Question of the Day - Monday, August 5, 2024

[MoochNNoodles]

Its finally really summer break! And 2 weeks till school starts. But I’m trying not to think too much about it yet.

DH just text me a bunch of cat pictures from work. He was at a clients and their cat kept trying to climb in his truck. He said he put her back on the porch but she ran back in the truck before he could get in. She changed her mind when he started it. The owner said she is 14 and mostly indoors but she does have a tipped ear and wears a bright collar to identify as having a home. She’s just friendly and probably knows he keeps cat treats on him. It makes his day when he gets to see cats and friendly dogs. He’s become well trained sometime in the last 23 years. But he hasn’t brought home any yet so that’s good.


What was the strangest way you ever brought home a cat/dog/etc?


All my cats have come through a shelter except for one who came from a cousin of my mothers. My mom did bring home a puppy from the dollar store though. (A year or so before I got married and moved out.) Some boys were carrying her around saying their dog had puppies and their mom said they couldn’t keep any. (It was right next to a lower income part of town.) Her whiskers were singed off on one side and when mom saw that she couldn’t say no. Hopefully she was the last of the litter. She lived a good long time for a dog her size too!

My stepdad accidentally rehomed one of his cats when he sold a car. (I would have lost it!!) Apparently the car went a good distance away and the people loved her when they called because they discovered her. She didn’t particularly like him or my stepsiblings so they decided it was better to just let them keep her and give her a happier home. My stepdad was a single dad full time and had 2 cats at the time who had had litters about a day apart. At one point He had 2 moms to fix and a bunch of little hooligan kittens running around to rehome as well as elementary aged kids. The other cat had a kitten stuck and needed an emergency vet delivery. She also would ignore her babies and let the cat who rehomed herself steal them to feed unless he intervened. Maybe the poor cat was like “Finally peace and quiet!!” I would have had to go get her no matter how far; but it did sound like things worked out good for the cat.

 

[NY cat man]

I've told it before, but it was when Michele and I went to the town clerk's office to get our marriage license. A woman came in and asked where Bobby T_____ was, as someone had dumped a puppy, and it had come to her house, and Bobby was the guy who handled such things, as the town had no contract with the SPCA. We asked, and she said it was a German shepherd, and it was in her car. We went out and looked, and said that we'd take him, and we did. I even got the notarized copy of the license, which I needed for my GI Bill education benefits for free, instead of the normal $5 fee.

 

[susanm9006]

My son and had our first cat at the time, Brandy, who was about two. I was walking to the pool on a miserably hot day and there was an older kitten sheltering under a vehicle. Came back from swimming, she was playing in the parking lot. Didnt want another cat and went indoors but couldn’t stop thinking about the kitten , so an hour later I brought in Daisy. Had no concept of cat introductions, just plopped her down, and Brandy checked her out. They were friends within ten minutes. Daisy came with fleas, worms, and no knowpledge of using a litterbox so her first few weeks were a challenge. But she was an incredibly smart, playful cat. The only thing she hated was yelling or the telephone ringing. She would pull the telephone off the hook when it rang so there was always a rush to get to it before her. And if Cory and I were arguing with loud voices she would climb me to paw at my mouth until I stopped. We had her nearly two years before she died suddenly of heart failure.

 

[neely]

We were in a wooded area at a nature center and found a large, handsome tuxedo cat. There was a vet clinic nearby so we brought the cat there in case it had any health issues or needed medical care.. He had no collar and microchips were not as common back then as they are now so we couldn't have the clinic check for one. We left him there since they also had a small adoption center. But when we got home we thought about the cat and called the clinic. They said someone had expressed interest in him and if they didn't adopt him they'd let us know. Sure enough we got a call and the rest was history. I took this pic from a snapshot of him.

 

[Winchester]

Our neighbors were in Vegas. When they came home, they found a wee kitten under their car. She called me and said, "What the heck do I do with a kitten?!" I took some food over and the little girl/boy came out from under the car, climbed into my lap and starting eating, purring the whole time. I didn't know what to do with her and I knew that bringing her home would cause WW3.

But when the woman's husband said, "If you don't take this ******* cat, I'm gonna take it out for a ride!" Meaning he was going to take a 4-5 week old kitten out and dump it off somewhere. He threatened to "toss the cat out his car window". And that's how we got Tabby. And it did cause WW3. Tabby had a ton of vet bills as she had one of the worst cases of ear mites our vet had ever seen. But in a few weeks, she became Rick's favorite little girl. Tabby can do no wrong! Tabby is just purrfect! And 13 years later, that still holds true. He adores that girl.

 

[KittyFriday]

I have no idea why, but when I was a kid we went to a Relay for Life and there was a family there giving away kittens. We brought home two, lol. That was a great night - it was the classic "ask your mother..." then "ask your father..." and in the end we just got them.

Also, when I was 11 I adopted a puppy from the shelter - my parents told me I could have a puppy if I scored a basket playing basketball. I was more of a passer than a shooter, so the coaches actually put together plays to get me the ball so I could score. I did it, and was able to bring home the most wonderful little Lab mix.

 

[margecat]

All of my cats have been strays/rescues. The weirdest rescue was a kitten. DH had a K9 cop friend who liked cats, but couldn't have them due to having several of his K9s at home (the males are left intact to preserve aggression). Also, I think he was allergic to cats. He got a call from one of the dispatchers who heard someone dumping the kitten by her mailbox late at night. She didn't know how to care for a sick 4-week-old kitten, so she asked him if he could get help. He called DH. I was asleep on the sofa, sick when he woke me up and asked if we could take a kitten. I was groggy when I got a call from what I thought was the SPCA (we were known for doing rescue). Back then, our SPCA was a notorious kill shelter. I asked the guy what they were feeding her, what meds, etc. "I'm not from the SPCA, I'm a volunteer and have the cat in my car. I'm in the parking lot of McDonald's. And Ma'am, as far as anyone knows, you and I never had this conversation." (He knew if he took the kitten to the SPCA, they'd put her down.) DH met him in the parking lot of McDonald's. They never exchanged names, only Sarah the kitten. After 1 week of bottle feeding and 5 kinds of meds, she got healthy. I had to bottle feed her every couple of hours, including overnight. I also had what she had: a bad cold/respiratory infection, and worked full-time. Luckily, my boss is a cat-lover, and let me take vacation hours so I go leave at lunchtime, go home, and feed and medicate her.

This was the shadiest thing I've ever done, lol.

 

[allmykitties]

I've told this one before, and it was a joint effort with my Dad (the first anniversary of his death is tomorrow/August 6th).

I was in first grade, walking home from school in the week after Thanksgiving. So it was wintry/with snow on the ground. A car came up the road toward me (heading out of the subdivision--I lived at the next to last house on the street). They literally threw this cat out the window. She was mostly white with patches of black and dilute orange, her tail was rings of stripes of those two colors. Then the car drove off.

I picked up the cat and told her that if she came with me she could have lots of turkey because we had leftovers. I'd carry her for a bit, then let her down and encourage her to follow me. So she followed me (or "followed" by being carried) all the way the half mile from school. I get home, and tell my mom "this kitty followed me home from school. Can we keep her?"

Mom says that we can't let the cat in because if you let the cat in you won't be able to get it out and Dad wouldn't want a cat. Well, an hour after I got home from school was when Dad got home from work. This whole time, the cat sat at the foot of the driveway, meowing.

Dad always parked on the street, and he did so that day, and he picked up the cat and tucked her under his winter overcoat and brought her into the house. He was never able to deny affection for cats after that.

 

[vampiric_conure]

My first three cats were by far the strangest rescues. My first cat, Anpu, was adopted by a neighbor who didn't bother neutering his cats and his females kept having kittens. At one point he had 7-10 cats in a 1-bedroom apartment. I got this tiny little girl I called Anpu. She was so inbred that she stayed the size of a kitten. Then one day when I had her on the bus, she not only escaped her harness, but she escaped her carrier and was 'stolen' by a neighborhood kid. I never did get her back, despite the trip to the humane society and notices all over people's doors. But the humane society called me and said they may have found her... it was another girl, but I kept her. Called her Countess. The HS said because she looked like my cat and they were overflowing with cats, I could just take her. Her markings were almost identical to Anpu's.. it was weird. Then 2 months later I got a cat from a local rescue to be friends (HA!) with Countess. Didn't work out, but I loved them anyway and kept them until neighbors from hell forced me to give them up, 8 years later. (Long story. I hope I never have neighbors like that again...)

And here I am 13 years later with Puddles. .

 

[MonaLyssa33]

It's not that strange, but it's the most unique situation I've been in with one of my animals.

I never planned on getting a second dog, but I belong to a Facebook group for the families who adopted a puppy from the same litter and the rescue posted that one of the puppies (they were a year old by then) got returned to the rescue and he needed a new foster home because he needed more space.
I fostered Roo (his name at the time was Bhairu, pronounced Bye-Roo, so I just ended up calling him Roo all the time) for a few weeks and right before Christmas I decided that I was going to have him adopted out because he was a lot more work than I realized. I hosted Christmas and he was so amazing with my nieces: gentle, very sweet and really interested in playing with them. His first family had kids, so that's why he was so good with them.
My sister asked if I was sure about returning him and I said that I was having doubts before, but I was having more after seeing him around the kids. I thought about it more and ended up having several dreams about him being my dog and how I couldn't let him go. So in early January 2021, I officially adopted him.
Another reason I was reluctant to give him up was because I could tell he had some trauma about being returned and it broke my heart to think about him getting shuffled to another home. I also suspect that the reason he was returned was because the family might have had a house fire. He reacts very strongly to the smell of smoke and is a trembling mess. He's gotten better about it over the years though and at least doesn't tremble when I cook anymore.
Because of his trauma, it took awhile to connect with him so I could train him, but one night I was able to get through to him and he's been very easy to train since. It also took awhile for him to be playful with me and he would often just shut down when I'd try, but he eventually understood that it was okay to be playful.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

Ooh I can trot out the story of Hadji's adoption again!
Ini 1995 my mum and I worked at different places in the Melbourne CBD. Neither of us drove then (Mum never did). One day she rang me at work asking "How would you feel about getting a kitten?" - we had Mamie and Magnus, both adults, at the time. Silly question, of course I loved the idea, and ran around telling everyone about it (since this was in the Museum of Victoria, that was a fair bit of running around).

This is what had happened. One of Mum's co-workers had come in saying "That little kitten's still in the car park." Since Mum didn't drive she never went near the car park, she came in the street entrance. "What kitten?" she demanded and flew out to see. The tiniest, most ragged scrap of kittenhood was out there, tucked in by a fence. There was a feral colony in that area, in around the office buildings, but no sign of any cats around. This boy was barely four weeks old, obviously too young to be away from his mother. We guessed that maybe workmen in the area had picked him up - do mother cats abandon their kittens if they smell wrong? - but never knew, obviously.

Anyway Mum got him into a cardboard box with some towels, fed him some watered milk, and brought him to my work on the tram. After that we were lucky to get him home in one piece, all my workmates wanted to cuddle him! But we took him home on the train, cleaned him and got some kitten milk and next day took him to our vet - who shook his head and said "He's so young, you'd be doing hourly feeds. Kindest thing to do is put him to sleep." Mum responded with outrage - "He survived 24 hours alone, no shelter, no food. He's a fighter." So we got him treated for everything - washed and cleaned to get rid of the fleas, dosed to get rid of the worms, ear drops to get rid of the mites, and took turns taking days off to stay home looking after him. It was two weeks before Mum was retiring, and luckily my boss was a cat person and had seen him on his Museum tour, so she was understanding. Only difficulty was that Hadji interpreted "hourly feeds" to mean "feeds that lasted an hour".

Hadji (named for Harold Nicolson, who Mum and I were rather fond of after watching Portrait of a Marriage) was with us fifteen years. From that tiny scrap he grew to a small, chunky, very glossy medium-hair black cat, with the sweetest nature ever, and zero hunting urge.