Tell the story of how your cat joined your family!

crazy4strays

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Based on some posts I've seen around here, it seems that many of our pets came to us in interesting and varied ways!

For us, we were never really intending to get a cat....until a stray adopted us. One night as I was doing my chores, I heard a loud, "Meow," outside the door. I opened the door and a beautiful gray cat ran into our house. I opened up a can of cat food and the kitty gobbled it down. (I kept food on hand to feed the neighbor's cat) The kitty basically decided that he was going to keep us. I checked around, placed ads, and had him scanned for a microchip and nobody ever ended up claiming him, so he joined our family. I think that it was truly the ideal set up. Because he picked us, he has been the perfect addition to our family.

Here is a photo of him chilling with my 8 year old daughter:


Our other cat is one that we inherited from my in-laws. After my MIL's death, her elderly cat's (approximately 14 years old) behavioral problems became increasingly worse. FIL felt desperate enough to consider abandoning the cat or surrendering to a shelter, so we took the cat and have been working with him. His issues are challenging, but we're continuing to pursue solutions. The vet prescribed an anti-anxiety medication, so we're hoping that helps him!

Here is a picture of me, carrying him in a baby carrier.


So how did you get your kitty or kitties?
 
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dejolane

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We were driving down the road one day and saw a sign.in a yard saying Free Kittens so we went in. Didn't want a cat then but my son talked me into it. So the people went to look for the last kitten and finally found her under her mother. I took her home and my granddaughter named her Bella after her ferret Isabella.
 

williecat

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I really wanted a second cat, a boy named Gus after the mouse in Cinderella. My husband didn't, but I knew as soon as I found the right kitty, I'd get him anyway. One weekend I was at petsmart when the local rescues were there. All kittens are adorable, but one caught everyone's attention. It was so pretty, very social, talkative, and brave with the brightest green eyes I've ever seen. I asked for more info and was told it was a 6 week old female who had lots of people interested in her. I asked to hold her and it was love, there was no way I was putting her down, even though I'd been looking for a boy. Since I wasn't planning on getting a kitten that day, I didn't have a carrier so I called my husband to bring it to the store. He complained, but as soon as he saw her, he knew she was ours. I brought her home and all weekend tried to figure out a name for her but nothing stuck. I took her to the vet on Monday and as I was giving the info I had on her, the vet said "oh, I must have the wrong chart, I thought this was a 6 week old female." I said that was right and she said no, that my kitten was a 4-5 month old neutered male! I was shocked, but I didn't have any reason to doubt what the rescue told me and honestly I didn't look very closely. And a young neutered male looks a lot like a female to someone who has never seen a boy cat before anyway. Soooo, in the end I got my Gus that I was hoping for and didn't have to worry about having him fixed. I know he was meant to be mine. He's 11 now and still just as sweet and loving and mama's big boy.
 

rubysmama

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I'd decided my home needed a cat.  And I wanted to get a cat that needed a home. I wanted it to be orange and young-ish.  Didn't matter if it was male or female.

A couple weeks before I was ready to adopt, we went to the shelter to look around. They had 2 orange cats.  One was a gorgeous fluffy male.  I picked him up and he just snuggled in my arms.  He'd been there a couple weeks. In fact, they said they'd found him in a cardboard box on their doorstep one morning.  I wasn't ready to adopt, and they would only hold him for me for 24 hours, and when I checked their website the next day, he had been adopted.

The other orange cat was a cute short-haired female.  She was either sneezing or trying to cough up a hairball, so I didn't bother her.

A couple weeks passed, and I was ready to adopt.  I was still looking for an orange cat.   This time the shelter only had 1 orange cat.  A female. Short-haired.   They had her age estimated at 3 years.  She'd been at the shelter almost 2 months.  She was extremely friendly, purring and head-bumping,  I picked her up and she scrambled back inside her cage.   I looked at  the other cats, but was drawn back to the orange female, who started purring again as soon as I patted her. 

It was getting close to shelter closing time, so decided to think about it overnight, knowing she'd still be there the next day.  The next morning we went back. Looked at all the cats again, but I knew the orange one was the cat for me.  This was a Sunday, they were closed the next day, and they wanted to have the vet look at her the next time they were open, as she and others at the shelter had diarrhea.  So had to wait 2 days.

Finally I was able to go get her and bring her home.  The diarrhea was nothing to worry about.  But they did send me home with eye drops for a respiratory virus the shelter cats all seemed to have.  She meowed all the way home.  When we were in the house, I opened her carrier door, turned around to close the front door, and when I looked back at her, she was already out of the carrier and exploring her new home.

It wasn't until I was giving her the eye drops that I suddenly realized she must have been the sneezing/coughing orange cat I'd avoided the first time I'd visited the shelter.  I guess the hacking kept others from adopting so she'd be there when I was ready.
 
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crazy4strays

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What a beautiful orange cat! She's a lucky girl to have been adopted into your home.
 

cicoccabim

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I was looking for a one year old female, and my friend told me that someone she knew had a litter of kittens and one one year old. So I went to see them, and knew that I did don't want a kitten, to much work.... and although they are charming I wanted a cat that was through their teens. I had a red-white-black (tortoise?) cat before, and I wanted something like her. When I got there I decided that I had to cuddle with the kittens- and a small, black female started purring the second I picked her up. Then she licked my hand. I fell in love.... hard! So I left with a small, black kitten..... She chose me. No doubt about that! 


3 months old and almost 2 years old. I love the fact that she is very active, very curios and very friendly. Not the lap cat though. She keeps me active and give me many laughs every day, by just beeing her goofy self. 
 
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Kat0121

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I have wanted a cat since I was a very young child and have always known that I was a cat person. I have never met a cat that I didn't fall in love with. Unfortunately, my mother hates cats so I was never allowed to have one.   

This is her right after I got her in 2/2014                                                                         This is her recently after a bath. You can see that those little white tufts by her cheeks grew out a bit   

Sophie right after I got her                                                                                                                              More recently playing with a catnip banana in their tree

I got Henry after looking at available cats on the website of a local shelter. I wasn't looking for another one I just like to see what's out there (famous last words of a cat lover) 

His shelter pic and bio                                                                                                                                Hiding in his cubby in his room (now a large plastic tote turned on it's side with a soft blanket in it)
 
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crazy4strays

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Just curious where everybody got their cats from. Feel free to select multiple answers if you have multiple kitties.

I have one street adoption and one insider rescue. 
 

Kat0121

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Lilith and Sophie from the Humane Society and Henry from a local private shelter. He's a permanent foster. 
 

Columbine

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Shadow came from a breeder (along with his late brother). We'd had a pair of British Shorthairs when I was a kid, and mum had her heart set on another pair.

I found Asha living in the cellar beneath the grain drier at the farm/livery yard.
 

lvmygrdn

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1 from Last Chance Rescue and 2 from Love a Cat Rescue.
 

thegoldensnitch

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Lulu came from a breeder! My fiance' wanted a munchkin kitten, so I was researching munchkins, and I found a breeder that lived really close to us!

We ended up getting Lulu, who is a nonstandard half-munchkin and half persian, because we saw her picture on their website, and we both fell in love with her just from the picture!
 

kitty kisser

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My husband found Catness at work under a building. A friend I work with cat had kittens and that's how I got Rose.:nod:
 

mservant

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Mouse was from a lovely pedigree cat breeder as there were no local cats I could offer a home to when I was looking to fill the empty cat space in my home 4 1/2 years ago.  My previous 2 cats were from a friend's parents who had kittens they couldn't find homes for and we didn't know what would happen if a friend and I didn't take them in.
 

cheddarwaffles

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Not for profit rescue organizations, inherited/legacy from deceased family, wandered up strays, and my own tendency every few years to fail as a foster. But, we succeed way more than we fail, or I'd need a mansion for cats! : O
 

catladyvettech

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Guillermo came from the shelter. Sniffles came from Craigslist (they were giving her away because she was pregnant and had behavioral issues). Ingvild Solveig is a young feral cat that adopted me. Fernando was brought into the vet hospital where I work as a 4 week old kitten with cerebellar hypoplasia and I saved him from euthanasia. Flower was brought into my hospital as a sick, geriatric stray.

Rescue cats are the best!
 
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