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?

A ginger cat moved into my parents house one summer. Hung around the garden miaow in for a few days til I fed her some bacon.
I went back to uni and the cat got my room . She was about 2yo the vet reckoned and lived another 12yrs.
A neighbour thought she had belonged to an elderly neighbour who had passed.

Aw, and you Blackbutler.
I seem to have something in my eye now...

Not so much "found" but acquired... A neighbour of mine across the road had a cat she didn't seem to be keeping properly. The little cat was left outside all the time and fed on the front doorstep. A few times I saw the cat soaking wet in the rain, or cuddling up to passers by.

Then one day the neighbour moved out, and I realised she'd left the cat behind After 48 hours it was obvious she wasn't coming back, so I went over & scooped the little cat up. I took her to the vet, got the neighbour's number from the microchip, and phoned her to ask what was going on. She admitted that she'd just left her as the cat "didn't want to come"

Anyhow that was 18 months ago, the little cat has been living with me ever since!

A little black kitten. My friend found it. They had a dog. We put it in my mother's hands were she pooed
Mum kept her for 20 years before it died.

Everyone was feeding a cat where my daughter lives.
I said you must keep him but they had a cat
Anyway they established Thomas had an owner.
He was always a friendly cat. Full of fun and very affectionate with me. Unlike my daughters cat.
I went round one day to be told Thomas had died...and I cried!

I'm stupid where animals are...I can't have another. Too heartbreaking.

My sister sort of adopted a stray cat that used to hang out at their house. Then she moved abroad and I got her! She's a lovely cat though, much better than our other cat who we got as a kitten and definitely has not had a troubled youth!

Our tortoise was a bit of Houdini and would be found 2 or 3 houses away by burrowing under the fence. I had to tortoise proof the garden. But then my mum had a tortoise that disappeared for a while and was found in a farm a mile or so down the road, because she her name painted on the shell she was recognisable, that was back in the 40s.

I had a rabbit who hopped off one day. A week later there was a notice in the local shop saying he had been found, we reclaimed him. He had crossed a main road and several fields.

3 tiny kittens were left on our doorstep when we were kids, my sister and I had one each and the third went to our neighbours. They lived until they were about 15!

Our current cat came to live with us last year, turned up in a dreadful state and never left

I pray for the day I find a kitten under a bush or hiding in the shed or something - obviously I don't wish distress on any animal, it's just I think it would be the only way DH would let me keep a cat. He won't voluntarily agree to rescue one from the shelter or even to foster, but I think if one literally turned up on our doorstep and it was life or death he just might relent...

So now I keep listening for miaows and peering into undergrowth for abandoned kitties

I've had 2 cats that "found " us I suppose
Also, when I was about 10 we lived near a river and a policeman knocked on the door late one night with a day old duckling that had been found and asked if we could look after it. It imprinted on me and lived in our house until it was about 6 months old and we released it on the river ( after teaching her to swim). She never came back in the house but she hung around on our lawn quite often
We also had a crow that we rescued from the river live with us for a few weeks.
My animal rescue reputation seems to still be with me and I am the neighbourhood go to for poorly wildlife - have a squirrels, hedgehogs, various birds and a bat. I've also looked after a couple of stray cats and a black lab once until I found the owners. I've got a good relationship with our local wildlife rescue centre for when I need some specialist help.
DH Dispairs but with DD I'm raising the next generation of animal rescuers ( DS not keen) like my Dad did with me

Our cat moved in to my mum's house as a kitten, turns out some of her neighbour's decided not to take the litter with them when they moved. Her cat wasn't happy and DP had been hinting he wanted a cat for his birthday and he's been with us ever since.

We adopted two stray cats who found us and one who's owner went to prison.

My cat went missing. I put posters up throughout the village and knocked on doors to no avail. Found him a year later at the other side of the village being 'kept' by an old woman. I called his name and he came running to me, cue me breaking down in the street and sobbing over him. The old lady called the cops on me for cat napping! I was fuming at the time but now find it hilarious.

Yep. Well not exactly.
One of my neighbours sons kept seeing a little black kitten when he went to football practise. Covered in fleas and getting skinnier everytime he saw him.
So he knocked on my door with him. Not that I'm a soft touch with furry things or anything.
Anyway 6 years later he is King of our home and hearts. I'd be lost without him now. My DD insists he is Her Cat and maintains she will take him with her when she leaves home next year. I'd like to see her try. He even comes with me to the local shops and when I walk my (completely cat bullied) dog.
This is Him. Sleeping on the dogs bed.

Three eyars ago our Kitty arrived in the backgarden and settled down in a kind of nest under a tree. Over the next few days I kept and eye on her and she was there day and night, rain or shine. One morning I got up and I thought she was dead. When I went out she lifted her head up and came over purring like crazy and very affectionate. I took her a bowl of tuna out which she devoured and then followed me into the house.
She was very thin, had terrible dermatitis, very bad breath, loose teeth and both eyes were weeping, so we took her to the vet. The bill was over £400. She did not have a chip either and we advertised locally and got no reply.
She is a gorgeous, friendly, playful puss of @8 years old and has never looked back. So glad that I went into the garden to check on her.

My cat was found under my car bonnet as a tiny kitten a few weeks old. I'd taken the car for its MOST and had a rather unexpected phone call from the garage. I don't know who was more shocked, me or the mechanic who found him! He's 4 now and a really lovely cat, very different to the grubby flea-ridden skin-and-bones kitten under the bonnet!

YellowDahlia. How about I leave one for you under your garden bush from the RSPCA. Obviously, we make it look like it just appeared there.

MOT not MOST

When I lived in London I had a cat. At the time I lived two floors up in a block of flats - I had let him out one morning and suddenly heard a squeal of brakes - looked out to see Perkins like a streak of grey disappearing down the street.

The whole road was blocks of flats and early mornings and after work and weekends I would walk up and down the street, calling him. I climbed all the stairs in each block every day to the flat roof but there was no sign.

After two weeks, I was almost giving up hope. One evening my flatmate heard a scratching at the door, and in limped Perkins. He had climbed up two flights of stairs with a fractured pelvis, broken leg, and lots of scabs but he was alive. He survived to lose several other of his nine lives

He lived to nearly 20 and when he showed signs of being unwell, we went to the vets who confirmed liver failure and didn't have long to live. The vet suggested I take him home to have a final couple of days with him before taking him to be pts. I let him out for a run and never saw him again. He obviously decided to die his own way. It broke my heart and although it was many years ago, I still feel sad when I think of him doing that.

Our boy Scruff just started hanging around back in 2004, he was skinny, manky and nervous. Had a bad collar wound under his front left leg and was a Tom! A quick bit of bribery with ham made him our friend and we whisked him off to the vets to have his bits chopped off and to have all his skin re-arranged to close up his wound (he came home looking like frankencat!). We had him until Jan this year when he died of cancer.

Our girl Lottie (or Diddy as she was known - toddler pronunciation 😁) belonged to someone in a neighbouring st, they didn't want to take her with them when they moved 🙁 So we stepped in. She died of thrombosis in oct last year after living with us for about 4 years (she'd survived getting run over in that time too, breaking pelvis and losing tail!). Both Scruff and Diddy were 15 when they died.

We also had black cat, who just turned up one day and lived with us for a year on and off, then we never saw her again 😢.

Also had a rabbit as a child that just appeared in our neighbours garden one day. Neighbour was elderly, so called my dad over to take a look as she thought it was an injured cat to begin with. We took the rabbit over to ours and popped him in the shed with a lovely plate of salad and some water and set about finding his owner (pre-chip and internet). Turned out he was a school rabbit, and none of the kids were interested or wanted to look after him in the holidays so the teacher that was looking after him saw how much we liked him and gave him to us with all his kit! He lived to about 9!

One of our childhood dogs had belonged to my cousins, but they couldn't cope (3 boys under 5 and a puppy?? Nightmare!)

We're going to visit two cats at a rescue centre on Thurs. and these will be the first animals we have actively sought!!

Wow Black having a bunny for 13 years!
Not exactly found by us but our 2 bunnies are a litter born in a rescue centre when their Mum was found cold, wet and hungry having been left to stray in winter.
We went to the centre with a donation of food and toys etc for Christmas. We weren't going to have any animals for a bit after our old boy died in November last year but they were just lovely. All six of the litter (all named after Santa's reindeer) and Mum were rehomed.

I've never bought a cat, they've always turned up. Latest kitten was found in a sack full of drowned kittens. He was the only survivor 😞

I'm not in the UK but recently a gentle and lovable female stray dog had a litter of puppies on a partly built house on our street. All the neighbours got together to make sure she was safe and warm and we all took turns in feeding her and giving her water so she didn't have to leave her puppies. The puppies have grown a lot now and all but one has a lined up a home. There were 6, the dog herself and one puppy are going to live with one of the builders, two puppies are going to live on a farm that belongs to one neighbours parents, one puppy is going to someone that works with DH, he's just been through a bad separation and wants a pal to share his new bachelor pad. So only one puppy left, if he can't be homed DH will put him on our farm or convince his friend to take two.
I'll put some pics if that will cheer you up

We didn't find our cars but they were abandoned and someone found them. They were about 3 weeks. We took them in a week later and they're very loved and spoilt 3 year old boys now