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?

Our childhood cat was sort of "found".

My mum took my sister to the police station to ask if anyone had seen our then cat, who had disappeared (70's). They said "no, but we have one living underneath the police cars who we're feeding. Do you want her?"

We had her for 17 years .

I came home from work to a note from DH (he'd gone out) saying he'd found a stray kitten and it was in a carrier in the lounge. Kitten was in bad shape with cat flu. Took him to vet next day and got him some meds. He was feral and it took him a long time to trust us.
We did loose him once. At a few months old he escaped out the backdoor. We couldn't find him for several weeks and I was convinced he was gone. One day walking back from the bus stop I spotted him on an abandoned lot. Had to slowly lure him back home but he's been with us since. He now a nearly 11 and gorgeous big softy but only with us other people still freak him out.

My first kitten, when I was 6, was sort of found by my grandma, his mum was a feral that lived on the farm grandma worked at, she'd been feeding mummy cat since the day the kittens were born and 4 of the kittens decided to start coming over to pinch food off my grandma when they were 10 weeks old, so she brought them home, she kept 2 and mum took 2, 1 for me and 1 for my brother, the other 3 adapted to be domestic cats pretty well but my boy was still very much feral, he'd let me stroke him but was vicious to everyone else and was absolutely huge for a cat.

Our second cat followed me home from school one day, when I was about 13, we did find her owners but they said she was 3 years old and expecting her 5th litter and it was costing them too much money so refused to take her back she had her kittens then we got her (and the kittens) done, no more litters and she stayed with us til the grand old age of 18.

She was a very small cat and still looked and acted like a kitten her whole life. My vicious killer cat used to spend hours trying to teach her to hunt in the garden, she sucked at it, so sometimes he'd bring things into the kitchen for her, she still sucked indoors but I am now fantastic at catching a wide range of small creatures and know useless facts like slow worms are in fact really not slow and have eyelids, baby adders however do not have eyelids and will bite you if you stick your arm down the side of the freezer to rescue them.

My nan had loads of cats throughout her life and every one of them just turned up. They always seemed to know when she didn't currently have a cat & would arrive & move in. My uncle kept a badly injured wild baby rabbit that his cat brought in, it lived for about 10 years and grew much bigger than a normal wild rabbit, it used to come into the house & became best friends with the cat that originally found it.

Aw, these are lovely! And yes please @LinoleumBlownapart!

Yes!! Just last month actually!! And I posted about it here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2968130-To-adopt-a-stray-cat-halfway-through-a-pregnancy

And we had a very happy ending! Although I fear we have spoiled her too much and she is now actually the boss.

I found one of my cats in a pub car park after a night out. She was so skinny and half bald, she just sat on my knee in the car shaking. We took her to the vets and she was undernourished and flea ridden, no microchip. No one ever claimed her so three years later she is sunning herself in our garden, still skinny but very loving and affectionate.

Our cat scratched at the door during a heavy rainstorm, and DH opened the door to let him in. It took him far too long to realise he'd let an entirely different cat in with almost identical markings. 'He' turned out to be a 'she'.

We did all the usual stuff - notices, contacting vets, etc, but no-one came forward. No shelter would take her either as they were all full. We rehomed her privately, but she ended up coming back to us as it didn't work out.

She is such a tiny, affectionate little thing. The vet said she'd been living rough for a while due to the state she was in when we first found her. She's healthy and happy now and I love her.

Our 2nd boy Frank was a stray pup found under a car at around 6 weeks. We fostered him and he never left. He's none the worse for his ordeal apart from being loudly wary of strangers and hand shy (from being dragged from under the car I expect), but he's a legend...

Have you lost a pet, OP, and want to know that it is safe?

I walked into our kitchen about three years ago and tripped over a tiny ginger kitten sitting in the middle of the floor. He'd come through the open door. No chip, flyers produced nothing so he's still here trying to kill us all on a regular basis by tripping us up on the stairs or leaping at us from nowhere when we least expect it. But we love every hair on him.

My female cat turned up at my front door on Easter Sunday. She sat and yowled until I went to see what the fuss was. When i opened the doot she sauntered in and made herself at home.

I took her to the vets who scanned her and there was no cand and she was dangerously underweight. They think she must have been a pet but due to her temperament (she is a tortie and vicious) her original owners probably didn't want her.

She is still with me 3 years later, still vicious with everyone other then me and hates everyone else.

My gran had a pub and always had a pub cat. The cat would saunter in at opening time and sit under a lamp in the main bar and become a pet and would stay for years. About a week before the first one died a new cat would walk in, then the old one would die. It's like they knew and arranged it between themselves in the cat world.

We found 2 gerbils, complete with gerbilarium, on the side of the road whilst out walking the dog one rainy Sunday. We took them home, cleaned them up and they lived with us for about 3 years before they died of old age.

Henrys YES! Good plan. I'll send you my address and you can hook me up with a 'stray'

DP has actually found and rescued a kitten today. She is now known as Mouse and is the newest addition to our family.

My cat has gone missing 4 times, the first she was found nearly 40 miles away and I think had been pinched and then run away, someone took her to a vet who scanned her chip, once she was hit by a car and I eventually found her by going out at midnight when the traffic and general city noise was quieter and heard her meowing behind a wall, she was fine but frightened. The next time she was stuck up a tree in the park for 3 days, again found her after patrolling around at 4am when it was quiet (along with all the other park weirdos) and the last time she got into a relatives car and was driven to the other side of the city where she ate tuna with the nice builders on a building site who eventually rang my number in her collar. I am in a permanent state of anxiety waiting for the next time. Stupid cat.

Yes!! We had this stray skinny bedraggled little thing who would come miaowing loudly into our garden daily and we would shoo it away as it scared all the other cats that congregated in our garden - we didn't own any of them but had a bigger garden than they did I guess. After a few weeks of its persistentness we relented and gave it some food and it would sleep under our BBQ that we put bedding under there. We have found out it's a boy and it looks so much healthier and happier - no more yowling - that he has adopted us and is now as I type asleep in a cat bed in our lounge however he always sleeps outside at night as doesn't know how to use a litter tray so is happier outdoors. His fur is shiny and he will let us pet him and brush him but not pick him up as yet.

Our road and surrounding area have leaflets of lost cats everywhere but he is not one of them so we keep feeding and loving him and get family to feed him when we go away.

God knows what we'd do if he ever needed the vet as we'd never transport him - any ideas??

Our cat was found (rescued) she meowed outside my house for weeks, getting thinner and thinner, and more and more high pitched. One day I came home and she was in the kitchen, she was eating a loaf of bread she had dragged off the side and ripped open. She just looked at me, I bene down to cuddle her and she snuggled right in. Rang cats protection who came and assessed her, she was severely underweight, not chipped and not neutered. I had her chipped, spayed, flea treated and wormed. That was 4 years ago and she's been loyal and loving.

I found out the guy who used to live in our house would breed and sell black cats. DCat is black, but with a touch of white under her chin. They don't sell for as much money. I guess he left without her.

Oh my goodness these stories have warmed my heart tonight!
I think theres something extra special about an 'unplanned' pet.... It hadn't ever happened to me before but I think I'd struggle to let an animal go if I found it.
Thankyou all I feel really cheered up now.
Lovely stories!

My first family dog found us...
She collapsed in the street outside our house. My dad carried her in, laid her by the radiator and fed her digetive biscuits and minced beef. She didn't look well so we took her to the RSPCA. It turned out she was heavily pregnant so she went to Battersea to have her pups - they arrived on Mother's Day.
We badgered my dad to let us bring her home! He did eventuallu give in, with the stipulation she wasn't allowed upstairs or on the furniture. She soon was sleeping on my parents' bed and my dad would vacate his seat on the sofa for her.
We were devestated to have to send her over Rainbow Bridge two weeks ago, 12 years after she chose us.

My Nan ended up with a Shetland pony completely by chance.

She was at a show as a groom for a friend. She heard someone shouting at their horse, so my Nan went to see what the fuss was. She said that this Shetland was (as she later found out) only 2 years old and had already been broken. It was being 'ridden' by a child of about 9 and had someone else dragging it by the bit while the child beat the crap out of it with their heels and whip. (Now this story has been re-told by my Nan a few times and I'm sure it has been embellished but knowing my Nan I can quite believe it).

Apparently my Nan gave them a piece of her mind and they told her that if she thought this pony was worth it then she should take it. I think they thought she'd go away, but instead she told the child to dismount and walked off with the pony!

My Nan took her home (where luckily she had space for her at her own stables) gave her a couple of years and then broke her properly and broke her for pulling small carriages. My Nan taught me to ride on her and is now teaching my Daughter.

That feisty little Shetland has the biggest attitude ever but is the sweetest little thing I've ever seen. She will be 30 years old this year, which for horses is pretty amazing!!!

henrys can you leave me a kitten too please?

We had a cat from a rescue centre who'd been found immobilised with some kind of injury and taken there for treatment.

They'd tried to find the original owner, but couldn't (pre-chip days). Cat had been well cared for though and was obviously a pampered pet.

He had a happy and healthy life with us for over 10 years. I often wished we could have found the previous owner and told them. They were probably imagining the worst when all the time this cat was stuffing its face with tasty food and sunbathing.

There were loads of 'cat found' posters up and down my street and the surrounding streets for a good few days last winter, obviously up in all weathers. A friend on Facebook shared a thing for a relative of hers desperately looking for the cat. THE cat. So I sent her a message to make sure it hadn't yet been found. It hadn't. It was the 'found' cat we were pretty sure. So I went out in what can only be described as Forrest Gump style sideways rain and traipsed through the streets in the freezing dark trying to find one of these posters still intact, as they'd all melted to nothing in the storms. I was about to give up and then remembered one was on the door of a communal bin shed near mine, that was often open for days or closed for days. It was closed, I heaved it open - and there was a pristine poster on the INSIDE of the door, with a lovely perfect mobile number on it. Took a pic, sent to friend, friend called the owner, owner called the poster makers, cat was safe with them, BUT nobody had a cat basket or transport. So, in the heatfreezingness of the moment we all get in the car, go to my mums, get a cat basket that's been in her loft for 15 years, go to the found people, collect cat, take it to friend's relative (little old lady) give cat back. Job done. My kids went to bed very much later than usual on that evening, it was all a bit nuts, but we all get a sweet glow reminiscing about "the cold night we saved that little cat!" Oh and PS, when we got in and got the kids off to bed, my husband and I both realised that errrrr one of us could have just done it and not all traipsed around with the kids for hours, but then we decided it had been such a funny thing that we'd all remember. And, dear reader ......we do.