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[KarenKat]

ENTRY

Olive always is surprising us. When she was abandoned by our neighbor, she not only lost her hooman, the other cat, but also the dog that had recently died as well. Her family was gone and she sat around looking lost in the yard. That night, I thought I would go and pet her and see if she wanted to come and live on our side of the fence. While Randall went to go play Playstation VR for 15 min, I went to go make a friend. I went into the yard and sat on the concrete to see if she wanted me to pet her. She came right up and purred her little heart out, and kept trying to climb closer to my face. I was pretty uncomfortable, and she kept acting like she wanted to be held. So I picked her up and she just settled in my arms, purring louder. I slowly walked to our yard so I could sit comfortably in a chair. 15 min later Randall found us like this, with Olive asleep in my arms.

This started a few-week long tradition of me sitting in the chair at night and her leaping into my arms to go to sleep. Kind of breaks my heart that two families rejected this gentle little love-bug.

 

[2rescuekitties]

ENTRY

Toby has recently learned a new trick and it's just so super cute....He has a favorite jingly ball that he loves to bat around. I was watching TV one night and I heard the jingling. Well all of a sudden Toby comes pouncing on the bed with the ball in his mouth...He drops it right in front of me and without thinking I just grab it and throw it out of the bedroom and down the hall for him thinking that was going to get him playing with it....Well to my surprise he comes running back onto the bed with the ball in his mouth and drops it in front of me againIt was absolutely the sweetest thing ever! So the last few weeks we have been working on him knowing what "do you want to play fetch means", and he's so smart that he goes and grabs his ball for me...I tell him "sit Toby" and he sits down and then waits for me to throw it

 

[weebeasties]

Ok, this may be a wee bit long, but it has LOTS of surprises and happy endings.

ENTRY

So there was this really skinny feral tomcat that I started feeding. We named him Rocky. After a really long time I decided to try and socialize him. He stayed outside during this, but slowly began to trust me and I thought " Buddy, I'll make a housecat out of you yet!"
So we had finally gotten to the point where I could touch him without him running away. I walked outside to feed him one morning and put the food in his dish on the porch. Instead of rushing to his food, he continued to sit on the walkway leading to our garage. He would look at me and meow and then look to the garage and meow and then back to me. What was wrong? I called to him but he kept looking back and forth meowing. Then, out from the bushes beside the garage, came a little tortie cat. He took a step toward her, then turned and stepped toward me, meowing the whole time. He continued to reassure her with headbuts and then talk to me. He brought her closer and closer until they were only a few feet away from me. I slowly put his food dish down at the end of the walk way and backed off. He led her to the dish, where she began to eat like a bear. He just sat there watching her eat and looking very pleased with himself. SURPRISE! Rocky had just introduced me to Jasmine.
Jasmine, though petite, was an eating machine. For the next couple of weeks I watched and fed her. I couldn't get very close to her, but she stayed near the house, hiding under our jasmine bushes. I wanted to catch this frightened girl quickly before she got pregnant.
Then one day I had taken the screens out of the windows to scrub them. A curious Jasmine jumped through the window. Quick as a flash I shut the window. I had her!
I took her to be vetted, vaccinated, and schedule a spay. SURPRISE! Already pregnant. So I watched her balloon out for three more weeks and then she gave birth to Spike under our bed.
She still looked huge 20 hours later and seemed uncomfortable so back to the vet. The vet said there were complications and they needed to do a c-section. She doubted she could save the kittens, but she could save Jasmine.
Later she called us to the back. Jasmine was recovering and SURPRISE the other two kittens were alive! So there was little black Spike and the two orange newcomers. (Sunshine and Zuzu.) All girls. (Apparently orange girls are a bit unusual, so I'll throw in a SURPRISE for that too.)
So we couldn't bear to part with our little miracles and our family got bigger. Jasmine, who started out as a very frightened feral, SURPRISE adjusted to a loving housecat very quickly.
That left Rocky. We continued to work with him and finally moved him into the house about 5 months later. Sweet Rocky. SURPRISE! The same cat that at one time would not let me within 50 feet of him. He became the biggest lap cat! He loves cuddling. I think he is trying to make up for all the love he missed out on in the first half of his life.
We are very lucky to have these sweet, surprising babies in our lives!

 

[KarenKat]

weebeasties What an awesome story! I love that Rocky took care of his sweet little tortie friend ...

 

[weebeasties]

weebeasties What an awesome story! I love that Rocky took care of his sweet little tortie friend ...

Thanks.
I've always wondered if Rocky is the daddy...I'll never know, but I guess it's not important. Biological relation or not, they are family by love.

 

[neely]

@gareth I'm always a day or two late or in this case two weeks late but just read your story and I'm going to let my hubby read it too. Words cannot express how sorry I am about Eva's demise but she was obviously a very special guardian watching over you. I will never forget this story or your sweet angel.

 

[Boris Diamond]

I love these stories! Cats are so entertaining and surprising in their actions! I can't imagine what life would be like without kitties!

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

ENTRY

One day I got a phone call from a coworker-they were looking for a home for a kitty. I wasn't ready for a cat but said what the hay? We had 2-had always had 3.

When we got there-this beautiful fluffy cat was walking around like no big deal. The lady patted her lap and the kitty hopped up. I was fascinated. I never had a cat who jumped on my lap on command. We decided to take her home-she made this god awful noise so we kept saying honey honey! She was happy to be in my home when we arrived.

My boyfriend got down on his knees and poked his face in the cage-she sniffed his face and looked at him like well open the d door! So he did-she slinked out sniffing the floor and walking all around the kitchen. She didn't hide and didn't mind us petting her. Then I put her on the counter and fed her a can of food=which she gobbled up.

Afterwards she jumped down, walked into the living room-jumped up on the couch and spread herself out on top of Jon's stomach-and proceeded to take a nap. And she fit right in. It was so cool seeing a kitty just come in our home like she was meant to be here. I felt so happy inside because I knew he was missing Flash-another kitty we had-she was Jon's cat, slept with him and was his buddy for 4 years.

So now watching this orange cat who we named Honeybee my heart was floating that we have another little friend to keep him company. She to this day still jumps up on him during the day and sleeps on him. She has given us many many smiles and stories...this is just one of the ones that stands out.

foxxycat - This was a wonderful, Heartwarming piece. I'd never heard Honeybee's story before, and now I understand why she's so very close to your Heart.
.

 

[foxxycat]

@gareth I forgot to post yesterday that I am so sorry you lost your heart kitty. Thank you for sharing her story with us. I hope the memories help sustain you. Sometimes they don't stay long with us and take a piece of our souls.

1CatOverTheLine This is what happened when Flash left us. We still had Floey and pumps-pumps is his cat but that other cat was just so special-she came to us sick and underweight-he teased me that I picked out a sickly cat from the shelter..I said no shes a sweetheart-that's why I picked her out- for some reason I was wandering lost that year, 2009 and needed a kitty=one to make our family whole. So Flash was with us from 2009 to 2012. then Honeybee came along in 2013. Just in time to catch us from a deep depression. These cats never fail to amaze me.

I love everyone's story!!!

 

[foxxycat]

ENTRY

Honeybee and Pumps don’t get along or they are not best friends. They tolerate each other. Honeybee teases her=the tap, tap, tap or just chases her. Pumps has started hissing at Honeybee-Bee just looks at her with a crooked head like what?!

Last night Honeybee jumped up on their couch bed and she stretched out in Pumpy’s area. Then Pumps came in from dozing on the deck. She climbed up on the couch and there was Honeybee in her spot. I expected her to jump down or lay on the opposite side. Nope she walked over to her corner and proceeded to lay down on Honeybee’s legs like this is my spot- and I am not moving. So for about half an hour Honeybee was laying there stretching out touching Pumps with her back feet. Pumps didn’t look to happy, I really expected her to get up and move. But nope. They stayed like that for half an hour until Jon brought out the treat bag to get Bee to move away from Pumps. They have never layed this close. Usually Pumpkin Face tolerates Bee and Bee wants a friend so bad-licks her and rubs against her which earns her a hiss or a swat. Bee is determined to be friends with her. Every day I see Bee crowd her more and more-never expected to see this last night.

 

[macmadame]

We are getting ready to sell our house and move. So it's been pretty crazy here and it's impacted our cats and dogs. Here is the first story of our crazy days:

ENTRY
We found out we had termites and we also wanted to refinish the floors. Both tasks required us to be out of the house for days. Staying in a hotel with five animals was prohibitively expensive. So we rented an RV and parked it in the driveway.

The first night it was hard getting the cats in there but we managed. The next day, my cat, Tabitha, was nowhere to be found! But there was no way she could have gotten out of the RV and she's a good hider so I figured she'd turn up eventually and went to work. Eventually we realized she had managed to slip out when the door was open in the morning.

We looked for her everywhere but couldn't find her.

That night my son heard her meowing and the other cats started going crazy which woke me up. We were outside at 2am with flashlights calling her and following rustlings. I was going to give up when I heard her tags jingling. I was able to see her in the flashlight but she would run away when I approached.

We continued to look the next day and night. I was outside around 10pm when I heard her tags jingling. We were able to follow the jingle and my son was able to grab her from behind a shed. But when I came around the corner with a cat carrier, she freaked out and ripped out of his hands leaving her collar with the jingling tags behind!

I was devastated because without the jingle I wasn't sure we could find her and I was going away camping in two days. There is no way I could go camping not knowing where she was! I asked for advice from friends but most of it was "oh, she'll come back" which is find if she didn't get run over or attacked by coyotes. A friend who fosters cats recommended a humane trap and I figured she knew what she was talking about and set about getting one.

I set it out that night by our front door (which was finally visible now that the fumigation tents were gone). I put her favorite treat in it and some food. Then the waiting began.

At one point, I checked the trap and the crunchy treats were gone! But no cat. Someone or thing had managed to get in and out without tripping the trap. I thought about it some and decided to put more treats in but in more places hoping she'd get excited and less careful trying to snarf them all up.

Sure enough, a few hours later I checked the trap and a very scared cat was in there. I brought the trap back to the RV and let her out and she was so happy to see me and be free.

For the rest of our time in the RV, she mostly hid under the front seats in the cab but she did come out to eat and get pets and didn't try to escape for the rest of our stay there.

All the cats are back in the house now, but there was to be one more adventure....

(continued tomorrow)

 

[happilyretired]

ENTRY

My Molly Brown is a rescue. She was thrown out of a car when she was about 3 years old and landed at a small rescue group that my vet works with. I'd just lost a cat to CRF, and my vet encouraged me to adopt Molly because she was so timid she didn't interact with strangers, and she'd been there for a year. My vet thought she might be 'unadoptable.'

I brought her home, and my other cats from shelters always made themselves at home within 15 min. But Molly hid--for over 2 weeks. I was frantic, and without the support of this board and my vet, I would have been overwhelmed.

Slowly, she emerged, and I assumed she'd always be somewhat aloof, but the first time she came into my TV room when I was sitting in the recliner, she jumped into my lap--and has been the most affectionate, loving cat I've ever had.
I'm 77, and I call myself a 'stay-at-home-mom' for my Molly.

 

[SpadaLuca]

@gareth, I cried so hard reading your story. Thank you so much for sharing, and I’m sorry that she’s no longer with you.

ENTRY (and a long story)

I have a two cat history of being really impatient with new cat introductions. I know it’s bad; I know I should take my time, follow the slow and methodical steps, and make sure everycat feels 100% comfortable before I leave them unattended.

But I live in an apartment, and base camp for new kitties is my tiny bathroom. It was fine when I brought Spada home—he was a two-month old small fry who seemed content enough to explore the bathroom that actually fit him. But I brought both Luca and Illia home at 4 months, and they very quickly started feeling cramped and irritable in the bathroom, even when they had time to run around the rest of the apartment with the older cats bugging them. So I got impatient.

The cat who surprised both times was Spada. He hates making new friends—as I said in my introduction post, he hisses, hits, and Halloween-cats. It’s like his social mantra. So, naturally, a smart, patient person would be very careful about introductions. I am not that person.

That isn’t to say I just tossed them in together and said, “Have at it!” With both Luca and Illia, I tried to stick to the steps. I really did. Luca lasted a week in the bathroom before I finally just said, “You’re driving me crazy being all cramped up in the bathroom, so you and Spada better work out your differences while I’m gone because I’m not dealing with this anymore!” And off to work for eight hours I went...

Illia lasted all of two days, although this time it was less impatience and more guilt on my part. On Fridays, I work both my of jobs and am gone for twelve hours. Four month old Illia would have been stuck in my tiny bathroom for twelve hours! So when I went to work the day before, I told her, “I know your big brothers are scary and Spada is rude to top it off, but you and I are gonna have a bad day tomorrow if you and him don’t work something out...”

While it happened both times, Illia surprised me the most because I left her unattended with the boys after only two days at home. Spada, of course, threw a fit before I left, but I got him to chill out just enough for me to try to trust him not to pick a huge fight. After a six hour shift that day, I came home to this miracle:

 

[Brian007]

Entry.

Seeing that Dudley and Parker won me my terrific TheCatSite t-shirt for my birthday present in April’s photo competition, and that these three tales are thematic, I am telling them together so as not to nab extra draw places.

I moved into my current flatshare late last April after a rather stressful first year with poor Dudley in my previous flat. This is pre-Parker time. Dudley took to my new flat and its relative ease instantly. In early June, when my flatmate had gone to work and I was in the flat alone with Dudley, I took a shower, as you do. When I went back into my bedroom there was a large artificial pink flower placed neatly, right in the middle, on my bedside table. I was taken aback with surprise as I stood there in my towel, and had to search the flat, check the front door, then message my flatmate to ask had she snuck back in to give me a present. When my flatmate said no she hadn't, we came to the only conclusion possible that if it weren't the 'Milk Tray Man' then Dudley had given me the flower as a present. It wasn't until my flatmate came home did I realise where the flower had come from, and that Dudley had heaved it from a vase full of glass pebbles by the bathroom door without disturbing it, then positioned the flower carefully and thoughtfully by my bed. Here is a reproduction of the scene, the flower in its original position, and a photo for scale with a 45cm measure, oh and a photo of sweet Dudley as he was then.



A couple of days after Dudley's 2nd birthday, this February 2018, he gave me another thank you present, I think possibly because I'd given him this very well-recieved Dudley-sized scratching lounger thingamabob.



The present was a cardboard deer taken with absolute care from the top of a free standing loud speaker in the living room, without disturbing the deer themed card I'd made my flatmate sitting next to it. The deer was then marched through the flat and laid presentationally at my door, as though Dudley had slain it and deposited it for me ala-mouse. A much nicer surprise than a dead mouse though, any day.



And Parker, never knowingly missing out on any goings on whatsoever, also brought me a present a day or so later. I was sitting on my bed when suddenly he bounced up on me with this pretty necklace all wrapped up in a gift bag just for me.



Aw, how sweet! He'd stolen it rather brazenly from my flatmate's room and brought it to my side, as if butter wouldn't melt. An "I can thank you just as well as Dudley can" present.

Aren't they both thoughtful boys!

Here's the most recent photo of them taken today, just because.

 

[Etarre]

Entry:

I've told a story about Gwendolyn, so now of course I feel obligated to tell a Juniper story, although I have fewer of them since she's so new to the family. Less than a week after we had brought Juniper home and introduced her to the apartment, my mother came to stay with us for the holidays. We were hoping that Juniper would enjoy having extra attention during her transition, but somewhat worried that extra strangers around would be intimidating. My mom, of course, was very patient and never approached her or made loud noises/startling movements around her, but Juniper is still uneasy with multiple people moving near her, even if it's only me and my husband in the same room.

So, after giving a cautious sniff to my mom's feet (Juniper's standard greeting), she disappeared. We expected her to hide, since we were congregated in the living room talking, and after a couple hours, I went to check on her just to say hello, which she seems to appreciate when she's hiding. Quickly after her arrival, she had claimed the bedroom closet, in particular the space way in the back corner behind an old a/c unit that's stashed there. But when I checked there, she wasn't there. I searched high and low for awhile before I gave up and figured she would eventually emerge for dinner, and headed to the gym. As I was changing for the gym, I pulled out the under-bed drawer where I keep my gym clothes only to find my little Juniper sitting very calmly (and dare I say a little smugly) right smack in the middle of the stack of clothes. I was so tickled that I burst into laughter, scaring her half to death, so I suppose that might explain why that drawer didn't become one of her favorite hiding places.

 

[Boris Diamond]

ENTRY

When I first got Diamond, he liked to lie on my chest. I noticed him getting closer and closer to the middle of my face. I was wondering what he would do if he got there. One day I found out. He bit my nose! Now if he starts getting close to my nose I put my hand up and turn my face to stop him.

 

[weebeasties]

ENTRY

When something scares our cats I'm used to them running and hiding under the couch or our bed. One day I pulled out the steam cleaner to clean some furniture. This steamer is very loud, so as I turned it on, all the cats scattered. As I'm working away, I felt a gentle pawing on my leg. I looked down to see a very frightened Sam looking up at me. I picked him up and carried him to the bedroom where it would be quieter and less scary. A minute later he was back beside me and the roaring steamer. I find it surprising and touching that when this boy is frightened he doesn't hide, he runs to me.

 

[LaLaJewel]

A beautiful story, what a Blessing to be a servant to such an amazing kitty...
I read your post and instantly began sobbing loudly, out loud, tears flowing, trying to catch my breath, OMGosh, no competition for your story...kitties who are PURE LOVE. THANK YOU, GARETH, FOR SHARING...

In 2011 my wife had an affair with one of my friends. I literally caught them kissing in a field one night. Over the next two months the affair went underground. That is they starting meeting secretly. I would catch them and catch them. I was desperately in love with my wife and didn't want to give up the marriage but she would not give up this other man. She would cry because she loved him so much whislt I was begging her to love me. It was just dreadful.

After weeks of paranoia and constant heartache I sank into a terrible depression. A very dark place. I saw no hope. Eventually I decided to end my own life. I didn't bother with notes or anything like that, just got myself good and drunk and took myself into bathroom one night when she was out, sat down, and opened up a brand new straight razor blade, fully intending to open up my own brachial artery.

What I hadn't counted on was this.

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• gareth
• Apr 11, 2013

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• gareth
• Apr 11, 2013

This was Eva. My little burmese cat who at that time was only a few months old.

She scrabbled at the door, distracting me from my stupid, and simply wouldn't quit until I let her in. She then crawled all over me, refusing to leave me alone, refusing to be ignored. I will go to my grave saying she knew what I was doing and stopped me. She kept this up for about 30 minutes until I obviously pulled myself together a bit and collapsed into bed.

The next day I found a bunch of soppy love letters from my wife to my friend, and from him to her. I sank back into a terrible place and got myself good and drunk and decided this time I would do it no matter how much Eva scrabbled at the door. She scrabbled at the door for fifteen minutes whilst I cried and told her to go away.

Eventually she went away and I focussed back on trying to work up the cuts to slash my own upper arm. At which point Eva came in through the window. She mucst have forced open the catflap (which only opened inwards), gone up a tree and jumped an amazing distance to get to the open bathroom window. She then leapt into my arms, suprising the hell out of me. I was so shocked I came straight out of my stupor, and looking into her eyes realised that I had to live, for her if not for my wife, because she clearly loved me.

I gave my wife divorce papers the next day and told her I would give her one chance to stop everything and go into single and couples therapy, and that she had one chance to save her marriage. My wife took that chance and seven years later, after years of therapy, our marriage is now far stronger than it ever was and we have a beautiful baby daughter.

It took me two years to tell my wife I forgive her, and that I had decided that we had built a strong enough relationship for me to want to recommit to it. That was the 10th June 2013.

A week later on the 18th June 2013 Eva escaped from the house, was hit by a car, and died instantly. It was the day before her second birthday. I have never been so traumatised in my life. That cat literally saved my life. Twice. When I felt more alone than I have ever felt she made me realise that life is worth living, that it is full of love for the taking and the giving, and that there is always something worth fighting for. When she died she took part of my heart and soul with her.

The 'suprise' was not the jumping in the window. The suprise was that I simply did not know it wass possible to love a cat as much as I loved Eva after that. She opened up my heart.

I think of her, and thank her, every day without exception, and whilst I am grateful for the memories, her sweet but insistent miaow still haunts my dreams from time to time and on those days I miss her more than I could ever express to someone not a member of this website.

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• gareth
• Apr 11, 2013

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• gareth
• Apr 11, 2013

 

[KarenKat]

Entry:

When we first adopted Olive and started the introductions to Trin and Gohan, we were trying to predict how it would go. When we were scent swapping, Trin ignored her scent and pretended like nothing happened. Gohan carefully sniffed every inch of the towel/hand/blanket as if he could see the future. We thought Gohan would integrate fine because he knew what was coming and Trin might be upset. Well it’s the total opposite. Trin bats at her but it’s not too aggressive. More grumpy old man. Gohan chases and hunts. But once he gets too deep into enemy territory he tries to escape. The surprise here is he escapes in slo-mo. His egress takes a full minute sometimes and it’s all we can do not to break down laughing and send him running. It’s like he thinks her sight is based on movement. What he doesn’t know is his slow movements are similar to what a toy looks like when we play with her. Oops.

 

[jcat]

ENTRY:

Mowgli gets a little cat milk in the evening after we watch the news, which ends with the weather forecast. Several times there have been reports on natural catastrophes well before the forecast, and Mowgli has gotten up to demand his milk immediately after such reports. Weather is weather, right?