Your First Cat

keisha

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Feb 26, 2007
Messages
763
Purraise
1
Location
Iowa
I remember picking out a little tortie with one tiny white paw.
One of kallis kittens is like that...
Jumped out of the shower while you were using the toilet. He would sit on the edge of the tub while you showered.
Keisha loves to jump in the shower with me.. She hates water so I have no idea why she does it. Because she jumps in and stays for a couple minutes, then jumps out, and then acts like i put her in there and got her all wet. So now I make sure shes not in the bathroom with me...

My first kitty was Tiger, my mom got her before I was born-but after I was born she quickly became mine (just like Mouse was Janelles) She was an amazing cat, and I loved her to death, and she slept in my crib with me at night and in my bed untill the day she left. It was September 11, 2001 and my mom came home from work la te one night all freaked out about what had happened and didnt notice Tiger get out. That was the last time we saw her. We looked for her, called for her, put an add in the papers, put of posters, and did everythign we possibly could. We were devistated.. And she was too old of a cat-to have made it out there all alone-and declawed.
 

tnkittymom

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 18, 2007
Messages
489
Purraise
2
Location
TN
My parents had cat when I was little, but the first one that I really remember was a solid black male named Midnight. He was a stray that we took in. My dad made him be an indoor/outdoor cat, because he didn't much like cats sleeping in the house. I was around 5 or 6yrs old. I remember dressing him up in dolls' clothes, etc. Dad would put him out at night, but every morning Midnight would be ready to come in to eat. Well he disappeared for several days and, sadly, Dad had gone somewhere one morning and when he came back he saw Midnight laying beside the road. He had been hit by a car.
 

libby74

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 21, 2006
Messages
6,217
Purraise
18
Location
Illinois
I was 3 and visiting my grandparents;they had a cat name Tom Pennycuff that my cousins and I were fighting over. My folks promised me a kitten when we got home and I got Mimi, a beautiful black girl with a white spot on her throat. I chose her name from a book that I just loved--"Mimi, the Merry Go Round Cat"; she looked just like the kitty in the book. She was born on the 4th of July, and cost a quarter. Mimi was more tolerant of my brothers than of me; I think I wanted to cuddle her just a little too much, but I loved her dearly. When she was still just a tiny kitten, she got her paw caught in a rat-trap that my Dad had put near our chicken coop. I can remember my other Grandmother holding that tiny little thing on her lap all day long and telling my brothers and me to 'let the poor kitty be.'
Mimi lived to be 21 years and 2 months old. I'd married and had my own home and she continued to live at my folks' house. Mom called me one morning to tell me that Mimi had died. I went over to take care of her and to my surprise discovered she was still alive. I carried her into the living room (with my Mom saying,"Why are you carrying that dead cat around?!"), sat in the rocking chair and held her until she finally passed a few hours later. I like to think that she waited for me to be with her before she died, you know?
 

arlyn

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
9,306
Purraise
50
Location
Needles, CA
My very first cat was the very last of my mother's Siamese.
Kanarus (I named her) was truly the queen of the house.
She raised two dogs and she lived for morning conversations with my mom while she (mom) had her coffee.
She was an indoor/outdoor cat and lived on Cat Chow and raw chicken livers.
She told my mom she was ready to go to the Bridge when she was 19.


My first cat as an adult was supposed to have been two cats.
A friend of mine had an unaltered tuxedo girl that just kept pumping out the kitties.
He had always tried to get me to take a kitten and I finally agreed and said I'd take two, on the condition that I also take his girl to the spay clinic and get her spayed for him.
I picked two identical tuxedos, they looked just like their mom.
The female, however, had to be PTS at 2 weeks as she was hydrocephalic.
So that left me with my boy, B.C. (Brat Cat).
He was clinically retarded (apparently the whole litter suffered similar problems) and was prone to extremely violent mood swings, but I still loved him , he was my boy.
After trying everything, including several drugs, we (his vet and I) made the very hard descision to have him declawed for his safety as well as everyone elses, as I refused to give up on him.
He was occasionally violent with me, but he did love me, he was very, very sweet when not on a rampage.
He suffered and recovered from two strokes when he was 9, and he had feline urinary tract disease , so he was always on medication for something.
At 12 he snuck out of the house and got mauled by a raccoon sow and had to have a drain put in his head, he looked like Frankenstein.
While it was healing, he used to pick fights with Spaz, just so she'd bunny kick his itchy head.

Later that year he developed a mass in his stomach which I had removed and biopsied, it was Lymphoma.
I opted not to have chemo done because his prognosis was so poor it would have only bought him a month or two.
They said he had 4 months at best, but he was with me another six months before he told me it was time.
I still miss him at night, he used to sleep under the covers, between my feet and would yell at me and slap my feet hard if I so much as twitched
 

kaskacats

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
May 10, 2005
Messages
47
Purraise
1
Location
Yukon, Canada
My first cat started out as my sisters cat. She had adopted him from the shelter and after a number of years decided she was going to give him back to the shelter, he was one of those cats that always pee'd over edge of the box. Bones knew me and my dog, Daisy, already since we had moved in with my sister after our mother's death when I was 18, what an ordeal, she had a cat that hated dogs and I had a dog that hated cats. I got mad and told her she couldn't, he was family! So she gave him to me when I was 20 (and not living with her anymore.) I only had him about six months and he started getting skinny and greasy looking, the vet said he either had cancer of FIP and his prognosis wasn't very good. Most horrible experience of my life, sitting with him while she euthanized him.
 

tomcat60

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Oct 8, 2016
Messages
48
Purraise
51
Location
Fenton, Missouri
I know this is an old post, but I thought it would be better to renew it instead of starting another one.

Our first cat was named Sam. We got him when we first got married, that was 38 years age.. We lived in a two family flat that had no screens in the window and Sam would sleep on the window sill. He would then roll over and fall out the window. We would have to run outside and try to get him to come to use with a toy.Sam would also sit on top of the door ledge and wait for one of use to walk by and then swipe at us for fun. One time we were babysitting our niece who was 5 at the time. We heard cat meowing and her crying. When we got into the room she had Sam by the tail and Sam had his claws wrapped around her let and neither one was going to let loose. Sam lived a long life with us.

 

1CatOverTheLine

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 6, 2017
Messages
8,674
Purraise
34,611
I know that this is an ancient thread too, but what's better than the memories of your first cat?  "Busy" came home with us on June 14th, 1958, at a little more than eight weeks old.  The photo's old and faded - a little washed out, and more than a little yellowed, but the memory of taking her home is as crisp and as sharp as though it had happened yesterday.   She left us in April of 1979, just before her twenty-first birthday, and lived through the Cold War, Duck-And-Cover under school desks, the Space Race, The Beatles, Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon, the Watergate Scandal, the Vietnam War, SkyLab and the Jonestown Massacre.  Lots of memories dim with age - sometimes to the point where we barely recognise them.  Hers never will.

 

arouetta

Slave of Bastet's acolytes
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 31, 2016
Messages
2,117
Purraise
2,891
Sigh, the first cat I remember isn't a good memory.  I was 5 years old.  I barely, barely remember him, but he was orange and his name was Tippy.  He had a brother that I remember nothing about, just that he existed.  I only remember him because of the birds flocking and my dad keeping me away and my mom saying an owl probably got to him.  I didn't understand then, I do now.

I haven't thought of that in years.  I feel like crying now. 


Edit:  I do have another memory of Tippy.  We had gotten two puppies, Jake and Taffy.  I don't directly remember it, but I do remember my mom saying that he loved to jump on top of Jake, bite his ear and not release and then dig all four sets of claws in and go for a ride.  That dog lived until I was late teens and it's a miracle that Jake adored all cats after that early introduction to what a cat is.

The next cat was a feral my dad trapped when he was approximately 6 months old, a really tiny 6 month old.  The timber company where my dad worked had tons of feral cats living there, that's where he trapped him.  We named him Emmett.  He first was named Emma but turned out to be male.  He retained a d**ned independent streak his whole life and he wasn't shy about marking territory.  He marked a woman's briefcase that came by to see my mom.  Mom was horrified but the woman said she owned cats as well and he had probably smelled her cats on the briefcase.  I remember him as a black tabby but I think he also had reddish coloring like my current cat Montressor.  I remember my mom saying he was rare for having three colors and being male.

I know Mom never lived without a cat but those are the only two I remember prior to us moving to a different town when I was 12.
 

creamheroes

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
Feb 16, 2017
Messages
11
Purraise
7
My first cat was Punky a European Shorthair :) she was really cheerful and lovely with us (and we were 3 children) 
Sadly, one day she went to the bathroom's window to have some sunbathe and she fell down... Too painful to remember it :'( 
 

ileen

with Luciano since 12/5/16
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 6, 2017
Messages
1,138
Purraise
2,746
Location
nyc
This is such a wonderful thread. I read through the whole thing, most of the posts are almost ten years old but what great stories!
I grew up with a dog from age 8-20. I always considered myself a dog person even though I haven't had any pets since then. But in December of last year at the age of 51, my first cat came into my life. His name is Luciano but I usually call him Kitty unless he's being naughty (he doesn't seem to know his name anyway). I posted the story of how he came to live with me in the welcome section, but briefly...
My upstairs neighbor is a TNR woman who has three cats. I've fed them & watered her plants while she's been away on occasion the last couple of years. About a year ago she brought a cat home from the area where she works & does TNR (they only R the truly feral cats since this is NYC; they find homes for the others who are usually abandoned). She named him Luciano after Pavarotti since he was always 'singing' aka meowing. Unfortunately he did not get along with her other cats & would be very aggressive towards them, so she kept him in a large cage.
In December a representative from the new apartment management company was going to visit her apartment to look at some repairs that needed to be done, and she asked if she could keep Luc in his cage at my place because she didn't think it would look good to have him caged up in the middle of the apartment like that. I think in the back of her mind she knew the possibility for a fostering situation existed with me. She provided me with all the necessities (litter box, food, etc) and said she would continue to pay for his medical care, supplies etc.
I was wary at first because of his aggression & the fact that I'd never had a cat, but my boyfriend grew up with cats & was excited at the possibility, plus Luciano seemed sweet to me. He purred a lot & within a day or so I was letting him roam around my bedroom, then the rest of the apartment & he made himself at home.
I've bought him toys & pet carriers and use my Amazon Prime & newly created Chewy accounts for ordering for my neighbor so often, any time I go to any website, I get pet ads (maybe joining this site has something to do with that as well).
I feel confident this is his forever home & he delights me with most of his antics, frustrates me with some others. I don't know if he will ever be a cuddle bug, but he is a champion climber & jumper & I am learning more about living with a cat every day.
 

di and bob

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
16,582
Purraise
22,962
Location
Nebraska, USA
Bless you for opening your heart! Some cats never are cuddle bugs, but somehow they worm their way into your heart. Sometimes, the ones that are the most frustrating become the most endearing. He doesn't know how lucky he is!

My first cat was a gorgeous medium haired calico that I promptl named Miss Muffet. I was 7 or 8 at the time (over 50 years ago!) and snuck her into my bedroom because mom had said NO PETS. Well, you know how long that lasted, and she became a part of our family for a few years. One day she went out and there was a big blizzard and she never came home. I still vividly remember her and how much I loved her, she started my whole love of the animal world!
 
Last edited:

Boris Diamond

Cat Valet
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 27, 2015
Messages
27,152
Purraise
15,950
My first pet was a cat. I was 21. I knew someone whose cat had kittens, I was promised one and the kitten was brought to me at 8 weeks old. He was a tuxedo cat and I name him Herschel. I was living in a house with 7 other students at the time. Everyone liked animals and Herschel was the only pet in the house. He got so much love and attention growing up, and he grew into a great cat. Never bit or scratched. Never made biscuits. Never got on counters. He would walk up to me, and sit down and look at me. If I did nothing, he was coming up onto my lap. Then he would roll over on his back and purr while I rubbed his belly. He was such a good boy and he spoiled me - I thought all cats would be as great as he was! I still miss him and that was over 40 years ago. :rbheart:
 

ileen

with Luciano since 12/5/16
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 6, 2017
Messages
1,138
Purraise
2,746
Location
nyc
I tell him all the time he doesn't know how lucky he is.;)
 

abyeb

Charlie's Purrson
Veteran
Joined
Feb 18, 2017
Messages
7,565
Purraise
9,600
Charlie is my first cat. I'd spent about two years doing research and prepararing to bring a kitty home. At the shelter, I asked someone on the staff who was their favorite cat there. They replied, "you should have a look at Charlie". When I walked over to his cage, I saw the sweetest little cream and white kitten staring back at me with big amber eyes that just said, "take me home". I took him into the "get acquainted room" along with a few toys that were in his cage and he started sprinting around the room, batting ping pong balls around and pouncing on his catnip mice. The zoomies, as I affectionately call them, lasted for a good half hour before he came up to me and curled up in my lap and began to sleep. The decision was made. I filled out the adoption applications right then and there. They approved me right away, and I wanted to go home to pick up the carrier that I had purchased previously to take Charlie home, but unfortunately the shelter was closing and I had to wait overnight. I went crazy with shopping for even more toys, and bought two designer cat beds that were fit for a king like Charlie. The next day, I went back to the shelter bright and early in the morning. Charlie immediately went into his carrier and purred the whole way home. He never really took to those beds, he prefers to sleep in cardboard boxes, but, even at seven years old, he still likes to sprint around batting around his catnip mice before curling up in a lap to catch some zzzs.
 

kashmir64

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 9, 2017
Messages
5,480
Purraise
9,888
Location
Arizona
My first memory of a cat I was very little. He was a big, I mean big, male seal point Siamese. I believe they are now called 'applehead' or something like that. He always slept with my teddy bear and followed me everywhere. I remember one time, we took him to Arkansas and he was sleeping on my grandfather's camper. Along came a bobcat. There was blood and bobcat fur everywhere. When the bobcat finally ran off, Mom checked him over good and couldn't find even a scratch on him.
 

Hoosier Mama

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
Apr 25, 2017
Messages
15
Purraise
12
Location
Southeast Indiana (USA)
My Mom had a black Persian years before I was born. My brother was a toddler at the time and, just learning to talk, he couldn't say the word 'kitty' and it came out 'kee'ker'; thus, his name became Keeker. Unfortunately, he passed away. But when I was born, Mom got another black Persian and he became Keeker II. We grew up together and he was "my" cat, regardless of what anyone else said! LOL I couldn't/wouldn't go to bed without him, and many mornings Mom would find me curled behind the couch with him because that was where he would sneak off to sleep in the middle of the night.
He passed away suddenly at the age of 19 - most likely of a heart attack? I remember the day so clearly! Mom & Dad were on vacation in Hawaii and I was at work when I got an 'urgent' call from our house-keeper. Sobbing into the phone she told me Keeker had passed away. Well, I immediately broke down crying hysterically. My boss asked what happened and all I could say was 'He died!". I was sent home immediately - and, ironically, I received 3 day funeral leave. They never did know that it was my cat who had died and not an 'immediate family member'.
About 15 years ago, my sister acquired a black DSH and ultimately named him Keeker III. He passed away at age 11 of metastasized cancer. Three years ago, my roommate at the time rescued a little black ball of fur from a neighbor who hated cats. When he was brought home and placed in the palms of my hands, I just smiled and said, "Hi, Keeker IV!"
When I was a sophomore in high school back in 1972 (yea, I'm really old! LOL), I painted a portrait of Keeker II and it still hangs prominently on my living room wall. He will never be forgotten and I still tear up when I think of him.
Here is a pic of the portrait of Keeker II and, my current boy, his namesake, Keeker IV.
Keekers 2 and 4.jpg
 

abyeb

Charlie's Purrson
Veteran
Joined
Feb 18, 2017
Messages
7,565
Purraise
9,600
My first memory of a cat I was very little. He was a big, I mean big, male seal point Siamese. I believe they are now called 'applehead' or something like that. He always slept with my teddy bear and followed me everywhere. I remember one time, we took him to Arkansas and he was sleeping on my grandfather's camper. Along came a bobcat. There was blood and bobcat fur everywhere. When the bobcat finally ran off, Mom checked him over good and couldn't find even a scratch on him.
Applehead is absolutely correct! Another name would be old style or old fashioned Siamese. Your first kitty sounds so sweet! It's amazing he survived that bobcat encounter!
 

kashmir64

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 9, 2017
Messages
5,480
Purraise
9,888
Location
Arizona
Applehead is absolutely correct! Another name would be old style or old fashioned Siamese. Your first kitty sounds so sweet! It's amazing he survived that bobcat encounter!
Did I mention he was BIG (there is no body builder emocon)
 
Top