How Did Your Cat Acquire You?

[Unperson 309]

We were coming home from errands on my birthday when a tiny gray kitten streaked across the dirt road in front of us. She was barely 5 weeks old, emaciated and starving, but she had spunk! We stopped the car, got out and went after her. The Missus (who is more limber than I) scrambled under a rabbit brush (Chamisa sage) and flushed the tiny mewing waif out into my waiting hands. She was nearly weightless in my arms as we carried her, hissing and protesting, into the house.

Fortunately, she was young enough that we overcame her fear (food hath powers to soothe the savage tummy!) and now, two months later, she is sleek and loving. We named her (of course) Chamisa after the beautiful, fragrant flowering sage bush she hid under. Her eyes are chamisa-leaf gray and her little face bears the Democratic symbol of the donkey.

That's how we were acquired by our cat... how did you come to fall under the spell of your furry-purry? Pics, please!

[GHOSTDANCER]

1. I didn't he aquired me.

<>

[demconfive]

2. I was working on a house of my parents.....

....A litter of feral kittens was peering at me from the bushes.One of them boldly came out from the cover, walked up to me, than clawed her way up my shirt and cuddled up to my cheek from the perch of a shoulder. Named her Mary Margaret.

[Mara Steele]

3. What a beautiful little girl!!!

Thanks for posting. That's what I needed to send me to la-la land tonight, I think...

Hey, Chamisa.... :loveya: :yourock: :hi:

[JSJ]

4. he came in through the bathroom window...

...and stayed. He also has a vertical leap of ten feet and can pull down a bird in midflight- in fact, he had bird talons embedded in his coat just the other morning.

[radfringe]

5. crawled out from a pile of pallets

and rubbed on my leg

We have a colony of feral cats at work. Been feeding them for the past couple of years. A couple of the kittens have been rounded up and homes found for them.

A year ago, just between Christmas 2002 and 2003 New Year, a big boy appeared. At first I thought he was the daddy, or at least looking to be a daddy.

He rubbed up against my leg, but was slightly skitish. I didn't push it. Within a couple of days he allowed me to pet him. When I was able to pick him up, I saw that he was neutered and declawed. This is no daddy.

I told my partner about him - and there was some resistence to 'adopting' him. Two days before New Years, I grabbed my digital camera and took a picture of this big guy. I put a sign around his neck that said "Please Take me Home"

When I got home I printed the picture out and left it on the kitchen table

My partner saw the pic -- and with a big sigh told me to bring him home - but he was on probation - meaning we will see how well he fits in with our other 3 cats and 2 dogs

So the next day I brought him home. By that evening he was christened "GATO", and he's still with us.

He weighed in at 11 lbs when I brought him home, he now weighs around 18lbs. Not fat, just a big boy

[wickerwoman]

6. I was walking in a flower market in Shanghai

and one of the stalls had a bird cage filled with kittens. They were all shivering and underweight, there wasn't any water in the cage and someone had cut their whiskers off.

I was _pissed_ so I reached in to pick up the smallest and most miserable looking one and warm him up. Another one latched onto my shirt sleeve and wouldn't let go. The first one crawled under the neck of my shirt and I had a hell of a time getting him out. I asked how much they were and as it was only $5, I paid for them and brought them home.

I can't post pics (don't have a camera) but the little shivery one is Jules (aka Slinker)- he's almost completely white, built like a Siamese but has a grey streak on his forehead like Catholics get on Ash Wednesday. The hitchhiker is Dozer (aka Stinker) He has a black Batman mask over his eyes and a white chin. He's mostly white but has four big black spots on his back. He got his name because he loves to push things around on the ground with his forehead.

They are now flea free, bewhiskered, fat and a pain in the ass.

:-)

[ET Awful]

7. Quinn was kind of dropped on my desk :)

A lady I work with has a friend with a young teenage stepdaughter. Said stepdaughter smuggled Quinn and his sister into the house when they were 6 week sold or so and attempted to raise them in her closet. Mom heard meowing at 4:00 AM, and the kitties had to find new homes :).

I have no complaints.

This is the first day he came home:

[achtung_circus]

8. #1 I'm currently living with my Brother and his family,

and my 18 year old nephew, full of piss and vinegar and tough talk is apprenticing as a plumber.

Well last summer (I am told) he was at a jobsite and found, in the rain, a litter of 3-4 day old kittens. Only one was still alive.

He brought it home, the big tough teenager. He held it out to his Mom. She said, what do you want me to do about it?. He said, "but it's going to die!". So the cat spent several weeks living in my sister-in-laws top.

Sammy is now a big tough suck of a cat. I think he used up a couple of lives to get here.

#2
My ex is a vet. She had a woman come into the clinic in the early 90's. The woman had been TOLD by her boyfriend that they were moving to an apartment that didn't allow pets and to take HER cat to the vet and get it killed. The silly girl did so.

My wife said "would you be willing to have us find it a home?" Heidi got renamed Jekyll and Heidi because she has "mood swings". It took her a while to warm up to me, I think the former owner's boyfriend harassed her.

I left my wife with no regrets, leaving Heidi was another matter.

[LWolf]

9. They came with the house.

The previous owner left them behind as a special "surprise." I can't post pics here, but you can see them in the DU Gallery. Sadly, I recently lost one, but his pic is still up.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. Subliminal messages on Petfinder.com

That said "adopt the gray fuzzball 2nd from the left....adopt the gray fuzzball 2nd from the left....adopt the gray fuzzball 2nd from the left....adopt the gray fuzzball 2nd from the left....adopt the gray fuzzball 2nd from the left...."

Here he is, one year ago, Guardian of the Remote:

[LynneSin]

11. How Abbott aquired me (I aquired Evita)

I was coming home on a very cold rainy December night. Now I live in an apartment complex and there are some feral cats in the area. But unlike the Feral cats, this guy came right up to me. He followed me to my apartment complex (not yet letting me touch him) so I went inside and grabbed a slice of cheese. I guess the poor guy was so hungry he ate the stuff.

Since he did have a flea collar on him, I knew someone once owned him, so I brought him in and tossed him in my bathroom with a bowl of water and a can of tuna. I posted on DU "Help I found a cat now what should I do" and quick drove to the local dollar store where I got a cheap litter box, some litter and some cat food.

I did attempt to find his owners by calling local cat shelters, apartment management and signs throughout the neighborhood. No one claimed him, but but that time he had claimed me.

That my friend is Abbott.

I aquired Evita from a local shelter because I thought Abbott deserved a playmate!

[afraid_of_the_dark]

12. She followed me out to my car.

I was walking to my car (heading out to an appointment), which was parked by the Dumpster in the parking lot of my apartment. It was the end of fall and the first really cold day of the year, and I saw this tiny kitten standing next to the Dumpster, shivering. She was about 6 or 7 weeks old and very malnourished. I was debating whether or not to go pick her up when she started following me. I opened up my car door and looked behind me to see if she was still there, but I didn't see her. Then I turned around to see that she had jumped in my car and was sitting in the driver's seat! Needless to say, I spent the afternoon stocking up on kitty supplies instead of going to my scheduled appointment. :)

[kaitykaity]

13. Mina was at the county animal shelter.

I had put a cat to sleep three months before and my
grieving period was over.

There she was, two months old, she looked me straight
in the eye and spoke to me. "Take me home!"

I asked the officer about her, had anyone claimed her.
"No, she's only been her a half an hour."

"Somebody has now."

That was 10 years ago.

No pics, don't have a digicam yet, but she's a small
thing, all white (grey now because she spends so much
time underneath cars and it's summer and I can't get
her to stay inside for long). She has a short tail with
a crink in the end.

I believe in serial feline monogamy because I'm pretty
sure if I had more than one cat, I'd end up the neighborhood
cat lady in NO TIME.

[MissMillie]

14. Two of my three were up for adoption at the local

"Cat Hospital".

The newest one, Cosmo, was one of three kittens found by some folks in town--apparently abandoned. They put up a sign on their lawn: "Free kittens". I held all three of those kitties, but Cosmo, his little purr machine was in high gear as I held him.

I took the little fleabag home.