Anyone ever wonder what their rescue pets life was like before?

[MomOfElves]

Does anyone else ever look at your fur babies and try to imagine what they've been through?

We have 4 rescue kitties, one was a little kitten when we got him, but the rest we got when they were just under 1, I often look at them and wonder, we had no background info on any of them and it just makes me curious.

Sadly I know how our Lurcher lived previously..

My rescue puppy came from a Romanian kill shelter. Enough said.

Yes all the time. We have a rescue french bulldog that was around 4 when we adopted him. We don’t know much about his past at all.

Yes!
We adopted a 10 year old cat almost a year ago.
He’d been living as a stray for at least 6 months as a lady had been feeding him, and she contacted a cat rescue when she noticed he had a head injury.

When the rescue place took him to the vets they found out he was chipped and neutered. They contacted his ‘owner’ and they were extremely shady. They claimed he’d only been missing for a week. Anyway, the long and short of it was that they didn’t want him back. They said he was “unfriendly”.

So I wonder if he was dumped. I wonder how they treated him as he can be anxious and sensitive at times. He took months to sit on DH.
He is not unfriendly. He’s very vocal and loved to snuggle on my knee.

I would love to know what happened in the first 10 years of his life.

My dog had a year with a lovely family with 3 other dogs and she was bottom of the "pack" they rehomed her from dogs trust around a year old - the first year must have been horrid as she's still nervous, anxious, scavenges, frightened of most men.

Hi, yes and it’s the reason I’d only ever adopt from a rescue centre as opposed to a breeder. All animals deserve kindness and compassion.

@YanTanTetheraPetheraPimp

My rescue puppy came from a Romanian kill shelter. Enough said.

Mine too. I can't even think about it.

My cat was born in Melbourne. He has an Australian health record for the first 3 years of his life, came to the UK and found himself in a CPL home where we got him from. They either couldn't or wouldn't tell us his history but it must have cost a lot of money to get him here only to be rehomed.

A friend's rescue was shaved for an operation recently, exposing many many old cigarette burn scars

Yes.
DCat1 was found homeless when she was pregnant I wonder if she had a lobing home before and was thrown out earn she was pregnant or if she somehow accidentally got lost.
Dcat2 was dumped at a rescue when she was about 5 weeks old. I wonder what happened to her siblings and her mum? I'm thankful someone was bothered enough to take her to a rescue centre.
Dcat3 was dumped in a bag by the bins in our back lane, our dog found him. The next day a full open bag of cat food was left in the same place. I wonder if they thought he would just be ok living by himself on the streets or if the hoped someone would find him. And if they hoped someone would find him why not dump him outside a vets or somewhere more suitable.
Ddog1 was from Romania, from a kill shelter, he has a scar on his side and a tear in his ear where they ripped out his metal id tag. He was reliably house trained and seemed to know his way around a house so I wonder if he was someone's pet at some point rather than being born on the streets. Dog catchers in Romania are paid by the dog so do sometimes take them from peoples gardens etc as well as the actual street dogs. He is very wary of people though the only people he likes are me, DH and the DCs he won't do anything to other people unless they try to touch him where he does give a warning growl and a show of teeth. He is also scared of anything that looks like a stick such as brooms, cricket bats etc and when he first came was terrified if a bus or lorry drove past us. He also seems to have nightmares where he whimpers in his sleep.
I wish they could talk and tell us.

@TyneTeas

A friend's rescue was shaved for an operation recently, exposing many many old cigarette burn scars

😭😭😭😭😭😭

My DCat was treated in a terrible way. He has a happy life now. I don’t understand why people abuse animals.

Someone was advertising our cat for re homing.
DH was not thrilled at the prospect of getting another cat so we were just going to “have a look”.

I persuaded him to let me put the carrier in the boot just in case.

We walked in, saw how puss was living and DH said, with no hesitation, “I’ll get the carrier”.

Some people shouldn’t be allowed to get pets

We lost my old boy in the summer. He was 14, and I’d had him since he was 18 months old. When I got him, he was the shape of a rugby ball - he was a cocker spaniel and he weighed 22kg. 25 when he went into the rescue centre! For comparison, at his fittest he was 15-ish kg and even as an older, slightly less active dog he weighed only just over 17kg. So I suspect his life involved a LOT of food, and very few walks. Plenty of snuggles as he was a very cuddly dog, but not much training. I don’t think anyone was deliberately cruel to him, but they weren’t doing what was best for him. He had a fricking awesome life with us though, so it’s ok. Even if we did make him wear a jumper when he was damp.

We have a retired racing greyhound. We know where/ when born. We know when he raced, we have videos of him winning races (he won about £1000). Then he stopped racing.
He was young, fast and doing well. We know he was bumped twice in his last race. We would like to know how injured he was that they decided to never race him again.
He has a little scar on a leg- is it linked? I’m ever grateful that his trainer put him into retirement and didn’t euthanise him. Many may have made a different decision.
We are thrilled he is our pet, he’s a wonderful boy. I’d just like that piece of his life filled in.

DDog was a street dog and has scars. The ones we can see are bad but the ones in his poor head are worse. He cannot stand strangers even those people who think they're dog whisperers.

But when something is scary to him he comes and stands as close to us as possible. Sitting on my feet if possible. It makes me feel immensely honoured to have his trust. Because no human deserves it from him.

My first rescue cat was found as a kitten with another cat (presume mother) in a taped up cardboard box. I can't fathom why, even if you were going to abandon a cat, you would put them in a box and tape it shut so they've no chance at all of fending for themselves.
Have another rescue now who was a stray when she was found and had a badly infected eye which had to be removed. Mostly I wonder how old she is.

Our cat was found when about 6 months old by a friend on a petrol forecourt by an A-road, having apparently been there a few weeks (according to staff who'd seen her).

We looked on 'lost pet' sites for the area to check for any missing pets matching description and checked she wasn't chipped before delcaring her ours. We think she must have either been lost or abandoned - the latter most likely given where she was found, perhaps - as she was too relaxed with people to have been stray/feral but we'll never know.

Definitely! My cat is very well mannered and quite bold so seems to have lived in a normal setting but then got abandoned with two other cats in the same carrier so it’s a total mystery. I’ve read cats don’t really have memories like that though.

Dog1 was on her 3rd home at 9mths when she came to us from Gumtree. I think it was well intended neglect in her previous home - Tesco value kibble, didn't know her own name for recall, massively underweight but SUCH a loving and friendly idiot.

Dog2 also came from a Romanian kill shelter a year ago, has a split in her ear from the tag being torn out at some point and was a funny body shape through lack of decent food but also lack of exercise. DH also wonders if she was a pet dog at some time. She's terrified of EVERYTHING - fluttering crisp packets in the street, you name it - but she's decided she mostly trusts us and loves nothing more than sleeping on our bed with us. We think she's about 6, so I think she'll be a fearful dog for life bless her.

I do wonder what happened to make my cat such a monumental dickhead.
I think she was just spoiled and allowed to do what she wanted to do. We know she lived with an old lady who couldn't cope with her behaviour. 4 homes in 4 years apparently.
I contacted the rescue about her behaviour so they stuck some feliway through my letterbox and ignored any further texts and calls.

My newest rescue kitten is the sweetest angel

Her mom was run over when her litter was 5 weeks old

She was fostered and now in a very loving home
V spoiled 🥰🥰🥰

My dog was in a Romanian shelter , his mum, from what we know his mum was a street dog, he was born in the shelter and was there 2 years before we got him.
I do wonder what his life was like as he has these really physical vivid dreams , I've never known a dog dream like that.

Ours was dumped whilst pregnant, a cat charity took her in, looked after her throughout the remainder of her pregnancy and rehomed all of her kittens but she was stuck there for another month before we went and fell in love with her.

We have numerous rescue cats and I often think of this.

We have one who is terrified of bags and strangers.

And one whose, we think, owners moved away and deserted her. According to the rescue, neighbours fed her for a year before noticing she was pregnant (we have her and 2 of her kittens)

The capacity for humans to be complete arseholes continually surprises and dismays me.

My cat turned up limping in my garden 10 years ago, full of fleas, fur all matted, one paw badly infected and septic. Apparently, he'd been a stray/feral for about 7 years.