If you didn’t like cats before….

[SalsaLove]

But are now a contender for Cat Slave of the Year, how did it happen? What changed your mind about them? I’ve been a cat lover my whole life so I love hearing stories from people who had a different experience.

I was indifferent to cats - I didn't think they did much. I didn't like the fact they jumped on tables and on the side.

We got two cats because I knew my husband would give in on his no pet rule for cats....and my daughter really wanted them.

My cats now jump up everywhere [yes I know plenty of you have trained yours not too - but I'm not really bothered]. They drink out the tap. I turn away and choose not to look. They get a good few laps of the left over cereal milk before I take the bowl away. I'm the one up the ladder trying to entice them down the tree when they have gone too high. I'm the one feeding them, cleaning their poop and giving them flea treatments.

And how do they thank me? By sleeping with the kids. Going to the kids for cuddles in the morning. By being indifferent to me!!! Blinking gorgeous fur babies.

If one comes for a stroke I know that it is food time!!

(I'm being a bit unfair - Silky is a tart who will take pets and strokes and being played with by anyone. Bobbi....nope....only likes my daughter. The rest of us she puts up with for food.)

I have always adored cats, but I have watched my husband go from "not a fan" to "how's my beautiful boy?" 😁

I think it was seeing him as an individual with his own personality traits that did it, and realising that you can get just as good a relationship with them as you can with a dog - it's just different.

On the whole I think people like DH see cats as being small dogs and dislike the fact that they don't behave like dogs. Once they realise that a cat isn't a small dog they come to enjoy them for being the cat that they are, iyswim.

Our family cats always preferred my mother as their servant and my dad as giver of cuddles. 😆 My girl likes me to do both and seems to consider my husband only in emergencies (breakfast 2 minutes late kind of thing)

Growing up we were a dog family. Any cats I ever came across were either aloof or would bite my toes. I was pretty scared of cats and still am to a certain extent.. except mine.

We got two when I move from a flat to a house because the kids wanted one. Having and knowing them from a kitten means I 'know them' if that makes sense.

We now have 3 and we love the bastard things so much.

When I was a toddler my dad visited the man who did his tax and he took me with him. There was a cat - a tabby. I fell in love and PATTED the cat (hard) which went for me and then legged it. I just remember sitting there in shock. There was much sympathy and 'naughty pussy' ... but I just wanted MORE - I wanted to Get It Right. I was bewitched and beguiled.

Lol! That’s how I feel. I want cats to like me. It’s some kind badge of honour 😆

I’ve got a master that I never asked for ! He’s a bit of a ass tbh.
He’s clawed my carpets 😡
He pisses the dog off 😡
He won’t stay in at night 😡
He tried to move in with my neighbours 😡
He shits on my neighbours lawn and your truly has to go round picking it up 😡 ( thankfully my neighbours are really nice people. I bought them a water gun and “get off” to deter him )
He try’s to kill me walking down the stairs most days 😡
He murders birds and baby mice 😡

BUT he looks at me with his big green eyes and purrs and I’m wrapped round his little paws in a instant 🤣. Still a ass but I do love him.

I hated cats growing up. I think because my larents were so hostile to them. They didn't like the shits in the garden. I found them sinister looking.
I am not an animal lover. I am a bit houseproud and squeamish, and didn't want the smell of pets and their food, and their fur in my house.
But then I had 3 kids, and realised I couldn't prevent them the opportunity of pets.
One month ago we got 2 cats. My family can't believe it. But they are amazing! So independent, easy, funny. So calm and sweet with the kids. I am converted!

My exh twat had never been around cats, he was from an Arabic country only used to horses and birds () He was really confused about pets being inside the house as he thought animals were functional (pest control, hunting and security). I had this beautiful but evil cat who was a nightmare and would attack everyone but for some reason they got on really well. She'd let him pick her up and cradle her like a baby, he'd sing to her and she'd gaze at him like 😻 😻😻

I never got to the bottom of their weird relationship; he wasn't interested in my other cats and vice versa but he adored my psycho old lady (meeting of minds I think )

I went from indifferent to happy cat owner, but I wouldn't go as far as slave or true cat lover though, if anything happened to them I'm not sure I'd be rushing out to replace them.

My husband didn't like cats and is highly allergic. They set his eyes and nose streaming and make his breathing bad. We lived in a farm cottage and it was rife with feral, starving cats. I started trapping and neutering them all. Kittens were taken away, treated for fleas and worms and then homed. (The mama cats would bring the babies up to the house for feeds and at around 4-6 weeks I'd take the babies in to tame and treat. Because if DH's allergies they stayed in the kitchen only.

Until one day a few day old kitten was left on the doorstep. We don't know why the mama didn't want it but she did know where was safe to take it at least. I put it in her nest with the others and she just dumped it at our house front door instead.
I tried keeping it in the kitchen but the other kitten litters were too boisterous for it. (I can't stress how big the feral colony was! Multiple litters at a time)

So she was allowed in the living room on her hot water bottle. By the time she was big enough and didn't need bottle feeding anymore, DH said she didn't have to go. And that was it. She decided that despite the fact I had fed her every few hours, made her pee and poop by wiping her rear with cotton balls and basically never slept every time she almost died, I wasn't the favourite human. Daddy was. And 7 years later she's a daddy's girl and he can't so much as sit down without his cat lap accessory.

My dh always claimed to hate cats but when l went away for the weekend last month l got home to a cupboard full of cat treats and l had visions if them having a boys' night in together while the girls were away!
Says he hates him but never pushes him away when he chooses his lap to sit on so l don't believe him!

I got a cat assuming my cat-hating DH would come round and learn to love him.

Four years on, it hasn't worked, in fact DH hates cats more. Doesn't help that the cat is a vicious little shit.

My mum really disliked cats for almost all her life (one killed her favourite pet in front of her when she was little and she never really got over it!). But then a pregnant mama cat moved in to her garden and had 5 babies. She paid to get them all spayed and converted a garden shed for them to live in. I don't think she'd ever have a "pet" cat but those 6 in her garden have a shed with toys and bedding and top of the range cat food every day, she would go without food before leaving them to fend for themselves. Never thought I'd live to see it! 😅

My DH wanted more cats , he tolerated our guinea-pigs but was never a fan. He would feed, buy food , cuddle one if pushed and look after if both DD and I were ill or away (if it was just me that wasn't there he'd help DD)

Once we were Piggie-Less we got the cats . I was given the job of Finding Two Cats
So , I am ultimately responsible for their misdemeaners because (out of literally 1000s of cats ), I chose them

Are they grateful .? Nope .
Female loves DH and sits with him when he WFH. Pesters DD to into her room or takes over DS room
Male cats loves DD , dribbles when she strokes him. Sleeps on our bed .

They both look in outrage and horror if I dare to touch them.
My job was to pick them. Collect all their equipment .
Buy their food
Take them to the vet .
But I get a cool green eyed stare if I try to build up my part .
Know your place, hooman

I love these stories. 😻 Especially about the cats who choose the human who doesn’t actually take care of them! Lol

My friend was adamant he wasn't going to have cats. The first night his girls came home. He was crawling around on the kitchen floor calling them darling. He's besotted with them. And now adores talking about and meeting everyone else's cats. Though they are not the lap cats he was hoping for. (Probably a good job as he's a priest and mainly wears black)

I grew up with dogs, lots of dogs. My parents, my grandparents and aunts all had dogs no cats. Growing up I was never really crazy about cats, I didn't hate them though, but I never understood the fuss, dogs were simply better.

Roll on adulthood, lives in a kibbutz when I ended up "adopting" lots of stray dogs and cats, and started to like them more. Then at university my housemate got 2 cats. About 6 months in she buggered away for a year and asked me if I would look after them. Well that was it, I absolutely fell head over heels with one of the 2 cats, I loved her and she loved only me!! For the first time I saw the special bond that grows more slowly than with dogs and the nuances of cats, far more than dogs. Anyway she came back took the cats back to live with her, I was devastated!!

I then got myself a rescue cat, well kitten. She totally chose me by walking up onto my shoulder and just would not budge! I had this gorgeous girl in my life for 18 years and I adored every bit of her! She was my special fur baby. Now I would say I love cats as much as I love dogs, which is a lot!!!

I just thought cats were rude and ungrateful and selfish and mean and scratchy and bitey and mean and smelly.

Then I got one (I'm not sure why, it was a bit spontaneous) and she is my entire life. I would literally die for her. I love her more than anything else in the world and we snuggle ALL DAY 😻

@ChickyNuggies

I just thought cats were rude and ungrateful and selfish and mean and scratchy and bitey and mean and smelly.

Then I got one (I'm not sure why, it was a bit spontaneous) and she is my entire life. I would literally die for her. I love her more than anything else in the world and we snuggle ALL DAY 😻

They’re all those things! 😂 Except smelly. I find them rather neutral smelling unless they’ve been napping in fresh laundry. 😏

DH did not like cats. I didn't mention I had cat when we were dating until he was in my driveway and going to stay the night for fear of being seen as the mad cat lady.

Tabby cat would sit on my lap, stretch a foot out to him and he would freeze

Not sure exactly what happened but when he moved in, he became responsible for feeding them as I was working and he wasn't. And then he became responsible for giving Tabby cat her medication every day.

First I realised he was smitten was when Tabby cat died and he was genuinely cut up about it. Now I'd say 90% of our conversation is about cats and Silky cat sleeps in (not on, actually in) our bed.

I think it was seeing him as an individual with his own personality traits that did it, and realising that you can get just as good a relationship with them as you can with a dog - it's just different.

This is what I tried for years to explain to dh. Unsuccessfully.

Dh didn't understand that he despised cats for being rather too much like him: aloof, self-sufficient, and only opening up for the right person.

I finally got him to agree to having a cat, on the condition that he did not have anything to do with looking after it.

That lasted about 10 days. "I think he looks hungry. Will he be able to climb up there? Will he be able to get down from there? You want stroking, don't you? Awwww darrrrrling."

He now calls the cat darling more often than he calls me darling!

And feeds it

We grew up with dogs and were fairly indifferent to cats but took on a rescue moggy a friend arranged thinking a pet would be nice for young DD as we couldn’t commit to having a dog.
15 years later she’s a darling old lady, we have a second darling younger dcat and we and the now 2dc adore them both.
we’d all still absolutely love a dog though

My DD used to be afraid of cats when she was little. I’ve always had cats never dogs, but XH wouldn’t let us get one. When he moved out I got a gorgeous fluffy rescue cat and DD got brave and learned to stroke her and realised she wouldn’t bite or scratch her! When that one sadly died we got two more rescues and DD now loves one of them more than life. This little bugger won’t let you pick her up, won’t sit on laps (due to her horrendously sharp claws no doubt eliciting screams whenever she’s tried), she has shit on the beds, sofas, new rugs, basically anywhere and everywhere, DD has been in tears scrubbing cat crap off the carpet but still she won’t have a bad word said against this cat!

Touch wood, the last few months the cat has settled down and hasn’t pooped anywhere naughty, so maybe she’s just finally comfortable with us. Either way, I’m stuck with this defective cat as if she goes, DD will go with her!

Grew up with dogs but I love animals far more than people. I was never going to get a cat because they killed other animals and I am such a wuss I'd get upset.

We now have 2, I adore them and when they used to bring in live mice at 4am dh and I would catch it i'd check it for wounds give it a peeled grape then drive it a few miles away. Gave them a little kiss and released them. Never been bitten by one.

They love to snuggle dh in the day when he's home but at night it's me they sleep on or next to.

I will be heartbroken when they leave us.