a friend was pressuring me to look at Blue and the vet told me to go and do it.
When I saw they way he was living and his aggression when you tried to touch him, the way he ran away when you got to near and hissed at you I nearly walked away. Bengals can be a lost cause when they have been left to run wild and been mistreated and not understood. A lot of people buy them for their looks (spend thousands) and then cant cope with the rest of the package you get..and believe me the low F numbers can be a handful..in your face 24/7 and hyper active and can wreck your house and your mind.
Then he ran between my feet..grabbed my shoelaces and rolled over in front of me and gave a look of pure fun and nonsense..that was it..He took my heart then and I took him home. He has been a lot of work to socialise, had to teach him how to play, he had no concept of any physical interaction and any attempt to pat he reacted defensively with tooth and claw because the only hand contact he had experienced was being punished just for being a cat.
Now he is a joy to have..had a soft gentle nature hidden underneath all this aggression and never thought I would say it but a pain in the butt wanting cuddles and face rubs all the time.
Thats Blues story and how I got him and so glad I took the risk and brought him home.

Heres a pic of him when he first got home..skinny..under nourished and stressed.

Rescue from stray cat litter of kittens. She had her kits in my neigbours backyard. My mom picked him out - surprised me when I came home from school one day. I was 12, Felix was 4 weeks old. Had him for almost 9 years now.

Lola (the cat I have now) came from a local animal shelter. My first cat (also named Lola) was one of two kittens found living under a lady's porch. Then I've "had" a bunch of barn cats throughout the years.

"Rescued" has always been my family's and my favorite "breed" and until there is not one cat in need of a loving permanent home, that's how it'll be. All of my family's and my cats have always been "rescued", as far as I know, except for my mom's cross-eyed, kink-tailed, blue-blooded mile-long-pedigreed Siamese boy, long before I came along.
My furmily is currently Tarifa, adopted from a friend who did rescues and adoptions, Baby Su, born feral and scooped up from under one of our ancient junipers out in the Mojave, and Elvis, adopted from a guy who loved him but who married his "allergic" fiancee. *He still gets photos from us.*

Over the years there have been seven. Three came from private homes, one was a foster fail, two came from shelters and one found me.

Mowgli is from our local shelter. He was found in a rain barrel near a feral colony at approximately 4 months of age, tamed, adopted out, then returned. He was around 9 months old when I brought him home.

Our last cat was from a cat rescue organization. His pregnant mother was trapped at a feral colony and had her kittens in a foster home. Jamie came to us at 10 weeks.

Cocoabean, came from a local rescue organization. She was found outdoors after Hurricane Sandy. She was of unknown age, approximately 3-5 at the time, unspayed, timid but very socialized. She's been with us now for 6-1/2 years.



Casper, who we lost due to illness (primarily CKD) in February, was a much loved "hand me down". A good friend who raised him from a kitten found himself at a cross-roads in life when Casper was 8-1/2 years old. After much hand wringing and tears on the friends part he eventually realized it was in Casper's best interests to give him up to us and he walked in to our home like he'd always been living with us. We lucked out. Casper was with us another 9 years of his life.



Now, coming soon to our home, for the first time will be a purebred kitten, a black Maine Coon. We will be picking her up at the end of the summer. We already were on another breeder's waiting list when by happenstance I looked on another breeders list I've known about for several years that had been our first choice at one point. This other breeder, now only uses Facebook and well, we dropped off FB quite some time ago and her website is no longer maintained. I do have a throw away account there still, and last week decided to take a look and there were 2 litters that still had kittens available - including a black one, which is what we wanted. I literally did everything possible to get in touch with her and finally, this past Monday connected and spoke over the phone. Sent a deposit and that was that! No pictures yet - will be receiving some from the breeder shortly (the one I have is from her FB page and I'm not entirely sure she's my kitten so not spreading it around).

They all were picked up from the streets, one from a tree.

Hima got me. She was a stray. Became one of the strays I feed in my yard when she showed up underweight with clear discharge from the nose. But unlike others she never left the yard rather knocked on the window and door forever so I would let her in. I resisted for a long time until the first time she got sick and I realized I had already fallen in love with her.