How did you pick your cat/cats?

How did you pick your furbabies? Did you get them at a pet store? Someones home? Rescue? Where? How?

We got Noah from a co-worker who had two cats that both had litters within a month of eachother. Noah was from the second litter. When we went, we knew we wanted an orange and white tabby. We were sitting on the couch, surrounded with kittens hiding, playing, eating and sleep. Noah was the only kitten that jumped onto the couch and sat right beside me. He looked up at me and said "meow" and then looked back down and just layed there. I knew he was MY choice!

As far as Noel, we got her a PetSmart from the "Life Rescue" group. When I saw her little body in her litter box at the back of her carrier, I melted!! She was so cute, but looked sad in her cage in a stange place. She really didn't want to be held, but I knew she was OUR cat.

I decided to adopt another cat about two weeks after my Charlie passed away last July. I started looking at shelters on the Internet at work, and after looking at many, many pictures, I came across the picture of Elvis. I thought he was really cute and looked so sad in his cage that my heart just broke. I kept looking at pictures of other kitties, but I found that i kept going back to him. I was in love. I called the shelter and found out where they would be showing him that evening. The day dragged from that moment on, and I kept fearing that he would be gone by the time I got there! The second I saw him there, I immediately told the woman that I was interested in him. During the interview process, the woman told me that she always prefers to place at least two cats in the same home. She told me that the other kitty in the cage with Elvis was also a wonderful little guy. Danny was a small orange ball of fur, curled up sleeping sweetly in the corner of the cage. I tried to resist him, but it proved impossible...I ended up bringing him home, too! Needless to say, I'm so happy that I did!:)

We already knew for a while that we wanted cats but normally we aren't allowed to keep cats in this studio. Fortunately, when we asked the owner, she agreed! :) And so we asked around and found that a colleague from work knew someone who had kittens (well, her cat did, LOL). So we went to have a look. She had a litter of 3: 2 tabbies and one black one (the mommy was a tabby and the daddy was black). The decision was made quickly of course, and now Casper and Kitty are here with us. Their sister was adopted by the woman's mother, so there's no need for us to feel guilty about not taking all three :)

You asked for it......

Sable, our very first ever cat, adopted us. He was the neighborhood stray, abandoned by his previous owners who moved without him. He went from house to house and just like "Lady and Tramp", he had a name for every place he stopped. When we built our house out there in the country, his wandering days were over and he stayed with us. He was about 7 when we made him ours.

We decided Sable could use some company and so Nike came into our lives.

Sable died at the age of 15 of cancer. Nike was depressed and a woman my mom knew had taken in a female pregnant stray. The mom died after the litter was born. Mom said we could get ONE kitten. Riigghhttt. Reebok and Converse were the last remaining kittens that needed homes and I mean.. hey! They were brothers. We COULDN'T seperate them. ;)

So we had the Shoe Trio. Nike, Reebok, and Converse.

Nike died tragically, the day before my birthday. Chance was a cardboard box in front of the grocery store giveaway. The last one in the box and the runt of the liter. A co-worker grabbed him and gave him to me. RIGHT IN THE STORE while I was working.

Dad took Nike's loss very hard and said, "Fat chance you'll get to keep him." when I brought Chance home. Well... I think you can figure where he got his name. ;)

Scooter was given to my dad by me and my sister when we saw him at the farm.

Onneka was a stray that ran out in front of my car last year. I went over him but missed him miraculously with the tires. Onnekas is the Finnish word for 'lucky'. :D

And that's my cat history. :)

Such good stories everyone!

Kedi (M. Coon/Himilayen mix) adopted me. A co-worker brought him in to work and handed him to me. He was a pathetic sight: 5 months old, skinny, dirty, big scratches all over his face. He had been abused, and someone had burned-off his whiskers! :mad:

Well........he climbed up on my shoulder and hooked his paws around my neck, then purred & purred. I took him to the vet on my way home, then picked him up the next day and brought him home. When I gave him a bath, he turned-out to be a cream color with orange markings on his face and tail. When he gained weight and was cleaned-up, he turned out to be a VERY beautiful cat with deep blue eyes.
I call him the ugly duckling who turned into a swan! :rolleyes: ;) :D

He is also just as loving as he is beautiful. Someday soon I will learn how to post some pics!

I rescued Mocha Bean, when I worked at a Drive-Thru Espresso stand. A guy drove thru and said he had broken up with his girlfriend and her Siamese had kittens...she took her cat, left him with the kittens:( Well, he said he had two in the truck but I only saw this teeny tiny blond one (He was taking them to the animal shelter) and he defintely was not cat people material so I took her home, hence the name Mocha Bean....Two years later I figured she needed a brother so I went to the shelter and got Garbonzo Bean. He is a Seal Point Birman that someone left on the street because he had extra toes and wasn't properly marked. Their loss MY gain. They are The Beans they RULE the house and help keep Louie in line.:D

These stories are so touching....I love them!!

Buster and Purrdie (black and white cowcat brother and sister) came from next door, where they shared a heated pen outside with the big dogs. (Originally they were farm cats who were a birthday present to the little girl next door, who dressed them up and pushed them around in doll carriages.) In the early spring of the next year, both kitties came over to visit and we gave them treats to reward them for their chipmunk and squirrel hunting. Purrdie had a litter of four kittens and Buster adopted us while she was busy with the babies. Buster would climb the screens of the low casement windows and ride the screen down to get in. ("Buster, you can't do that.") The lady next door graciously allowed us to adopt Buster after we had taken him to the vet twice after fight injuries. Purrdie joined us on the Christmas Day after she was spayed. She meowed to come in as it was snowing. The people next door were headed out to another state and said she would be ok in the pen with the dogs. We left her on our sofa. A few days we got permission to adopt her.

Spot and Tiger (dark gray-tan tabby brothers) showed up in our back yard one September afternoon. They begged for food and didn't leave. There were no lost cat signs, so three weeks later they went to the vet for testing, shots, and fixing.

Samantha (tortie, RB) showed up one November night when it was raining and 34 degrees. She was wearing a flea collar but begged piteously for food and shelter. We put a disk on the collar with our phone number and the message "stray?" After two weeks of no notices or phone calls, we discovered she was living under the tarpaulins that cover our lawn mowers and moved her into the basement. A week later we took her to the vet for testing, shots, and spaying, and let her board at the vet clinic over Christmas with Purrdie.

Snow Tiger is the only one of my furkids that wasn't born into this bunch. It was on the 26th of October last year, a Friday night, that I decided to go out for dinner to a Chinese restaurant -(good stuff!). While I was wating for my order, a teen-aged girl came in to the restaurant carrying something in an old shirt. There were only 4 people in the establishement at the time and the owner was in the back cooking. (I know he would have asked her to leave because it is illegal to bring an animal into a restaurant) This girl went from table to table asking the people something. When she came to my table, I saw that she had a 2 1/2 month old kitten wrapped up in the old shirt. She asked me if I wantd the kitten. I noticed right away that he had gray ears and that his coat was icy white. Of course I wanted him! Not because of his colors but mostly he was a kitten who needed a home. The girl also said that her dad told them to get rid of the litter that day. I asked if she had others, to which she replied, No, that they had all been given away, and this was the only and the last one. I didn't have a box or carrier with me, so she said she would return in about 15 minutes. She did, with a cardboard box and the kitten in it. I brought most of my ordered meal home with me and my new kitty. He cried a bit while in transit. But when I got him home and let him out of the box he sniffed around a bit and then made himself at home almost immediately. Then he found the cat food and nearly ate up a half bowl of dry food. Appearently, they hadn't fed him most, if not all of the day, and he was a hungry kitty. And the rest of the story is about the usual adjustments to be made for a kitten.

.............wayne:)

About two years ago, a coworker of mine announced his family cat had kittens. He worked outside my office door and pestered me every day about adopting one of the kittens.

I told hime I was only interested if there was a black and white, preferably tuxedo markings.

He and his wife sent me digital photos of the kittens, then only about 5 days old. Alas, no black and white kitty. There were a couple of yellow and white tabbies, a grey and white and a grey tiger with white feet.

Not really sure if I was ready for pet ownership, I opted to decline adoption.

About 6 weeks later, my spouse decided we needed to adopt a kitty, since I was longing the loss of a neighborhood kitty that used to hang out on our deck. When our neighbors moved, the kitty went along. :(

I mentioned at work I was ready for a kitten, and my coworker brought up the subject of his kittens. He had one left, and she was weaned, litter trained and aside from being the runt, was a nice kitty. I asked what color and he said "black and white"...remembering the kitten pictures, I was puzzled...

Long story short, Ritzy's "tiger fur" grew into the black and white tuxy girl we know and love. They sent me a picture of her, and I just melted. I would have loved the tiger stripes too, but I have always been partial to the classic black and whites.

Mimi, my dream girl, came to me when I was grieving over the loss of Shrimp Boat (long story). My husband would have done just about anything to make me happy at that point. A girl at my work had kittens at her house, products of a brother /sister mating :eek:, but I didn't care, because I just wanted a new kitten, and I would have her spayed as soon as possible. I adopted six week old Mimi, without ever seeing her in advance. She's here today at 12 1/2 years old, and I will never forget that first day when my employee's husband walked in with that little fluff ball, pink bow and all. I melted, and still do everytime I look at her. :)

http://www.photogra.com/galleries/34...0121191641.jpg

Butter found us as an adult cat. He's been here a year now, and is quite comfortable in our home. I wish you could "train" a cat. I am getting ready to start trying to acclimate this cat to me, so he won't be so fearful and play so rough. He's a tough cookie, but I do love him so much. This is his home for the rest of his life. I just wish he could be as loving as Mimi. Perhaps in time, he will be.

http://www.photogra.com/galleries/34...0121191709.jpg

All those heartwarming stories...

We lost our 18 year old tabby the month that we finally bought a house with garden for her so that she could go out. We burried her under the tree in our new garden and the week after we moved in, we thought it was time for new cats to live with us. We went to the animal shelter, who didn't want to give cats to people who had no other cats in their home (ridiculous of course; the shelter has a new management now). I contacted a woman who has a private animal rescue organisation and she asked me over to see the cats she had. There were about 12 of them, all friendly cats that anyone would take and normally the cats didn't stay long with her because she always finds a new home within a few weeks.
But... there was one huge cat sitting in box somewhere in a corner. Two big green scared eyes looking at us as if we were there to hurt him. It was a male cat, found on the streets as a kitten, living in several animal shelters ever since and nobody who wanted him because he was so big and so shy, scared afraid of people. He didn't like other cats either, and was about to loose his lust for life by refusing to eat. The woman and I talked for many hours, and she said she wanted me to adopt Rudie. After I agreed to give him a chance, she said he had one little friend. A petite female tabby that an old woman brought to her the week before, who was fearless and somehow became friends with him. I thought it was better to get both of them so that he wouldn't be so lonely.
At home, the female cat Eddy simply took over the house the minute she came out of the cat carrier. Rudie didn't. He lived under the guestbed for many months until he finally accepted me (not his daddy).

Now he's a happy cat, running around the house, playing with the butterflies outside, coming when I call him, cuddling when we both need it, and simply being a great cat. Eddy's still the same, bossy and fearless. Rudie still adores her.

We're so happy to live with them!

My husband and I adopted Yum Yum at the local animal shelter. They thought she had been hit by a car and we felt sorry for her she was very cute. Our other cat Dutchess we saw an ad for in the newspaper. The lady was giving away a couple of her cats because she was moving.


http://pepeirce.tripod.com/thekittycorner

My brother gave Terra to me as a "moving away present" when I left home to move to Cleveland. My kitty at the time, Misty, was getting on in years and wouldn't adapt well going from a 4-bedroom house to a 1-bedroom apartment. My mother volunteered to keep her at home. My brother knew I'd be lonely without a cat (I'd always had one), so he gave me Terra about 2 weeks before I moved.

About a year after I moved, my hubby and I decided that Terra really needed a friend (she was getting really destructive when hubby and I weren't home). That same week a co-worker announced that she had found this pretty white odd-eyed kitty out in the country and that she was looking for a home for her. I checked with hubby and we brought her home the next day. She was in really bad shape and the vet didn't think she'd make it (she didn't tell us that until after she was recovered). But now Misao is fat and happy and well loved.

About a year after that, hubby and I moved into a house. We had been volunteering at a local humane society for about a year and the entire time we'd been there, so had this cat Hemlock. Hubby and I talked about it and decided that once we moved we'd bring Hemlock home with us if she was still there. Well the time came and she was, so we brought her home and renamed her Hana (Hemlock is no kind of name for a cat :rolleyes: )

It seems we're developing a trait of adopting a cat every October...I wonder what this year will bring.

All of these sweet stories are bringing tears to my eyes! I think it's so cool when people adopt cats that are no longer kittens. When I decided to adopt a new cat, I told myself to focus on a cat that was no longer a kitten, as kittens have a much better chance of finding a home. At petfinder.org, you can fill in the approximate age of the pet you are looking for, so I put in "young" (I think that means appx. 2-5 yrs.).
Elvis was also an "unwanted" cat because, besides already being about 2 years old, he had a crooked leg and paw, perhaps from an accident or from previous abuse. :mad: I didn't even know this when I fell in love with his picture on the website. When I noticed his leg, it only made me want him more. Fortunately, his leg doesn't seem to cause him any trouble, and he runs around and jumps just as if nothing has ever happened to it. :)