How did your beloved(s) come to live with you?

[NoahsMommy]

Just owndering, how did everyone get their critters? I'll try and make the poll broad, feel fee to post answers here too.

Thanks! :)

Noah: someone at work had a cat with kittens, Noah being one.
Noel: rescued from PetSmart
Basil: rescued from PetSmart
Olivia: rescued from Ventura County Humane Society

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Tubby, formerly known as Bitsy, had a previous mom that I was friends with. She moved into an apartment that didn't allow pets, and I had just bought my own house. So since I was my own landlord, and I said that I could have kitties, I told her I'd take him. Best decision of my life. :)

Peanut's former mom was also a friend of mine. Her story is much sadder though in that she was killed by a drunk driver one night and never came home to little bitty Peanut. :( Her mom's sister couldn't find anyone else to take her, so even though I was living with my parents at the time, and my dad hated cats at the time, and just having Tubby there was pushing it, I couldn't let the cutest, sweetest kitty I'd ever met go to the pound, so I brought her home to my parents'. When I told my dad that her previous mom was killed by a drunk driver, he didn't have much to say about the whole situation, and she's been my little sweetie pie ever since. :)

I got Peanut around the end of May (her mom was killed on Mother's Day no less :( ) and here's a picture of the two of them at my parents house the following Christmas. Peanut was around 1 year old and Tubby was around 3. They were so young then....:( :) :) http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid28/pf5635b18fa7540b49a8740dc06743a3e/fd6cd30f.jpg

[neko1]

Neko was a gift to me from my fiance- we got him from a shelter. Cookie was a feral cat that roamed around Brian's old job and he caught her. Pumpkin we also got from a shelter. And Tama was given to me by a client at the vet's office that I work in.

[jenluckenbach]

All my cats were either a shelter resident or a stray.

[rosethecopycat]

Snowy was in the 'kitten kindergarten' at the shelter. He may have been fostered. I got him at 13-14 weeks old.

Mr. Jones did four months of 'hard time' at a different shelter. He was a stray. I think he may have had a family at one point because he's so loving. I got him at about 11months to 1.5 years old.

I picked out both of my boys through petfinder.com by their pictures.

I suspected that I would have a problem going into a shelter and just picking one 'out of the blue'. So many eyes looking at you.... so sad....pick me... pick me.
My next addition will come from siameserescue.com
Now I have to concern myself with gender and temperament. A good match for our home. And our alpha...Snowy.

[boscibo]

Bo - got him as a Christmas present, he came from a pet store.

Abby - got her from a guy I knew - he didn't want her because she was too loud (she was in heat). He had put her outside (she had formerly been indoor only) because she was too loud for him to even shut in his bathroom (where he had kept her before). I took her in, luckily before she got pregnant, got her spayed and she is an indoor cat.

Hanna - found her while biking. I had stopped to rest after a long hill, it had been raining and we had ridden hard to get back to our van. I was tired, and tried to get back on my bike, but my legs were like rubber. I kept fallling over so I decided to just sit on the grass and rest for a few minutes. I looked back down the trail, and saw a kitten walking towards us. I didn't know it was a kitten at first, it was getting dark. It was Hanna, and she came home with us that night, and is still here. Now that I think about it, it seems like something was keeping me from getting back on my bike and riding away, until I saw the kitten. Weird, huh?

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by boscibo
Now that I think about it, it seems like something was keeping me from getting back on my bike and riding away, until I saw the kitten. Weird, huh?
That is so neat!!!! What a wonderful story of Hanna's homecoming.... :)

[Cataholic]

Tex came from Neady Cats in W. Boylston, Mass. He picked me out!

Georgia was dropped off at the vets...someone had rescued her from a field.

Tenny came from my mom's school area...being abused by the kids.

Dakky and Allie were my friend Karlyn's rescued cat, Lily. Lily was found 'with child', and I told her I would 'take two'!

Minnie came from a clinic/vet. She was from a TNR program, and too timid to return to the wild..so, she lives with the semi wild herd here..he he he.

[JillLovesMinnie14yrs]

Boo Boo Kitty : garage kitten :(
Veronica: Unwanted litter
Cupcake: TRASH kitten :(
Chupa: Rescue from shelter
Candy: Rescue from shelter
Mitts: Rescued same time as Chupa from shelter....... and for my Minnie, I was too young to remember, but a family member told me she was "half off" at a pet store due to an illness :(

[shais_mom]

A friend of mine at work had a brother and sister pair. Her boyfriend didn't like cats, and hated Kylie b/c of her long hair and tendency to snuggle at night. He was mean to her (threw her against the wall when she was by his head one night when he was sleeping) and until I got her she lived under the bed while he was there, afraid to come out, NOT good for her b/c he moved in before they even had their official first date.
:rolleyes:
I was looking for a cat companion for my greyhound, and she offered me Kylie. I thought about it and decided to take her and have never looked back. It was going to be temporary b/c she was going to break up with him. After 2 weeks I wasn't giving her back, and she didn't give up the boyfriend either. She eventually quit her job, and recently married him. :rolleyes: Oh and Kylie's brother mysteriously disappeared about 2 mos after I took Kylie in. hmmmmmm wonder what could have happened to him!! :mad:

[Nomilynn]

I got Bassett out of a box at a grocery store. Some kids were giving away free kittens. I hate to think what happened to her brothers and sisters. :( She was the last one in the box - no one wanted her because she was so small. I'm pretty sure she was no more than about 3-4 weeks old, even though they said she was 6-8 weeks or something.

I got Tilly from the adoption program at PetCetera.

I got Nutmeg from a local cat rescue in Victoria.

Sydney came from a normal litter at a friend of us
Maya came from a shelter
Inka was found in the fields
Billie came from a petshop
Jasper came from a petshop
the fish came from a fish-shop (he he)

[TheAntiPam]

Murf (RB) - picked me out at the Humane Society.
Squee (RB) - orphan of feral cat, last one of the litter, so small but so noisy!
Daisy (RB) - pound kitten that grew to be a great huntress.
Winston - found abandoned at work in warehouse at 2 weeks old - he was born blind.
Noodle - rescued by coworker on construction site.

Each little furry soul a treasure beyond measure. I'm proud to have been loved by them all.

[wayne0214]

I'll try to remember how I acquired my furkids.

Fawn, a part Abyssinian male: was part of a home litter.
Tiara, a tortie was part of a home litter.
Cookie, a blue-tan tortie, was part of a home litter.
Tiger, a lynx-point Siamese, was rescued from two highschool girls passing through a Chinese restaurant who came in (without the owner's knowledge) to give her away. I saw her markings and immediately took her. She was about 7 weeks old.
Blue-Czarina, a Russian Blue. was part of a home litter.
Amy, a tuxedo, was my first attempt at purchasing a rescue kitten, from the Visalia, Calif. animal shelter.
These preceding furkids I brought to Kansas from central Calif.

King Otis a flame point Siamese, is a rescue from the Pittsburg, Kansas animal shelter. I remember the keeper telling me that he had been in there for about 4 months. What a missed opportunity for any one adopting a furkid!
Puma, a Russian Blue, is a rescue kitten from the Independence, Kansas animal shelter. She chose me from her cage. She began to meow and attempt to grab at me with her front paws through the bars when I went up to her cage. Couldn't resist her.
Happy is a white, flame-point Siamese. He also chose me from his cage. When I first picked him up, he wanted to cuddle, purr, and then to nurse my shirt!
Chris, (Christmas cat) I adopted him just before this Christmas. He is a marbled-swirl orange tabby. I knew Chris was a very affectionage furkid. When I returned to get him, some 3 days later after rescuing Happy and Puma, (because the shelter had to keep him for at least 72 hours after bringing him in) that I think I took him by surprise, because of his surprised demeanor when I took him out of his cage and possibly because he was sleeping.

The last 3 are from our local shelter.

These are my indoor furkids. Also, I care for 4 others that do not want to come inside. One of them, Sunny cat, an abandoned orange tabby, is from the next-door neighbor's when they moved away. The remainder 3 are all from the immediate neighborhood, including Panther a black DSH, one long-furred (un-named) feral all- black female.

..........wayne

[HayleyRosie]

Hayley came from a pet store. I had to go through a lot of paper work before I could bring her home. They really make sure their kittens go to a good home. There is no question about the home Hayley went to. She is the Queen of the house for sure!:D

[Logan]

Mimi came to me as a kitten, the offspring of a brother/sister accident........a coworker gave her to me.

Butter just "showed up", and I think I rescued him, but obviously he doesn't! :eek: He thinks we were his from the very start, just took him a while to find us! Once he showed up at our house, two years ago, he never left!!!! :)

[hellostranger]

Some of you already know Gus' story :) I saw him running under cars in the snow near a sewer one evening. He was tiny and cold and hungry so of course I went to buy cat food and try to catch him. It took me several days and some good PT advice but I finally caught him in a humane trap and instead of being the feral foster kitty I was expecting he turned out to be a loveable, permanent furfriend.

We found Squirt at Petsmart when one of the local rescue groups had their kitties there. We were actually looking at orangies, but when Squirt saw us he started mewing and poking his paw through the bars to catch our sleeves. He knew him Mom and Dad right away! :D

[sandragonfly]

Originally posted by boscido
I kept fallling over so I decided to just sit on the grass and rest for a few minutes. I looked back down the trail, and saw a kitten walking towards us. I didn't know it was a kitten at first, it was getting dark. It was Hanna, and she came home with us that night, and is still here.

Cooool! This sounds SO moviey - - I can imagine :)


Originally posted by hellostranger
Some of you already know Gus' story :) I saw him running under cars in the snow near a sewer one evening. He was tiny and cold and hungry so of course I went to buy cat food and try to catch him. It took me several days and some good PT advice but I finally caught him in a humane trap and instead of being the feral foster kitty I was expecting he turned out to be a loveable, permanent furfriend.

What an inspiring story! Glad you didn't missed him when you got back with food.

My Pets:

Mocha: *bark!* Gina's sister, Jenni begged her mother to have a puppy for 1997 Christmas, once I saw Jenni and Gina walking by, I put my paws on the cage at Penisula Humane Society and yip-yipped at them...Now I'm home with them!

Fayetha: *hissss* My previous owner had to go to some college which is 3,000 miles away from here, I would hurt her if I get in car for hours so she decided to give me to Gina because she knows that Gina loves animals so much...And I'm not happy around here! I will be going to SPCA soon...to find a owner that have no PETS! I don't care if I am Gina's the first one.

Zephyra: *meow* Gina begged her father to grab me before his co-worker, Mark is going to give someone else because Mark's two dogs like to eat the kittens.

Ocean and Micro: *chrip & chrip* This non-stop adopting girl, Gina and her friend rescued us last weekend. Ocean: Hey! I'm from Sacramento SPCA...Micro: so am I from SF too! Ocean: *sweet growl* at least we do get along! Micro: Oh yeka...we have been playing like we have known for years...or there's no tomorrow!

[catlady1945]

Patty - stray; Ginger - Humane Society; Louis - Pet Store; Krissy - stray.

[Edwina's Secretary]

My husband wanted a cat. I am allergic (and considered myself a dog person!)

I gave in on the condition the cat be gray and white (or a calico), female and named Edwina.

We went to the shelter...a pretty little girl -- gray and white. They put her on our laps. My husband said to her...."Do you want to go home with us?" She looked up and said..."Yeow." It sounded just like "yes." The deal was done.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid47/p5d1647a5f2074c80bafbb835aa2ea1ea/fcc8af91.jpg

EDWINA

[All Creatures Great And Small]

I'll copy and paste here my response on another similar poll, for the "newbies" :) :
When I was growing up, my mom and dad got our kitties from people who were moving and couldn't take them with, except for one, Smokey, who we purchased at a farm stand where we stopped to buy some sweet corn. Then when I got married and got a house of my own, fate decided that before we had even moved in to the house, I would get a kitty. She was found in back of the store where I worked, down inside a stack of old car tires. One of the guys came in with the poor little baby and said to me, "you were saying you wanted to get a cat when you bought a house, right? Well, here you go!". She was a lovely tortoiseshell, very tiny and barely weaned, and I named her Leticia Ratt (which was one of the funny names my mom used to call her cat). I ran home from work on my lunch hour with this little baby in a cardboard box and sprung it on my mother-in-law, who was helping paint the inside of the house. The kitty stayed in the empty house for a week, while we were painting and cleaning, until we moved in with her, since our apartment didn't allow cats. (Our apartment was directly across the street from the house, so it was easy to check up on her.) I had her for fifteen years when she died in 2000. My father-in-law passed away in 1998, and my mother-in-law decided to get a cat to keep her company since they are a little bit lower maintenance than dogs. She rescued Dudley, the lovely mackerel tabby (the kitty in my sig), from a shelter, and he was a great companion to her until she passed away in 2000. (Dudley came to us only a month after we lost Leticia.) My husband is an only child, so we "inherited" Dudley. He has been a wonderful gift from a very sad situation.

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by shais_mom
A friend of mine at work had a brother and sister pair. Her boyfriend didn't like cats, and hated Kylie b/c of her long hair and tendency to snuggle at night. He was mean to her (threw her against the wall when she was by his head one night when he was sleeping) and until I got her she lived under the bed while he was there, afraid to come out, NOT good for her b/c he moved in before they even had their official first date.
:rolleyes:
I was looking for a cat companion for my greyhound, and she offered me Kylie. I thought about it and decided to take her and have never looked back. It was going to be temporary b/c she was going to break up with him. After 2 weeks I wasn't giving her back, and she didn't give up the boyfriend either. She eventually quit her job, and recently married him. :rolleyes: Oh and Kylie's brother mysteriously disappeared about 2 mos after I took Kylie in. hmmmmmm wonder what could have happened to him!! :mad:
What a terrible, evil excuse for a human. How sick, I am literally ill after reading about such a horid "person".

I'm so glad you rescued her though, what a sweet little girl! :)

[NoahsMommy]

All Creatures,
That story is very touching, I'm so glad sweet Dudley got to come home with you. :)

[All Creatures Great And Small]

I was thinking that too, how a woman who supposedly loves cats could marry someone who would treat them so badly. It will be interesting to see how long that marriage lasts, especially if she can't have any pets because of Mr. Evil. Personally I think the kitties would have been a much more rewarding choice. ;)

[-Panther-]

Napiainen: From a local "shelter"
Narri: From that same "shelter"
Nougat: From that same "shelter" :D
Nikanor: Long story: I "rescued" him from this 17yrs old girl, who lived by herself and took a kitten just because it was for free (he was about 7 weeks then :( )

Then she got expelled from school and had to move back home. Her father didn't want a cat in the house, and said to her that the cat is being killed if she would bring it home :eek:

I really didn't know that girl, we just talked once in a party, and she remembered that I have cats. So she asked me if I can take him. I said yes... but then I had to think about it at home..
Later she called, "Can you take him now, I'm travelling back home in an hour"
So I just took him :p

Well, Nikanor was a bit underweighted and had a few health problems. I took him to the vet and had him vaccinated and checked. He is a wonderfull little guy :D And I'm happy he got a better life, and is learning about life with older cats.

By the way, he is that little guy on top of Napiainen on the right in my signature :)

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by -Panther-
By the way, he is that little guy on top of Napiainen on the right in my signature :)
They sure are precious! Glad you were there to give him a forever home. :)

[slick]

In December of 1996 I made my first Condo purchase. I made sure that the building allowed pets because I wanted to get a kitty. 4 months later I happened to walk into a pet supply store to get some cat grass for a friend's furbaby. The store was located in an area that I don't frequent often. On the wall printed on a very small business card was a phone number to call. The humans were moving out of town and looking for a home for two cats. When I got home I placed the call and believe it or not the humans were moving two days later and told me that card was up there for months. I hung up and thought about it. Should I take 1 or 2? The following day I called and agreed to take them both sight-unseen. It was a spur-of-the-minute decision, one that I will never regret.

That night after work I drove out to pick them up. The house was totally empty and the humans were spending their last night there. 5 yr old Max and 10 yr old Speckles had only been living together at that point for about 2 years and still hated each other. We bundled them up and before I left I gave the sobbing humans a hug and told them not to worry. To this day, I still keep in touch with them and send them pictures often. And to this day, Max still stalks Speckles and attacks her when she exits the litter box, poor Girl!


If I hadn't been in that area at that particular day to see the card, I don't know what would have happened because no one else wanted them. Some people have a "thing" about adopting older cats and I don't quite understand it. Anyway, I guess it's just meant to be!

slick
max & speckles

[Felicia's Mom]

Felicia was from a local pet store and Beau was from a Burmese breeder.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Storm- I got him at the Humane Society. He picked me.

Pepper- I got him at Petco through a rescue organization called Care.

Sunny- I got him at a second chance adoption fair through an organization called Unconditional Love.

All 3 of them get along great and really love each other. Since I've never had children, they're my kids. I love them very much and don't know what I'd do without them. :)