When I was a child, we had a few feral stray cats around the house (we lived in the country), but the first cat I owned was a gray and black striped tabby called Tiger. His mom was a stray that came to live with us and shortly thereafter had kittens. Tiger was the youngest, and the runt, and he became my cat. He'd follow me around like a dog, begging for attention. I'd pick him up and wear him around my neck like a great big fur collar, he loved it! We never had him declawed and he was so gentle. Even when we baby-sat four year old kids, the kids could play with Tiger, pick him up, etc. and he would never ever scratch or bite. He got so big, I think he must have been 15 pounds, when he laid on your lap it felt like a ton of bricks! Tiger was an outdoor cat and got hit by a car when I was 16, I cried for days.
I didn't get another cat until I got married, then my husband and I adopted a fluffy pale orange male tabby called Frisky, and he was a playful lover boy. We had to give him to my uncle because we couldn't keep him in our apartment.
When we bought our house in 1984, we promptly adopted four cats and have had cats ever since then, about six or seven of them but we only have Miss Bo now. She's the perfect cat!