Do you wonder about where they were before? Rescue Cats

[LovingChristmas]

I've had my cat for nearly three years, she followed me home one day all skinny and full of fleas, but gorgeous and sweet and bloody LOUD should have given it away then that she'd be demanding
I fed her as she was starving, door knocked over 100 houses, checked to see if she was chipped, rang every rescue in a ten mile radius, put ads in the paper and on the internet and still no-one claimed her.
Due to the rescues being chock full (it was the height of the recession) no one would take her in so we kept her whilst trying to find an owner, anyway it never happened and she wormed her paws under the table quickly.
We took her to be spayed and she'd already been done, she has never scratched anything (well us when we tease her, but no carpets etc), she was house trained, litter trained and everything. I still cuddle her and wonder who she belonged to and do they still miss the little demanding tortie that's so adorable, or is it as the Cats Protection suspect, she was dumped because of the rescues being unable to take her.

If you have rescues etc, or you've just adopted a cat, do you ever wonder what their life was like? I'd never part with her now (and she's chipped etc) but I do still worry someone somewhere is missing their furbaby.

If she's well socialised, was well trained & spayed, I bet she was well looked after originally, but ran off or the circumstances of her original owner(s) changed dramatically.

My rescues will be kittens, seems like the only type CPL possibly allow in a household of young children. Their mother, her owner hadn't bothered to spay. Not much history to know, anyway.

Hi ragged - I did wonder about if she'd run off and she is rubbish with directions, as she got stuck on the next estate and couldn't get home, but she generally doesn't stray at all (quite a homely cat), and I advertised everywhere, surely if that were the case someone would be looking?
I hope you enjoy your kittens, my cat makes me smile and laugh everyday with some daft antics

We know ours was on the streets very young and hadn't been spayed because she was bought to CPL by lovely people who found her in their garden about to give birth. We can tell she was a scavenger because when we first got her she was obsessed with tins and is still crazy about cake and muffin cases - she will lick and nibble them to bits trying to get the last crumb. Dh was in tears on her first day (he is soft about cats) as he dropped a small amount of cheese and she pounced on it and gobbled it up then licked the floor and looked for more. She had been well fed at the CPL but obviously away from that she was nervous about where her food would be. She's fine now. The first night we had her she tried to eat our yellow thai curry. She was very social and loving so obviously not been on the street all her life. I suspect she was dumped. She's very traffic savvy and runs away from bigger cats. Very wary of dogs. We love her!

had ours for 12 years. from cats prtection. She arrived with a bed, a basket, a box of toys, a brush and a Tshirt belonging to her previous owner (in her bed). pampered, well fed and obviously very much loved. Owners circumstances had changed. I feel a bit sad that she was forced to rehome the cat. it must have been so hard . saying that she has ruled our house ever since and we adore her too.

Our three are all rescues, but one was a kitten. Cat1 had come in with her kittens, and I think had been living wild from her behaviour. Cat3 had obv not had a happy life as you can't step over him - he behaves like he expects to be kicked.
We love them, even with their quirks

We have a pony who is about 17 but we know nothing about her at all apart from the 2 years before we got her- the previous owners said they bought her wt an auction.

She has loads of whip scars on her back and can't bear to be shut in, but she is beautiful- the vet says she is pure blood Arab and every single thing dd has ever asked her to do, dressage, show jumping, cross country, endurance- it's as if she has a think, then a light bulb goes off in her head and she says "I've done this before ! I know how to do this!". She is a handful for an experienced rider, but if you put a child on her she is the gentlest, sweetest thing you can imagine. I would LOVE to know her history!

Seeker - sounds like her history would be a great children's book! So glad she has a good home with your dd.

I know, northernlurker- and how we got her would be a good chapter too- she was an impulse buy pony! I think there are some pictures on my profile if you'd like to see her.

Wow - what a beautiful pony! And lovely dd too obviously.

Aww, makes me teary reading this thread but in a good way knowing these cats have a lovely life now.

One of mine belonged to the neighbours across the street - first came across her as an 18mth old - barely out of her kitten whiskers, starving & scavenging for food metres from her front door. One piece of ham, lots of strife with her former owners and some heartache later she is still with me (3 years now)

The owners just moved away and left her behind, the uncaring shits (sorry, but it's how I feel) She was supposed to be a cat for their 3yr old daughter but cat decided she didn't want to be 'owned' by a toddler and literally moved out in protest.

Cat two came to me from a rescue charity but as they were choc-a-block at the time no 2 stayed in his former home where I was able to go meet him and the owners.

He was loved I think but hated it when their first human baby came along and reacted by spraying constantly. I say I think he was loved but sported a broken tail (not there when I went to see him and met only with shrugs when I asked owners about it) riddled with worms and underweight by the time they dropped him off at mine.

So glad I am able to give both of them the worship they deserve and think/hope they feel the same :)

Thank you- i think they are both gorgeous!

Best 500 quid I ever spent. The pony I mean- sadly the girl has cost me a lot more than that along the way!

Aww sorry Bibi didn't mean to make anyone teary, I think its lovely how these cats (and pony) have quite decided that they deem us now fit to be their owners and seem much happier for it.

You know what, I so hope my boy who went missing at 9 months old is with people as kind as you all are..I miss him so much...we did leaflets drops etc around our area, had so many calls but no one had him in their possession..I still miss him now and hope he is happy. x

One of ours was a kitten found in a hedge. No sign of the mother, no idea whether he was born in the hedge or placed there. He's the best cat ever - an enormously long, gangly tabby, a bit thick and a complete attention whore.

I'm really sorry topknob, I hope he found a lovely home and is well loved.
Hi Hassled, mine is an attention whore too when it suits her!

Ours were 3 and 4 from the Blue Cross. Their owner had died and they had been well looked after. They were really stressed out by the shelter and move - it took about 2 years for them to totally chill out.

I often wonder about their previous owner - and whether they worried about what would happen to their cats. A couple of things made us realise they had been exceptionally well-cared for (e.g. serious surgery on one that we only discovered a year ago). I wish they could have known that it would be OK - they would be much loved. I tend to think that they had belonged to a doting old lady.

Ahhh - All these lovely cats

PantryCat1 came from the CPL - he had been abandonned when his family moved house and he ended up living on a rubbish tip and his collar became embedded in his skin so they had to operate to remove it.
He is very needy - when we first had him if we went out he would sit behind the perspex cat flap until we came home, he used to have nightmares and wake screaming and he was a dreadful thief and scavenger - after 5 years he is much more relaxed

PantryCat2 was a stray who was stealing food from our cats. He was poorly so we trapped him and took him to the vet. He wasn't chipped and no one claimed him. CPL were full so we ended up keeping him. He is very beautiful but not very clever. He will be stroked but not picked up, he never comes in the house but lives happily in the stable. He hates cats who are not black.

PantyrCat3 was at the vets when DH was there one day. He had been found and handed in, he was trapped on a bush by his collar. His injuries were horrific and the vets weren't sure he would make it. DH saw him just after his first op and he swears the cat put a paw out of the cage and tapped him to get his attention.
He is fully recovered now (although he hates flies - we think he was plagued by them when he was trapped and had festering wounds)
He is a lovely cuddley cat, He's very sociable and loves people.

PantryCat4 is a tiny little girl - we had her with her bold cheeky sister, sadly her sister was killed on the road. They were given to the CPL because they were strays living on a caravan park. Cat4 is very shy, she lives in the stable. She loves DH but is more wary of me. She won't come in the house.

PantryCat5 has only been with us a fortnight. He is gorgeous. He was hit by a car and then his owners didn't want to pay the bill. He was in the local rescue centre for 18 months and I kept looking at him on the website - last month I finally persuaded DH to let me get him.
He is very friendly, he loves to sit on your shoulder and play with your ears. He has the funniest sqeaky miaou I have ever heard.

One of ours was found under a shed as a kitten. The other ones are kittens that came from a mad cat lady - they were handled a lot before we got them and they have been constantly handled by dc and us since then and are consequently the softest animals in the entire world (although naturally, being cats, they are still murderous bastards).

We had a rescue cat years ago and we found a lump under his tummy - took him to the vets, he said his ribs had fused together oddly after he'd take a blow to the stomach (think kick underneath) and it was untreated at the time. He was also another ridiculously soft cat despite his previous treatment.

Well in the last few days i have found out alot more about our two as the vets and rescue centre have been trying to piece together how Pixie died so suddenly from an unremarkable abcess and wether there was any risk to the other cats/kittens that were in the same rescue - all 21 of them

Our were left abandoned in a house after the owner was evicted. The cats had kittens and then some. It appears there was some interbreeding and it is now thought that Pixie had a compromised immune system (but not fiv or leukeimia)hence his sudden demise .

Touch wood, his brother was checked over this evening and is a skinny thing but in an althetic "i run around like a mad thing" way with actual mucle on his bones, rather than a starving and neglected way and as far as can be ascertained without exhaustive and stressful batteries of blood tests, is healthy

Schadenkatze is a large Maine Coon from a rescue place. They knew nothing about his history - just said he was a "big teddy". He waved at us from his cage and squeaked miaowed at us. We went to look at his information sheet and he had eaten it. The nice lady went to get a box to bring him home in, folded him up, popped him in it, and that was that.

Schadenkitten is small, grey and squeaky, and gives the poor old MC a hard time chasing his tail. But he loves her really, and they cuddle up to sleep together, and he puts his paws round her and hugs her.

I sometimes wonder if they ever think about where they were before. I doubt it really, but I do wonder all the same. One of ours came from an elderly lady who had to go into a nursing home. She had clearly adored him and fed him treats (hence his swift recognition of what a milk bottle looks like!), probably from her plate since he used to beg like crazy. I wished I could have told her how much we loved him and enjoyed having him in our lives. He lived with us for 3 years until he got cancer. We still miss him.

Our current loony cat was too much for her previous owners to handle. She's still very temperamental and highly strung, but she's so much better than when she arrived!

The first cat my boyfriend's family had just moved in with them as they lived in a basement flat at the time. They weren't cat people really but were totally converted and have never looked back!

Lovely thread - makes me glad that so many cats have been taken in or rescued.

TedsCat1 was rescued by my Dad from the rafters of the house being built opposite ours. She was making an awful fuss . My Mum and Dad insisted that she must belong to someone but knocking on doors, posters and leaflets prompted no response. She kept hanging around outside our front door and after a few days I was allowed to feed her. A few days later it seemed to make sense to let her into the nice warm house for her meals and the rest was history.

Elderly Princess TedsCat2 joined us after TedsCat1 was sadly killed on the road. We went along to the local CPL and the main room had cats in cages around the four walls and one big cage in the middle. As we walked around the room the cat in the middle cage was meowing very loudly and sticking her paws out of the cage, catching our clothes, desperate to get out attention. We always say that she chose us rather than the other way round . We were told she had been found stray near student accommodation. Possibly she had been abandoned by students or alternatively she been kept going by various student tit bits. My Mum and Dad have been her dutiful servants for 17 years now (she's probably about 18).

TedsCats 3 and 4 joined me and DH as kittens from the litter of a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend. Their antics can presumably only be blamed on our poor cat-parenting rather than some tragic backstory...

I have to admit that I'm guilty of poor cat parenting too, for saving my furball was a starving stray, even though we have all economised on food, my DCat refuses anything less than the best felix sensations, and will not eat anything of lesser standard she also demands to come into the bathroom with you and you must turn the cold tap on to a certain trickle so she can drink water from the tap water in the bowl just gets a turned up whisker

:) LovingChristmas - the food yes, my diet is shocking in it's frugalness nowadays just so the cats can stay in Felix sensations, gourmet solitaire and prawns!

'Poor' tigger had only ever known one flavour of whiskas before he came to me. He loves nothing more than variety of flavour nowadays and is a joy to feed.

If mine do ever remember their former lives I am convinced it's only with a shudder at the near miss they had at the life of being utterly worshipped and adored as they are now