Have you ever found your pet?

[MermaidsTears]

Just trying to cheer myself up as very over due and miserable.
I see posts on facebook alot of people finding animals and some have ended up keeping them when no chip was found and no owner came forward after local vets being notified etc they are allowed to keep them after a certain period of time. 2 weeks I believe?
Also hear of people finding a kitten or a puppy in a bin/shed/bush etc
Has this ever happened to any of you?
And a happy ever after with an unexpected pet added to your family?

My parents found a puppy that had been hit by a car when they were first married. Took her to the vets, she had two broken legs and was in a very bad way. No one came forward to claim her to my parents adopted her. She went to live with my grandparents when my parents divorced and lived with them until she died at the ripe old age of 19.

My aunt worked in a library many years ago and once found two puppies abandoned in a rucksack hidden among the books. They were very young and one didn't make it, but the other one went to live with my gran and lived there happily to a ripe old age.

My mum was a health visitor and we ended up adopting a cat and a dog from people she visited.

My dad's a vet and most of our family cats over the years have been 'found' ones who were never claimed.

Current one was handed in bald from mange, very skinny and very stressed after being found in someone's garden. She's still quite shy and nervy, 7 years on, so must have had a really traumatic time.

A budgie. I hated the squawking little fucker.

My friend had two cats and a little cat not more than a kitten came in looking for food. It was very timid but she eventually got it into a cat box to be scanned. Nothing, she our posters up. Left her details at the vets. Kept it.

Same thing with another friend up in Scotland. Dog running around but in good condition. Her kids said it had no owners, vets found nothing. No dog reported lost. For about a year she kept telling the kids, don't get too attached his owner might come back. They had him for years and he died of old age. Family were heartbroken

The most lovely, affectionate, character-ful cat we ever had followed me home one evening and scuttled into the dining room as soon as I opened the front door. Fortunately he was a little on the skinny side but no raging flea or worm infestations and he settled himself in very quickly!

One of my childhood friends acquired their puppy when it was thrown over her grandparents' garden wall one afternoon - no idea who had done it but she grew into a beautiful Collie/GSD cross and lived to about 14, sweet natured and with a lovely tendency to 'herd' her family when they were all out for walks!

Back in my more energetic pre-DC days, I was headed out for a run with my DH. We turned the corner at the bottom of the road and there, smack bang in the middle of a busier road were two tiny kittens. One of them died just as we got there. I don't know if he'd been run over or what 😢 The second ran away from us but we caught her.

We picked up the poor little dead one and buried him in our garden, then took the other straight to the vet. She got the okay - she was just a bit grubby. I can still remember giving her a little bath in the sink. She's still with us now, twelve years later :o)

My current cat was found in a bush at about 2 weeks old. Previous cat was found on a lorry at a place an ex worked at, with a sibling. I kept both of them.

My friend recently found her cat which had been missing for 2 weeks. She was thrilled because she thought she was gone forever.

I just realised I misunderstood the question!!!
However the same aforementioned cat was found with her son as a stray by my friend and adopted.

A few years ago, I was in the kitchen with the back door open. Out of nowhere, a little half-grown black cat appeared at my feet mewing like mad! I didn't recognise her as any of my neighbours cats. And she was very hungry. I fed her, took her collar off to open the little barrel. Thankfully, the owner's phone number was inside. The dear little soul had been lost for two days and had wandered 4 miles straight into my kitchen! It was lovely to see her reunited with her family. The delight on the children's faces was heartwarming.

I found both of my cats. One was a tiny kitten in a box outside a gym. The other was in a rubbish bin :(

This was in Shanghai though, not the UK. There are so many abandoned animals in China.

When we first moved into a pub years ago a black cat came in through the window and never left. .
She had kittens and we kept her son - all black, both lived a ripe old age.

Lost my gorgeous tortie cat and found her 6 months later outside the hairdressers. Residents said she had been living rough eating birds and mice and sleeping in a shed. Nobody thought to put a notice in a shop (non chip days) . We only lived 5 mins away and had looked and looked. .
Found a litter of feral kittens once. Never knew claws and teeth were so sharp so young!! Hands were in pieces!!
Happy with our 2 dcats now. . Too old for cat drama!!

Found out old car in a carrier bag in the dyke whilst riding one day. My horse shied at it, thank goodness she was going and I turned her round to look at it and take her past again or I wouldn't have noticed the slight movement. I opened it at arms length praying it wasn't a rat inside. It wasn't. It was a tiny kitten. Tucked her in my jacket and took her home.

Our childhood cat was found , with an entire litter , in a gravel works near my GMs pub , somebody bought them in in a box and she kept one and we took one , other customers took the rest . He was a real character , used to go in other people's houses and steal their Sunday joints off the side . Every game box we owned came with a side helping of black fluffy hair in the corners .

Our very first cat was a kitten that we found in our rose bushes in the front garden (abandoned, we think, with a cut in his nose from the thorns). We'd wanted a pet for years but our parents were adamant that we wouldn't have one (found out years later that this was due to their own pet dogs coming to unfortunate ends when they were children and not wanting to go through that again.) Anyway we brought the cat in and fed him and begged our parents to let us keep him. We were told he could stay in the garage for one night but that was it. However, my dad had an on-going problem with a rat in the garage. Traps hadn't worked, nor had poison. The next morning he opened the garage door to back out the car and was met by the rat tearing out of the garage as fast as he could. The kitten was left stay, and luckily for us, long-lived Ginger was the first in a long line of cats after him!

My cat was gone nearly 6 months, all local vets were informed etc. We moved house and out of the blue got a phone call from a farm (around old house area) saying we've got your cat. She'd been doing a grand job of keeping pests at bay! She's still an evil little thing and brings me gifts (mainly shrews, rabbits and grouse) she's only a wee little thing too

We moved house and were adopted by our cat who seemed to have been left behind. The house had been empty for quite a while and she just turned up and moved in when we did. No-one came forward to get her.

I moved into a flat
There was a cat flap which was locked.
Then we realised that there was a very young cat hanging round in our garden. He looked small, thin and scared.

As soon as we opened the back door he meowed at us, but ran away.

I had recently lost my cat who had run away from my mum's house. (we found her, when she turned up again at mum's house very thin and looking sorry for herself about 5 months after she disappeared)

Anyway, small thin grey tabby in the garden.

I bought a tin of cat food and put some on a plate in the house, right in through the kitchen, propped the back door open and sat next to the plate and waited.
5 minutes later he crept in very scared and started scoffing the food. I gently reached over and he flinched, and then as soon as I stroked him it was like he breathed a sigh of relief, rubbed his head against my hand, calmed down, finished his food, and curled up on the sofa and never left!

Turns out he belonged to a house a few doors down, but she had given up on him and didn't want him. The previous owners of my flat had been feeding him in the garden because they felt sorry for him.
He was about 6 months old, and the loveliest gentlest thing soppy thing.

We found a cat once... I say found, we were in the local shop when the owner came in with this little kitten....he was all scruffy and covered in fleas, had nail varnish all over him and was full of worms... He asked if anyone wanted a kitten he had rescued....and there we go, he lived with us years until he died a couple of years ago.

I wish we knew how/where the rspca found our cat...we adopted her at 6 months and is so loving (never scratches...shes now 6yrs old)...yet hates carrier bags. The rustle of one will send her running out of the room.

wish we'd "found" our dog...would have saved us £900!!! lol

Oh and my grandparents had an elderly fluffy ginger lady move in theri garden and then bit by bit quietly move into their house!

vet reckoned she had been a pet, because she was so tame, but had lived wild for years. Vet thought she was getting too old to hunt, so had adopted my grandparents.
She was another lovely wee thing

Our previous cat went missing some years ago. We put up posters, searched the streets, called all the obvious organisations. About 2-3 weeks after he went missing we were sat in the lounge one day and he just came shooting through the cat flap! A lot skinnier than before, but otherwise fine. Obviously got stuck in a shed or garage. Was really odd when he came back as we'd just about given up hope.

Doh, missed the point of the thread...

When I was 13 my dad came home with a rabbit he found running about the car park at his work. He put some posters up nearby but no one claimed him so we kept him and had him 13 years.

Not sure if this counts but I foster dogs and have ended up keeping 3 that were originally meant to be fosters, one puppy who was very ill and had major surgery at 8 weeks old, he was being given away on gumtree and I drove 2 hours in a storm to get him. After his long healing process I couldn't give him up. The next one was an older dog who I just fell in love with as soon as I picked her up and the 3rd was another older dog in an awful neglected state found abandoned in a park. After being at the vets it was found she had terminal cancer so I adopted her and tried to give her the best life until she passed away 8months later (not trying to make the thread sad, I have wonderful memories of her and alot of other rescues would have simply put her to sleep as she wasn't adoptable).

Sunnydays that was lovely story!
Not quite the same but we found and raised an injured baby robin a few years ago.
He'd follow me round the garden and fly further and further out, staying away longer and longer but always came back in the evening to sleep.

One day he never returned but there's an incredibly tame and vocal robin in the churchyard behind our house.
I like to think it's ours