How did you meet your feline overlords?

[Utterbunkum]

I am loving reading about all the lovely cats. I know I am new here, and this has probably been done, but I would love to know how you came to share your lives with your current friends with fur?
My DH and I met Oliver at a rescue centre, aged 3 (him, not us). The poor little man was found living rough on the streets, covered in ticks and fleas and with a nasty leg infection. They called him Oliver after Oliver Twist because of his ragged state.

When we first saw him, he had lost most of one of his back trouser legs due to infection. His little bare leg looked like raw chicken. One toe had been amputated. His fur was patchy following extensive tick removal, but his tail was an enormous brush of soft fur. His eyes were bright yellow, and he paced around us like a lord after a bit of a hiss for greeting.
We fell in love and took him home, where he spent 24 hours under a chair, before clinging to us like a limpet, moving from lap to lap (we both WFH then).
10 years later, he lives like a king, cheeky, demanding, cuddly when he wants. He will steal your seat if you move for a minute, but loves a warm lap. We wouldn't be without him.

@Kittensat36
Dcat is Minoushka, as she turned out to be a Siberian.

I decided it was time for a cat but we had our wedding coming up. As soon as we were back from honeymoon I went to the RSPCA. My Ivy was the youngest in her shed. 6 months old and black. She climbed on my lap and that was it.
She’s 12 now. Actually a tabby if you look at her in certain lights. She keeps me company when I wake up stupidly early. Also an excellent mouser.
9yo DS claims to love her the most.

Our boy was feral (we thought) and just marched in the door and went on a full charm offensive till we gave in. It later came to light that he's a neighbours farm cat, and that he's instituted a joint custody arrangement off his own bat. Neighbours are perfectly happy with the arrangement! He comes to us in the evenings for pate and lap cuddles and goes to work next morning.

Mine came via the police!

A police officer friend had a foster cats, and one wasn’t coping in a multi cat household. I agreed to take him on, and went to collect kitty from a police station at the start of his shift one day.

My DH was also not a cat person.

I carefully didn't mention the cats until we had been dating a while and he was coming to stay at mine - I told him in the driveway 😂

Of course not being a cat person made him magnetically attractive to cats, and Cat 1 was determined to win his affection.

He cried when she died and it was the first time I realised he liked them. He's now officially in charge of them all.

Thanks all, what lovely stories. So sad some had hard lives, but lovely that they have found their forever homes.
Oliver isn't our first cat. Our first was the kitten of our neighbours cat. We had her 16 years. It would be 2 years after her death until we could think of another. I am so glad we did.

I was randomly scrolling Facebook when I came across a link to a rescue I'd never heard of, with a
Picture of a gorgeous cat. And a post saying in 6 weeks the two cats had had no interest. I fell in love with the photo and that was that.
I saw Cheddars picture on the rescue a few days after Maia died. Went to meeet her and it took 45 minutes to find her, as she was hiding in plain sight! Love at first sight.

With Penelope, I told the rescue I wanted exotic and they said she was coming into the rescue at the end of the month. I met her in the service area at Peartree park and ride in Oxford.

Just looked up Minoushka - it means angelic in Russian. I bet it suits!!

Minouche is Parisian French for pussycat (F). The male equivalent is Minou. There could be a common root somewhere.

There was a cat in one of Zola's books called Minouche.

He has the most elegant long muzzle like an ancient Egyptian cat .(and probably demands to be treated like a God)

Our boy has a beautiful chiselled face, his sister has a more retrousse nose.
Male thinks he’s part Oriental , I tell him his mum walked past a Siamese cat that’s as good as it got

@Toddlerteaplease Oliver was majestic even with half his fur missing. We were excited to see, next to 'breed' in his paperwork, the legend, 'LHC'. We thought it might be some fancy exotic breed. Turned out it means 'Long Haired Cat' 😂

@70isaLimitNotaTarget he is! He has a delicate regal stripey tail too, fits him perfectly!

With cat 1 I took my two small children with me to the rescue. They chose the small black kitten from a litter as we had an older black cat. Then when I fessed by to DH that we were getting another cat I expected some resistance. Instead he said “get two from the same litter so he has a friend”. We lost the older cat and the smaller black runt but still have the ‘spare’.
Whilst spare cat is fantastic for adults he was never particularly child friendly. My DH took ds away for a weekend and I was casting round for nice activities to fill the weekend with dd. I decided to go look at another rescue. The lady there said “we have these two hand reared older kittens, would like them to go together”. Dd sat and cuddled one in particular who still loves a fuss from her. They were delivered the next day so DH came home to an extra two cats!
Luckily he loves cats as much as I do.

Cat 1 (a grey intact tom cat, built like a brick shithouse) moved in with me of its own accord. Best cat I ever had.
Cats 2 and 3 (LH tortie and white, and SH black) were kittens from our neighbours' cat.
Years later after cats 1 and 2 died we got..
Cats 4, 5 and 6. (Grey girl, grey tabby boy, ginger boy). Farm kittens from a work colleague's mum.
After cats 3 and 4 died we got...
Cats 7 and 8 - Battersea rescue kittens Basil and Sybil.
After cats 5 and 6 died we got...
Cats 9 and 10 More Battersea kittens, Karl and Lenny.

Ha ha, cheeky fella! Best of all worlds.

My favourite picture of cats 5,6,7 and 8. They frequently slept in a cat pile 😻.

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats that is so cute. Can't speak as to the old, or the grumpy, but you definitely are a person with cats! Lovely and warm on a cold night, your very own catblanket.

Actually if we are listing cats we no longer own;

1. From a farm cats litter, saw him first at a week old with his eyes shut, he was my childhood cat
2. adopted us. He was very manky but affectionate so we weren’t sure if he had a home. Turned out he had a home but they had dogs and children so he chose a quieter home
3. came with a litter mate who we lost young. Was the type of cat who liked to be in the room with you as long as you never touched her.
4. my current favourite came as a bog off with a kitten the dc picked
5. & 6. picked by dd from the rescue

Actually that was them sitting on Mrs Grumpy, not me.
I felt very left out 🤣.

I bet you did 🤣

When we took our original cat to have her spay stitches out and get her vaccinations (as we didn’t know if her previous owners did). The vet wrote DSH on the breed section.

“Oh it’s Domestic Short Hair “she said. “Or as us vets call it , moggie “ 😼

Was this Pre-TC times

A young black Tom was living rough in the gardens around our flats and the block next door. He used to howl outside if someone had a roast, but would never come near

I saw him limping one day. It took us three days to catch him. We took him to the vet’s, who did the necessary for his badly-bitten leg, and also undertook to de-pompon him (we paid)

at this point, we had no intention of owning a cat, just didn’t want him to be in pain. When the vet said he had to be kept in overnight after his op we really didn’t expect him to co-operate

anyway, we opened the borrowed cat-carrier door, he walked into the sitting room, found the sofa and stayed there for the next 16 years.

he had obviously been an owned cat at some stage, but had gotten lost or separated or been abandoned.

Yes - but TC's timeline did cross with Monty the ginger boy in the photo.