HOW DID YOU GET INTO CATS?

[jenna97]

Personally?I was raised around animals(cats,dogs,pigs,chickens,etc.) and I always had access to at least one cat.My mom had a feral tom(a literal feral tom) that slept in my crib.He died.We moved,and the neighbors had cats.We moved again.At my fathers house I had a big wolf dog cross-he was my dog-and I can remember seeing that dog running from a cat that was chasing it. When I was five or six (now 17) My mom shoved my current cat,a kitten too young to be weaned,into my arms and told me it was my cat,it was my job to take care of it,and that the first time I messed up the cat was getting put down.She fed her before she could eat solids,but once she was weaned,my cat was my full responsibility.I've had her for 11 years and hope to have her for a lot longer.So while my cat is what got me focused on cats,I've always obsessed about animals,so it wasn't too big a switch to focus on cats.

 

[misterwhiskers]

My brother brought home our first cat when I was four. After that, other siblings added to the menagerie. Funny thing my brothers are largely cat people while among us sisters, I'm the only one to have only a cat--they are dog lovers.

 

[Columbine]

My mum grew up with cats and has always loved them. She was cat - less when I was born. When I was 2 1/2 (I think) we were offered a cat that had turned up at my aunts apartment building. Mum refused as she thought I was too young (the cat ended up with my grandparents in a big country house that backed onto farmland and had an idyllic life).

Within 6 months a little white female appeared on our doorstep. She'd belonged to a neighbour who'd recently got a big dog...Willow did *not* approve and voted with her paws! She stayed with us for the rest of her life. She was always a touchy little thing and only had eyes for mum. I loved her but was always a little scared of her. That wasn't uncommon...She was feisty and strong minded. All the local dogs would shrink away from her when they saw her, and had a tendency to rush past our drive to get away as soon as they could. She had no qualms about rushing up to Germany shepherd dogs and swiping them on the nose for daring to come near her territory!

When I was 6 my parents decided I was old enough for a cat of my own. We got 2 British cream shorthair. The intention had been to get one, but the one we fell for was the runt of the litter. The breeders asked if we'd take his brother too. Said brother had appointed himself as protector of little one, and the breeder didn't want to separate them. These two were Amber (for his eyes) and Jamie. Amber was hit by a car as a kitten - he survived but the top part of both femurs had shattered and had to be removed. I have to say that this never held him back, but he did have a tendency to get stuck up trees!

 

[jcat]

Being the child of animal lovers, I grew up in a "zoo". The one type of house pet we didn't have in our nuclear family was birds, but some close relatives had them. My husband and I became a "cat-only household" over 15 years ago mainly because cats best fit our "DINK" lifestyle at the time; my preference would be to have cats, dogs, rodents, maybe a goat or two...

 

[di and bob]

I grew up tending a 'zoo', I had everything from snakes, to baby bats, to lizards, to the always present dog and cat. and then to everything else imaginable! I have always been a 'defender' of animal rights, and to me cats became the number one priority when I repeatedly saw for myself how they are abused and persecuted. I saw a driver purposely swerve to hit a cat, I've seen people sic their dogs on them and laugh! 

I've heard hunters laughing that they shot them in the fields, and countless other stories that will haunt me forever. How anyone could hurt one of these beautiful creatures was beyond me! Now I just do what I can in my own world, I donate heavily to our no kill shelter and plan on helping there when I retire, I helped to make our shelter aware of the TNR program and they have brought it to the attention of our city council who still traps and euthanizes feral cats on their own and passed a law making it illegal to feed feral animals. (I guess I am the owner of a LOT of really shy cats!) And my husband says I am trying to feed the world, because I can never turn a starving stray from my house. I have spayed and neutered MANY cats that have shown up here and found them good homes. If I found them a home before I had a chance to spay. I left the money at the vets to have it done.  I guess all I can say is I'm doing the best I can to make any cat's life a little more comfortable and bearable. I can't change the world, but I can change MINE!

 

[tara g]

I've had cats for as long as I can remember. In 1993, my dad had a shop cat named Muffler that had kittens under a truck bed he kept scrap metal in. (prior to her, he had a shop cat named Sunshine, and also saved 2 kittens from his parking lot and named them Camshaft and Turbo). Anyway, we pulled all the kittens out from under the truck bed and put them in a big box inside the shop - some of his customers adopted them. Two gray tabbies were left, and one of them had a maggot eating away at his neck. We brought him home to take care of him, which left one lonely chunky tabby kitten in the box. My dad told my mom the one at home needed a sibling to keep him company, so we ended up with 2 at the house. Battery & Mag (all of the kittens had been named after car-related parts obviously lol, a trend that my parents kept going with later cats also). Battery was more my kitty, he would sleep in my bed. Mag would always sleep with my brother. We had them for 10 and 11 years. After Battery died in 2003, my mom had adopted a Tuxedo kitten from a vet's office 2 weeks later. The kitten (we named her Chassis) & Mag bonded immediately. After we moved, we found out Mag had kidney failure. We were treating him as best we could, and he lived for 2 weeks after we moved - had an amazing day chasing birds on the deck the day before he left us. We also brought home a kitten that was born at the recycling center nearby that day ... and it was like he wanted to make sure Chassis had another buddy before he died ... he stood over the kitten (Caliper), followed her around for awhile, then died the next morning. My mom added a 3rd cat after I moved out, a Siamese mix named Tailpipe.

So, I've had cats IN house as far back as when I was 6 years old. My grandma had two cats that were 17 & 18 when I was a kid, so I was always around them too. I have had cats constantly since '93 - my ex had 1 when I moved in with him, when she died we got 2 more, then ended up with 3 total together before we split. I still have 2 now!

I cant imagine my life without cats in it.

 

[posiepurrs]

I grew up in an animal loving home. My father used to say that he didn't like cats but that wasn't true. I found 2 tiny kittens at work. Their mother had been killed, so I took them home,called our vet and he told me what to do. After Dad got acquainted with them, that was the end of his dislike. He brought home Weird Harold after that - a coal black polydactyl cat that he rescued from being abused. The name fitted the cat, by the way. The only time in my life I have ever been petess is just after I got married and our apartment did not allow pets. I love them all, not just cats, although I think they are my favorite.