Pet lovers - Time for a "How did you end up with your pets' thread

[LynneSin]

I think everyone has a heart-warming story of how they were adopted by their pets (let's face it - we do not adopt pets, they adopt us).

Abbott truly did adopt me. I was coming home from work on a cold, rainy december night when this cat approached me. I ran in and brought him a piece of cheese and he actually came up to me and rubbed my legs. I noticed he had a flea collar but no ID on him. Thinking that someone actually owned this cat, I brought him in in hopes that I could find his owner.

Turns out the owner just tossed Abbott away and Abbott decided he liked my place better. After 3 weeks with no response on Abbott I decided to make him permamently my cat. It's been a happy 2 years of hugs & snuggling between Abbott and myself.

Evita was somewhat planned. I was going to adopt a different cat from the Animal Humane Sanctuary here in Delaware. But the original cat that I wanted to adopt didn't really want me to adopt her so I ended up with Evita. Actually the owner of the shelter asked if I would pet & play with Evita some to make her a bit more friendly and adoptable. She was in a cage and just had gotten out of her surgery 2 days ago. So I was actually petting Evita while the owner was trying to track down the cat I wanted to adopt. When the original cat started to freak out on me, I said that I would take Evita instead. It's been a strange 18 months with Evita because technically she's an indoor feral cat. But at nights she'll breakdown and come to me because she loves having her hair brushed and her favorite sleeping spot is on the corner of my bed.

[Shell Beau]

1. Aww! Such a sweet story.

My first dog (of my very own), Lolly was planned. I wanted a miniature pinscher forever. I saw her and she was the one. I held her like a baby and she loved it. The other two of my dogs weren't planned. My husband and I were in PetsMart getting stuff for Lolly. They had an adoption group outside. That is when I saw Hutch. I just had to have him. He was calling my name. The exact same story goes for my Hank. Was in PetsMart, adoption outside, saw him, he stole my heart. The rest is history!!!

[AirmensMom]

4. Those Petsmart adoption groups will get you every time.

My husband steers me away from them now. I'm such a sucker for a homeless pet. :)

I'm glad you gave those babies a good home! :bounce:

[Shell Beau]

8. My husband won't go on Saturday's anymore.

Those are the days that they are usually there. They do get you every time.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

2. Our two and a half kids.

Our first kid is a purebred Siberian Husky that we purchased from a husky breeder (a responsible breeder of only huskies). We took her home at 8 weeks of age. We saw her when she was just a few weeks old with the rest of her litter (all females) and their mom. She was just a little cotton ball and she smelled like milk.

Our second kid was unplanned. We were going to the ATM on Dec. 24, 2000, as we were about to attend a pre-Christmas dinner. It was very cold. The ATM is on a busy highway. While I was waiting for my husband to return to the car, I saw this fluffy black chow chow running around. From the condition of her fur, it was clear it was an abandoned dog. She came close to the car (for warmth) and she let us pet her. As we were pulling away, we noticed the dog heading towards the highway. We couldn't resist; we picked her up and drove to the local pound a few miles down the road. The pound was closed. We cancelled our dinner plans and we went home to bathe and feed the dog. She had mats and things stuck in her fur. It took three baths before we could somehow comb her fur. She wouldn't poop. She ate, but she didn't look healthy. We took her to the vet and found out she was starving and using the sugar in her liver to survive. They also gave her an enema and, after a few comical moments, she was able to 'expel' some leaves and sticks. She now is doing great and her name is Scruffy. She looks like a fur-covered oil drum.

Our half kid is a valentine's present from my husband a couple of years ago; it is a little dwarf bunny, with pink eyes, white fur and grey ears. He is very sweet and loving. He likes to have his forehead rubbed. He knows our voices and loves to run around like mad.

[AirmensMom]

6. I like that ... first kid, second kid, half kid.

:rofl:

I just love Scruffy's story! I'm really glad you saw her. :hug:

[AirmensMom]

3. That's a nice story, LynneSin!

OK, you asked for it! We have four kitties. Here goes.

Sophie came from Petsmart. Our daughter worked there in 1997 and called us every weekend for 4 months to ask if she could take a kitty home. We already had a Siamese cat, Sesame, and a Golden Retriever. I told her NOT to pick any of them up. Finally, one day, I bought a new car I stopped by Petsmart to show it off to her. While I was there, she showed me the kitty ... but that one was too old and sick for a teenager to take on. Sesame had renal failure and we were already knee-deep in vet bills.

I saw Sophie sitting in the back of another cage and said, "Now there's a kitty I would get." Before I could say or do anything else, the cage door was open and Sophie was in our daughter's arms. It was instant love for both of them. And it was impossible to put Sophie back into the cage. All the paws came out and blocked the door. Sophie came home that day ... and our daughter always told me she was so glad I bought my car. She went off to college a few years later and left Sophie with us until she could get through school and find a good place to live. By the time all that happened, Sophie was used to living with our kitties and we all decided to leave her here.

In the spring of 1998, Sesame died. We had gotten him when he was 5 weeks old and he lived to be 19 years and 3 months old. I'd had him since I was expecting our second daughter. He was with me to raise both of my kids and he got me through school, moving, jobs, all kinds of things. My husband said it just wasn't right to NOT have a friend now that I had lost such a good friend.

So he called around and found Satchmo, who would be ready to come home in a few weeks. His mother, Sabrina, was being retired as a queen after two litters, because she wasn't a very good mother. Sabrina became my husband's kitty and Satchmo is mine. Satchmo was actually supposed to go to Germany to be a breeding show cat, but he was really bad at traveling. Since the breeder didn't want him to be traumatized by the trip, she sent his brother to Germany and let us have Satchmo. His nickname was "little one". We drove for four hours to get them and Satchmo slept in my arms the entire way home while his mother slept in the crate.

A few years later, one of my husband's coworkers had a sister who had a 7-month-old Russian Blue kitty. She had to move and couldn't take the kitty. We figured four cats wouldn't be a lot more work and expense than three (we were wrong, but what the heck), so we took her. She is a real daddy's girl. :)

This photo is a rerun, but here they all are:

[Heidi]

14. I'm in love with Sashka!

Is he/she a British shorthair????? She looks almost exactly like the mother of our Wiley and Excellent Boy Cat Named Ginger, and Sophie looks very much like Ginger's father. Oddly enough, Ginger came out looking Siamese. :shrug:

Thanks for the beautiful photos!

[AirmensMom]

18. She's supposed to be a Russian Blue.

She's not a perfect breed standard, although she has the double coat (very dense) and the smile. And a very cute meow ... still sounds like a kitten.

Your kitty looks a lot like our Sesame. Gosh, I miss him! :cry:

Thanks for the photo. What a cute baby! :loveya:

[bertha katzenengel]

5. Oh, my.

Richard & Harry are eleven years old. I got them when I was young because I had my own place for the first time and I needed cats.

The rest -- too long a story to tell right now!

I love your stories of your kittles, Lynne.

[grannylib]

7. I fell for our littlest kitty, Layla Babycat, sight unseen, when the woman

who was trying to place her kittens in good homes told me that she had her tail caught in the barn door and it was broken and crooked.
That was it, I had to take her home... so my friend brought her into work on a Friday, and I took the day off, and the minute I saw her I just fell in love...she is a calico with a little white milk mustache, and is the cutest thing...
My daughter Sarahbellum and I had to really work on my husband to get another cat into the house, but he relented, and now who is Layla's human of choice??? DADDY....she loves DADDY and tolerates Sarahbellum and me...her favorite place is on DADDY's left shoulder, and he carries her around like an infant. Spoiled rotten little girl...

[catmandu57]

9. The current crop

15 years ago when I moved into an apartment here I would put left overs out for the feral cats living here, I had a kitten my girlfriend had given me, but one of the outdoor cats a hymalayan I found out later, started hanging around more.
I put out a chicken carcass and she was hooked, it was getting cold out and she moved in with us. I didn't know it but she was freshly preganant, and before long out came the first litter.
My original kitten was about seven months old I let him outside and never saw him again.
Then a male siamese started hanging around and he and momma cat hooked up over and over, I never had any problem disposing of her kittens, there was a waiting list for them.
Then my girlfriends cat had kittens and since I liked her (the cat) i took one of her kittens, Sam has been with us now for eight years.
My girlfriend and I got hitched became mr. and mrs. in 01 combined our houses and with her came two siamese, one a great great grandaughter of momma cat.
Precious is her main cat, but I'm guilty of alienation of affection there, she hangs out with me more now. her other cat a siamese, Bandit is a little psycho, but she's settled down.
We had a herd of outdoor cats that came with the house, one day we went out back and heard a stranger meowing, we finally found her, one of the tom's had chased her up a tree, she was only a kitten, we coaxed her inside and whiskers has lived here for a year.
The outside cats have all disappeared except for otro, he comes in and out, someone dumped him here when he was a kitten.
So we have
Momma cat
Sam
precious
Bandit
Whiskers
Otro

Momma


Sam


Precious


Bandit


Whiskers

[LynneSin]

13. Evita's original name at the shelter was 'Precious'

I refuse to name my pets after adjectives. And a cat who can manage to snag a songbird while never once stepping outside is hardly fitting of the word 'precious'. You never quite recover from seeing your cat with tailfeathers sticking out of their mouth

[livetohike]

10. After Ranger our Lab/Shepherd mix died at 16 years of age in 2003

I couldn't live without another dog. I looked on-line at various pet shelters and discovered Cindy at a city run shelter (South Central Los Angeles). She was 8 weeks old and had the cutest face. So we drove up there 100 miles away and were one of the first people in the front door on a Saturday morning. There she was in the first kennel with three other puppies of various parentage.

We yelled at the kennel attendant that we wanted to see her. It was so loud in there with all the barking. The kennel guy had earplugs in!

I bounced a tennis ball in front of her and she grabbed it on the first bounce. We brought her home.

Three weeks later, we adopted Murphy, also eight weeks old at the time from a county shelter several miles away from home. I went down there to take a look at the dogs, saw Murphy and called my husband at his work. He went down at lunch to see Murphy and we brought him home after he was neutered.

Here they are:

Cindy:


Murphy:

[AirmensMom]

11. Awwwww!

:hug:

[barb162]

12. I get adopted by stray cats. Four currently

[grace0418]

15. I was helping my then boyfriend (now husband) move his sister

into a new house in Kentucky. Construction on the house had been completed just days earlier so everything, including the front door, was brand spanking new. My brother-in-law was taking boxes of holiday decorations up to the attic when he heard tiny cries. Sure enough, there were three teeny weeny kittens living in the insulation under the floorboards that went between the unfinished attic and the room next to it.

The mother had given birth to them before the front door was installed and then couldn't get back in to feed them after the house was closed up. She eventually gave them up as lost. We never did see her. The kittens were only two weeks old and were starving. It took about an hour to coax all three out and we had nothing to feed them except water and a can of tuna (they live in the middle of nowhere so finding a pet store with kitten formula was not an option). I mixed the tuna with the water and a little milk and let them lick it up, just so they wouldn't starve.

I immediately fell in love with one of the two boys, a picture perfect gray tabby with big blue eyes and a sweet, shy disposition. I couldn't really afford a pet at the time but couldn't resist taking one. Well, in a matter of hours my boyfriend convinced me to take the other boy because he seemed so frail and almost brain-damaged that we were afraid no one would adopt him from a shelter. The girl went to a shelter, where she was adopted from what I heard.

I'd decided to name my first kitty Frank for his blue eyes. Then, when trying to figure out a name for his brother, we realized how oddly shaped he was- like a bean. So they were Frank and Beans from then on.

We took them home to Chicago. They were so tiny I had to feed them with a bottle for a couple of weeks, and I had to build steps to the litter box because they couldn't climb that high. They were absolutely adorable and no one could resist them.

Sadly, Beans really was frail and somewhat brain-damaged. My sweet boy died two years ago at the age of 10, which is actually far longer than my vet expected him to live. His brother Frank is 12 now and as adorable as can be. I love him with all my heart.

Hands down, the best payment I could've received for helping someone move!

[Hobarticus]

16. My dog Guinness was passed on from a hyper-paranoid friend

She had picked out a farm puppy from a litter for her kids. I think the owner wanted to get rid of them early, because they seemed WAY small for six weeks.

In any case, she took myself and my wife-to-be along to pick out a puppy, since she didn't know how. I crouched down by the litter, tapped on the ground, and one puppy ambled on over to my hand. I told her, "that's your dog".

She took him home to her kids, and when we walked in, her kids looked at us with that little black puffball like our heads were on fire. These kids are SUPER over-protected and over-indulged, and were afraid of this tiny puppy. Wouldn't come near it. My wife and I played with him for awhile while they hid in their rooms. He got tired, went in his kennel to sleep, and we left.

A few days later, my wife's friend asked us to watch him while she went out of town. I fell in love with him, he was the most good-natured puppy I'd ever seen. Her friend came back and asked if we wanted "Willy", as the kids who wouldn't play with him named him. I waffled, but when I heard my wife's friend dramatically telling her mother that she 'feared for her childrens' lives' because of this ferocious little puppy, I realized that I had to get that dog away from those kooks. Those first few days are so crucial to imprinting, and they were leaving him alone.

I jumped at the chance. I told my girlfriend that if she kept him for a few months, since I was looking for a house, I'd take him once I bought a house. This, unknowingly, was also our 'first big test' as a couple....we owned a dog together.

I bought a house, moved Guinness in...a year later, moved my wife in. I don't think I would've taken the plunge if not for him, seriously. He brought us together. He's my boy.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. I wen to the pet store, pointed a few out, and they bagged 'em up for me

and I brought 'em home.

Fish are easy!

[Tsiyu]

19. Oh, my

The oldest: Mutt dog, female, spayed. No idea how old. In 1997, I am running a 30 horse barn for a friend with a mama and sister dying of cancer. My own farm is on the market. There is a big showing that day.

Phone rings at barn.

"Mom, guess what I just found in the basement!"

I am at work, busy, but I'm hoping he found my glasses. "What?"

"A mama dog and six puppies!" In the finished basement, I just cleaned. And the real estate agent due any minute.

We kept Mama. She was such a good mom, I loved her instantly. Gave away her pups to a Humane Society Vet we knew, ex kept
one who sadly died last year. She is a good watchdog and a sweet woman, but she has to stay outdoors. She will get on the kitchen table, crap anywhere. She was never indoors so she can't cope. I do let her in when the weather turns really nasty, but she has a cozy warm place to sleep.

Two male pups, gotta get neutered soon. Pups of a female I tried to spay in time. No such luck. One will go with my son. One will stay. Daddy was German Shepherd, and they are sweet like he is.

Oldest mare came with some property we bought. Younger mare purchased at two months old with her dam in 1995.

Seven Cats came from one Mama who went forth and multiplied. All females are spayed except very youngest. Males will be neutered soon. I am not a cat person. But I have the sweetest cats. They have almost suceeded in making me a cat person.

I am making plans to build them a treehouse/cat apartment. Two cats are promised to my folks when they get settled.


Chickens came from feed store, neighbors, hatchery. I love getting my fresh eggs, no matter how much fun you make of me for my chickens. Ha!

:P

[RebelOne]

20. I have two doggies, one given to me by a friend

and the other that I am fostering for a rescue group. My Rottie was given to me by a friend in Florida after the death of my other Rottie. I got Legend when she was 2-1/2 years old and she just turned 8 years old last month. My friend paid a small fortune for her from a breeder. She had planned on breeding her but changed her mind, so when my Rottie, Bear Bear, died, I inherited Legend.

I am fostering Dewey, a small Benji-type dog, for a rescue group. I take him to the rescue group's PetsMart adoptions every Saturday, but so far. no takers. He is 11 years old and no one seems to want an senior doggie. I am probably going to adopt him in the end. His former owners were moving to Florida and did not have any permanent housing, so they were going to take him to the pound. Well, when I saw his photo, I could not allow that to happen because the shelters usually put down older dogs.

[WeRQ4U]

21. My first dog was the left-over runt of mutt puppies that noone wanted.

I couldn't bear that noone was taking her (she is really strange looking, I'll admit that) but she was so strange she was cute. She had a huge head and was really jumpy all the time, wirey coat. Strange undercoat. Really, a weird animal. I've had her 6 years now. She's a great dog. If only I could get her to stop barking so much.

My little tiny dog named "Pip", short for "Pipsqueak" was born in a Terrier Rescue shelter in Vancouver Washington. Her story is MUCH more interesting. The police and humane society arrested a couple that had horded somewhere near 500 animals. The dogs were all in the backyard. They had allegedly resorted to pack behavior...digging burrows, eating the weak and smaller ones, dying of disease etc. It was an awful scenario. Many of the dogs had to be put down right away due to poor health. The rest were dispersed among shelters in Oregon, Idaho and Washington state. Many of the ones dispersed were not friendly at all and did not like to be touched. They had not been around humans at all, and the only experiences that they HAD had with humans were bad ones. My wife and I went to a Pet Expo in Portland, Oregon one day and saw one of them, however, that was the sweetest, cutest, cuddliest little thing in the whole word. She was very deliberate and liked to sit on laps and be petted. She was just aching for attenting. My wife fell in LOVE with her right away. We inquired into her availability, but we were informed that another couple had already expressed interest in her. BUT.......she was pregnant with two puppies. (She had gotten pregnant AT THE COUPLE'S HOME so Lord knows what her breed mixture is...Only two puppies because she was barely 5 pounds). My wife immediately inquired into whether we could put our names in for one of the puppies. We did. The puppies were born, one with long, stringy black hair. (When we saw her she was less than 2 pounds!!!) And another with short, black hair (She was born without the bottom half of her front right paw. But she didn't mind because she didn't know better. So cute). Someone else had reserved the short haired one so we got the long haired one. We took her out into the grass and watched her stumble over the blades she was so small. We got her at about 4 months old total and she was sick with something for the first week or so. She would ONLY eat out of a syringe filled with formula. But we nursed her into the psychotic lunatic she is today. She's an astoundingly brave little lady for only weighing in at just UNDER 5 pounds. She is VERY excited all the time. She loves people and playing catch. And she sleeps under the covers with us every night. She's a sweetheart.

SORRY FOR THE LONG POST. I just was taking a trip down memory lane.

[Trigger Hippie]

22. I got my first pet as an adult, Tuna,

from my good friend who had seven cats and a baby on the way and was looking to get rid of a few of her cats. I had been resisting the kitty love for years and finally broke down and took her. I'm so glad I did. I love my Tuna baby. :)

[radwriter0555]

23. Courtney Love gave us our lil dog Winky.

And our doggie Lola (the Pomeranian) was purchased in a parking lot on Venice Beach from a really sketchy gal who had me write the check out to a woman who it appears was the girlfriend of Tom Sizemore.

Both are doing just fine however.

[demnan]

24. I've talked a lot about Lily and Pad Thai

Lily's mother, a beautiful Ruddy Abbyssinian, belonged to a friend of mine. She wouldn't cooperate and breed with the red Abby they had picked for her. She got out one night and chose the "boy next door" a brown tabby. Three little beautiful girls were born. She named them Pansy, Petal and Lily because their faces

Pad Thai was being passed around at the office. A co-worker had bought him at a pet store but he was too much work, then he sold him to another young woman in the office and she loved him for a while before he was "too much work", and what can I say, I couldn't stand to see him let down again by someone else.

[AirmensMom]

25. But we're always glad to hear it again!

That's funny ... Satchmo's dad is a red Aby.

:hi: