How did you find your cat?

When I was little we adopted my first cat, Barbie, for my sisters birthday. A few weeks later we found a kitten who had been eating our neighbors dog food, and they were unable to keep it because of allergies. Knowing we just got a kitten, they asked if we wanted a second. And we did. So that's how we obtained 2 cats in a month. So how did you get your cat? Did you find them on the street? Adopt them from a shelter? Or, like what almost happened to me 3 years ago, did your cat find you, inviting itself into your home and adopting you as your owner?

I'm especially interested in the last situation, I find cat's sense of ownership and bonding hilarious.

We adopted my cat back when we were living in Chile. We lived in a very poor area and every saturday a group of women would gather at the local square and give up puppies and kittens they had found on the streets for adoption. So one day we went there and found this white little kitten and decided to adopt her. She's now 12 years old, living in Sweden with us and just as grumpy as always!

I do have a story similar to yours, although not with a cat. When we lived in Chile a dog adopted us. She lived on our street and had seen that we had a dog in our back yard, and she also realised we were friendly as we would always pet her when we saw her. So, stubborn and determined as she is - one day she decided that's where she was going to live! So she started sneaking in through our fences and into our house, almost on a daily basis, jumping up in our couches and just showing us that this was her new home, whether we liked it or not. Of course we couldn't resist the cute little mutt, and that's how she ended up coming back to Sweden with us too! Puppy (her name) is now 12 years old and a really spoiled princess- only sleeps on pillows in beds and couches and loves cheese more than anything. She has also starred in a short film here in Sweden with two of our most famous actors! Now that's a pretty good job coming from an ex Chilean street dog no one wanted! And she did it all by herself

I have two cats. I got my older cat, Nell, at a time I really wanted a cat. I wasn't as aware of the stray pet situation as I am today, but I still didn't even think about buying a pet. I was asking around looking for people who had a litter of kittens they didn't want. It took me a while to find one, and I got the last of the litter, a tuxedo cat nobody didn't want (the rest of the litter were pure black cats, and single colored cats are considered cuter, I guess). When she was about a year and a half old, in autumn, we found a kitten on the street. It was a month year old black kitten, and he couldn't stand on his back leg. Of course, we took him in to take him to the vet, he wouldn't survive on the street with a bad leg. It turned out to be a small vitamin deficiency problem, which was solved pretty easily, but we couldn't find anyone to take the kitten, so we had ho choice but to keep him. He is now over a year old, and they seem to be getting along well.

My cat came to me via my brother and his wife. They have always had several cats in their home and adopted what turned out to be a pregnant stray that her sister had found. We live next door to my brother and my then 7 year old son would go over every day to see the kittens after they were born. I'd had outdoor cats before, but never really wanted an indoor cat. Well, somehow I got talked into this little lady and became the parent of an indoor-only cat. [We live on a busy road and had had a couple of outdoor cats hit/killed by cars ] What ended up happening, of course, is that this cat became MY buddy. She liked the other members of the family just fine, but she took to me the most. And over the 14 years I've had her she's been a fabulous friend.

I also have an apple head Siamese that came with my husband when we married last year and she's a sweetheart as well....more cuddly than mine and full of curiosity for exploring small spaces in our home. She likes to sleep on my pillow at night.

Regarding pets that choose you, rather than the other way around....we had two cats do that....one was another tortoise-shell calico we had when my kids were little, what a sweetheart! She just showed up out back one day and we started feeding her. She wasn't in our lives too long, though. I also had a grey tiger show up one day and that little guy was a sweetheart too. Somehow he always knew when I needed a little extra affection and would seek me out.

My cat followed my roommate home last winter. It was snowing pretty hard outside, so we decided to let her sleep in our old apartment for the night until we found her owner. We put posters up all over town, and we even called a few phone numbers we found on different fliers (even though the cats looked different). No one ever called us, so we decided to let her stay a little longer. She was so well behaved and friendly, and we quickly grew attached to her.
We later found out that she was a feral cat who was caught and released. Part of her left ear is missing, which I learned was from ear tipping. This lets people know the cat has been fixed and released back into the wild. It's odd, though, that she was a stray because she adores people and can be quite the attention hog! I'm glad she found us, though, because she's a sweet cat.

My first cat was stuck on top of our garage roof. I had no idea how she got there but I wouldn't be surprised if our neighbor threw her there. It was noon and the roof was getting pretty hot so I climbed up, got her, fed her and kept her. I named her "Dracula" even if she was a girl. She was a cat that could be easily considered "ugly" because she was predominantly black with brown and orange streaks but to me she was such a cute little thing and I felt sorry for her because she was scared and alone. Dracula pretty much settled at our place and I grew up with her. She would leave from time to time but always come back. She was such a nice cat because she never bothered my chickens or any other pets I had later on. I miss Dracula.

Mine was given to me by my husband. When he was given a half persian kitten by one of his students, he asked me if I would mind looking after his former cat. The two cats eventually got along after weeks of hissing at each other. The older cat seemed to understand that my husband was more into the new kitten and decided to make me his human. We have been very close ever since and he is always by my side when I'm on the computer.

We adopted our cat from the ASPCA during an adoption event at the local PetSmart. It's really cool, because we came in and saw him and something just said to us that he's our cat as soon as we held him. We didn't even hold another cat. He needed love, it was obvious. They had him in a cat carrier that was too small for him. As I type this right now he's next to me on the couch snoring happily. His life now compared to his life before we adopted him is as different as night to day.

Now he gets kitty treats and hugs and love whenever he wants it. I'm so glad we got him that day. His snoring is REALLY cute.

I adopted my cat about 8 years ago when I was still living in Canada. I already had another cat at the time that I adopted with my ex-boyfriend, and as she was turning one year old I thought it would be nice for her to have a friend. I was a full-time student and my boyfriend was working full-time, so I thought she might get bored by herself.
I started looking online and found on a classified ads website that a lady in my neighborhood had kittens for adoption, they were 2 months old and ready to find a forever home. As soon as I saw that little fur ball, I instantly fell in love.
When my ex and I separated, he kept the female cat while I kept my baby boy and it's the best decision I have ever made. He just turned 8 a week ago and he's still my baby. He sleeps next to me at night (even if my now husband isn't too happy about that!) and always greets me when I get home from work. I truly am a cat lady

We thought long and hard and debated before getting our cat because we were living in Guam at the time and knew if we got a cat it would be flying to our next duty station with us. We finally decided we were ok with that responsibility and went to the animal shelter. My son picked out the most hyper acting calico and we named her Boba. When it was time for us to leave Guam, we paid to have her flown here to Washington state with us. As a military family, unfortunately we are well aware of people who get dogs and cats at their current duty station, only to get rid of them when it's time to transfer. We didnt want to be those people.

I always had cats growing up, and they were always free. I remember driving by a "Free Kittens" sign in elementary school and asking my parents if we could get one. When I got home the next day we had two new kittens. One of them is still alive and kickin', the other ran away a couple years after we got him.
Another one of our cats just wandered into our yard one day and never left. My brother was friends with the cat's owners down the street and they told us to keep him. He passed away last year.

When I was growing up, we had several cats throughout the years and after moving out on my own I didn't have a cat for a long time. One day I was at a someone's house and they had kittens that they were trying to give away and I decided to take one. Cat number 1.

A couple of years later, I was driving through the middle of town on Main Street and a little yellow kitten was dodging vehicles and ran right across the street in front of me. I was afraid that the kitten would get run over, so I immediately pulled over at the side of the street (I wasn't even in a parking spot) and the kitten had run into the yard of a local business and stopped. I jumped out of my vehicle and ran up and grabbed the kitten. There were some people walking on the sidewalk and I asked if this was their kitten or if they knew who it belonged to. They just looked at me like I was an alien, so I just took the kitten home with me and kept him. Cat number 2.

A year after that, I seen a kitten outside my building and I asked the neighbors if this was their kitten. The neighbor said it was but she said the kitten meowed all the time, so she pitched it outside. I asked her if she wanted it back and she said no that I could keep it. Cat number 3.

At the beginning of this year, same family of neighbors had a kitten that they didn't take care of, so my husband and I would feed her. One morning it was freezing cold outside and my husband and I found her in front of our house and she was badly injured. We brought her inside and took care of her and healed her up. The neighbors eventually moved away, but they never did ask us if we had seen their kitten. She is now cat number 4.

Both of the cats we have now were strays that started hanging around our back yard. We put a lot of food out in our back yard, such as peanut butter sandwiches for the squirrels, seeds for the birds, etc... so it's usually like a zoo back there all day.

Each of our cats were really skinny when we got them, and were lingering around looking for things to eat when we would put out food. I'm happy to say they are both healthy now, in fact the one is way overweight, lol.

Our cat turned up in our garden a few months after our dog passed away. I adore cats but our old dog very much didn't! So that meant we had to discourage them from our garden and so on.

This cat didn't look underfed at all, so we assumed somebody already owned him. But of course, after we made a fuss of him, he continued to hang around, so we'd let him chill in the garden, but not in the house. Then one night it was raining pretty bad, and he was sat under a garden chair looking pitiful and mewling, so we really had no choice but to let him in I'm so glad we did because he's so adorable.

My fiancees friend had a cat who had kittens so we ended up adopting my kitten from him when she was about 2 months old. She is a really good kitten and was already litter box trained when we got her. She loves to cuddle with us and I always wake up to her laying next to me no matter what lol. I am happy that we were able to adopt to her when we did because I am usually home a lot and enjoy her company.

I rescued my cat, Trouble from the place I work at. They were in NO position to keep her, as they had a dog and it died due to their negligence. I told them I'd take her for a few days while they went out of town. I fell in love with her and she became mine. She's been with me a year. She's spoiled, pampered and loved like crazy. Best decision I ever made

Well, I got both my cats from their previous owner. In my view, it was a bit of an unlikely story. One of my friends who works as a cleaner for an elderly lady told me one day that that lady's daughter in law had two kittens that she was not able to keep due to allergies and they were looking for a new owner, otherwise the kittens would have to go to the shelter.
My friend contacted the daughter in law and found out that there were no allergies at all: apparently the lady's son had told his new girlfriend that she had to chose between him and the otherwise very adorable kittens. Well, the cat owner had chosen her boyfriend over the two kittens.
I could tell the lady was very sad when she handed them over. They have a good home now and the kittens have grown a lot since then: they are now three and a half years old.
I still think it was a sad situation. I would never chose anyone over those lovely cats.

I found my first cat through my father because I had a Aunt that had an older cat who had just gave birth to kittens so she was selling the kittens but she gave one to my dad and I fell in love with her so I took her. My second cat my mom found her on craigslist and bought her from a lady as a present to me.

About a month before my partner and I decided to get married, we rollerbladed across town to the no-kill cat shelter in a neighboring city. Dillon knew that I was missing my cat who had died a few years earlier, and wanted to get me a new buddy.

I was a little concerned when we got there, because there actually weren't many cats to choose from. I live in Minnesota, so the shelter was dominated by stout, fluffy, Nordic cats, evolved to handle the harsh winters here. I'm pretty small, and I prefer smaller cats that I can comfortably carry in an emergency, so I was starting to feel thwarted.

And then I went into the playroom, and they shook out the cat food. Most of the cats darted toward the food bowl. Except for one, tiny black cat, that took the opportunity to dart into a hidey hole and lay down for a nap. It made sense; she was so much smaller than the other cats, that trying to muscle in on the snacks would be a stressful waste of energy.

I picked her up and she didn't complain at all. I knew that I had to have her. So we put her in a cardboard box and took the bus home. Amazingly, she didn't make a single peep the whole way. We've had her for nearly 3 years now, and she is still adorable, cuddly, and basically the best cat ever.

I was really young at the time, but it was the first cat I had ever owned so thought I would share the story! I was about 5 or 6 and my Aunt was driving us to her friends house. They had a large jungle gym in their backyard and she thought it would be fun to spend the day there.

Well on the drive over, while we were on the freeway, my Aunt spotted a little black kitten in the road! She was so concerned for the cat she just pulled over (super dangerous thing might I add) and got out of the car to grab the cat. Once she had him she got back in the car and turned around and went back to my house.

She was showing my mom the cat when my mom noticed that it was the same cat she saw on the freeway on her way home from work, which was at least 4 hours earlier. Amazed that the cat lasted that long on the freeway my family decided to name him "Lucky" because he was Lucky he didn't get hurt. After that my Aunt thought the cat would be better off with my family than hers so we got to keep him!

I used to be a foster carer for the RSPCA (like the ASPCA, I guess). I've had about 40 kittens in total! Snookie (5 years old) came to me in a litter of kittens from there. I had her, her brother, her sister and her mother. They were three weeks old and tiny little lumps. Sooo cute. We did take them back to the shelter when they were old enough, but three weeks later we went back to pick up another foster litter, and she was up for adoption, and one thing led to another...

After a while people started finding out that I fostered kittens, even after I moved into a rental house and couldn't do it through the RSPCA anymore, but somebody brought Minnie to me after she got left on the side of the road. I originally did intend to foster her and adopt her out, but it just didn't happen that way. Looking at her sleeping on the couch now, I can't imagine her being anyone elses cats! She's settled in so well with me.

I have owned one cat: Annabella. I was told the cat was a girl. I only found out he was a boy, when one of my friends asked me why I named him a girls name. I asked him why he was checking the sex of my cat.
Anyways, I was quite surprised, but it didn't matter. Annabella was the name he was used to. He used to go on walks with me and my two dogs. I would just call her and she would follow us as we walked at night.

One day Annabella was gone. I never knew what happened to her.

I have quite the story about one of my cats, his name is Tribble. He is a gorgeous cat, black and white and extremely fluffy. One day everyone on my street started to notice this cat. He would enter their houses, eat their cats food then leave for the next house. He was incredibly skinny, fleas jumping around and who knew what else. One day he entered my house. Instantly my dad and I said we were going to rescue him.

It took us a year. It became clear that he was an abused cat - he would run away the second anyone went up to him, if you moved your hand up too fast he would run as if he was about to be slapped. He was so skinny and so run down it was tragic to look at him. It took a year of me and my dad slowly going into the room while he was there and sitting with him. After a year he eventually trusted us enough to follow us into the living room and I got him to jump up onto the sofa next to me. He sat with his eyes wide open and staring around at everything, incredibly weary. Eventually he went to sleep. That was the start of when he became our cat.

He is now a very healthy, loving cat who adores cuddles and loves attention all day every day. I moved out a year ago to move in with my boyfriend, and I haven't seen Tribble in three months. But he always sat in my room at night and would have attention from me for hours until I went to sleep. I miss that cat, I miss all my animals and I can't wait for the day I get to see them all again. I find it hard to leave each time I visit! We still don't really know his age, the vets guessed around 8. But he seems a lot younger.

He has also adopted our newest kitten Smudge as his own. We were very worried at first that Tribble and our other older cat, Stretchy would pick on her. But they both adore her and now you can't really find Tribble without finding Smudge too. It's so lovely to watch them cuddle up and to watch Tribble licking her and treating her like his own daughter.

I have two kittens, Binx and Molly. I found Molly when she was just a few weeks old. She was a stray, and a moody one! After a few months of trying to calm her down, I decided to adopt another kitten to keep her entertained and to teach her how to play. That was definitely the best decision I've ever made! I got Binx from Coins4Critters and while it took a while for them to trust each other, they've become inseparable. Molly's attitude has changed completely! She's extremely lovable now.

I adopted Oscar back in late 2010, from an animal shelter. My previous cat of over 15 years, Elmo, had passed away a month prior and it had been a very traumatic experience for me. I went through depression and all the other symptoms associated with grief because I had really lost a friend whom I had grown up with. One day around thanksgiving my mother came to my room and asked me to go do errands with her. I wasn't too thrilled and I was just started to cope with the fact Elmo was gone. It had been a bit over a month.

We went by CVS to pick up whatever she needed then made a sudden stop by the animal shelter and my mom told me to try finding a cat I liked and that he didn't need to replace Elmo but she knew I missed him. Oh boy it was so hard, my heart just bled for all those kitties, I wanted to take them all home and felt I was committing a heinous crime by picking one over the other. Finally I came upon this pile of kitties in a cage, I couldn't decide between a darker colored one and an orange one. I almost got the dark one but then Mr. Orange crawls on top of all his brothers and sisters and sticks his entire arm outside the cage toward me, meowing loudly in my direction.

Since then I've had Oscar.