For Adopted Cats-Ever Wonder What Their Life Was Like Before You Adopted Them?

"CajunPrincess" wrote in message
om...

Periodically I wonder what his life was like with whoever had him
initially.

This thread has got me alternately teary-happy and cranky-mad-as-hell when I
read about how our dear kitties lived before they came to their forever
homes with us. What is wrong with people???

I wonder about Otis since he was born in January in Calgary. Cold. He was
found de-hydrated and stray in March, which can still be savagely cold. On
his first day out at the shelter, Fred and I came in and Otis snagged me
with a claw through the cage and the rest is history. We had to wait three
days to see if someone claimed him. Three very long days. I can imagine
that Otis was a PITA to whoever had him before. He's been fearless and
attention seeking since then. He must have known he needed people with
perseverance and patience to live with him

And Chester? That Angel? He was a surrender to the shelter and I wonder
why on earth? He is the sweetest, most charming, composed cat I've ever
met. We picked him out on his last day. I mean, a couple hours later, he'd
have been killed. The enormity of that ... He's still terrified of brooms
and vacuums and cautious with the vast majority of people. He will walk
right up to a select few newcomers.

Susan M
Otis and Chester
hugging them tightly

Poor kitten! I'm so glad he was saved.
Best wishes,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
This reminds me of a guy I used to work with telling me about a trip he
and
his wife took. They were driving along I-40 through Arkansas when
suddenly
someone flung something out the window from the car ahead of them. Keep
in
mind, in some spots on that highway the speed limit is 70 MPH. It was a
kitten! (OMG) They had to swerve to avoid hitting the poor thing. They
stopped and the kitten was remarkably unscathed (but I'll bet it used up
one
of its lives with that particular incident). Since his wife volunteers at
The House of Mews in Memphis, they brought the kitten back with them and
she
was checked; the vet pronounced her healthy. At the proper age she was
spayed and put up for adoption. This guy had named her "Roadkill" which,
being a very *young* guy, he thought was funny. I'm pretty sure the cat
was
renamed.

Jill

Poor kitten! I'm so glad he was saved.
Best wishes,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
This reminds me of a guy I used to work with telling me about a trip he
and
his wife took. They were driving along I-40 through Arkansas when
suddenly
someone flung something out the window from the car ahead of them. Keep
in
mind, in some spots on that highway the speed limit is 70 MPH. It was a
kitten! (OMG) They had to swerve to avoid hitting the poor thing. They
stopped and the kitten was remarkably unscathed (but I'll bet it used up
one
of its lives with that particular incident). Since his wife volunteers at
The House of Mews in Memphis, they brought the kitten back with them and
she
was checked; the vet pronounced her healthy. At the proper age she was
spayed and put up for adoption. This guy had named her "Roadkill" which,
being a very *young* guy, he thought was funny. I'm pretty sure the cat
was
renamed.

Jill

Poor kitten! I'm so glad he was saved.
Best wishes,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
This reminds me of a guy I used to work with telling me about a trip he
and
his wife took. They were driving along I-40 through Arkansas when
suddenly
someone flung something out the window from the car ahead of them. Keep
in
mind, in some spots on that highway the speed limit is 70 MPH. It was a
kitten! (OMG) They had to swerve to avoid hitting the poor thing. They
stopped and the kitten was remarkably unscathed (but I'll bet it used up
one
of its lives with that particular incident). Since his wife volunteers at
The House of Mews in Memphis, they brought the kitten back with them and
she
was checked; the vet pronounced her healthy. At the proper age she was
spayed and put up for adoption. This guy had named her "Roadkill" which,
being a very *young* guy, he thought was funny. I'm pretty sure the cat
was
renamed.

Jill

On Sun, 30 May, Susan M wrote:

---------------------snip----------------------
On
his first day out at the shelter, Fred and I came in and Otis snagged me
with a claw through the cage and the rest is history.

That's how my boy Sumo picked me out. He convinced me to adopt
his cage mate, a dear little Russian Blue as well. I had been looking
at the Siamese Triplets and was planning to inspect Sumo and Tasha
next when I got a tiny claw in my shirt. I was history.

Regards and Purrs,
O J Gritmon

On Sun, 30 May, Susan M wrote:

---------------------snip----------------------
On
his first day out at the shelter, Fred and I came in and Otis snagged me
with a claw through the cage and the rest is history.

That's how my boy Sumo picked me out. He convinced me to adopt
his cage mate, a dear little Russian Blue as well. I had been looking
at the Siamese Triplets and was planning to inspect Sumo and Tasha
next when I got a tiny claw in my shirt. I was history.

Regards and Purrs,
O J Gritmon

On Sun, 30 May, Susan M wrote:

---------------------snip----------------------
On
his first day out at the shelter, Fred and I came in and Otis snagged me
with a claw through the cage and the rest is history.

That's how my boy Sumo picked me out. He convinced me to adopt
his cage mate, a dear little Russian Blue as well. I had been looking
at the Siamese Triplets and was planning to inspect Sumo and Tasha
next when I got a tiny claw in my shirt. I was history.

Regards and Purrs,
O J Gritmon

I know that people give away pets for all sorts of reasons and I guess
it'll always be a mystery as to why his original owners didn't want
him anymore. He's a healthy 12 lb long haired black domestic breed
(although when he wants to be held he likes to melt in your arms like
a ragdoll, he doesn't seem to have any of the other characteristics of
that breed) Not an unusual looking cat but very attractive. He's by
far the most athletic cat I've ever been around, but he's not really
bad about jumping on things like the kitchen counter that I would
prefer he not get on. He's real fastidious and always uses the
litterbox. He and Kona have settled down to a roomate kind of
relationship with only occasional spats, so I would tend to doubt that
there was another cat that he couldn't get along with.

Cleopatra and Amelia were adopted from the animal shelter, so we don't
know much about their previous lives. Tabitha was adopted from a a
neighbor of my brother's who was preparing to move out of the area and
couldn't take all of the recent batch of kittens (I believe the people
did take mom cat in to be fixed once the kittens were rehomed).

Sammy is the one who had it rough. When he was about 6 or 7 weeks old he
was dumped by the side of the road. The road he was dumped beside was
the entrance to a grocery warehouse - the truck entrance. Fortunately
the little kitten saw a big hedge and settled in under the hedge for
protection, and stayed out of the way of the big rigs that rolled within
4 feet of him all day.

He obviously wanted to be a part of a home - whenever he would here
people coming towards him, he would crawl out from under the hedge, sit
in the middle of the sidewalk, and look cute. He was also obviously very
scared of people, because as soon as anyone got within 5 feet of him
he'd dart back under the hedge to hide. This continued for a couple
days, with several of us working at the warehouse leaving cans of kitten
food and bowls of water out for him. After about the second day I
started seeing that he was sick - runny eyes, runny nose, sneezing. I
set a trap that night after the day shift went home, and within 5
minutes I had a tiny orange prisoner.

It was actually quite amusing seeing him checking out the trap. If
you've ever looked inside a hedge you've seen that it has little
branches of varying sizes. Well, a couple minutes after I put the trap
in place and returned to my pickup to watch, I saw a cute little orange
head poking up out of the top of the hedge. The kitten had climbed up
the internal branches and poked his head out. When he didn't see any
dangers nearby, he continued his climb and emerged on top of hedge. He
then walked gingerly over the top of the hedge (a standard privet hedge)
to look over the trap. I have never ween anything quite as amusing or
cute as that little orange kitten walking the top of the hedge!

Anyhow, he decided the trap didn't look threatening so he walked in,
helped himself to the can of food inside, and didn't even notice when
the door slammed shut behind him. He didn't start to get scared until I
walked up and carried the trap away. Took him to the vet, left him there
for a couple days for intensive treatment of his various infections,
then brought him home. He had to stay in isolation for a couple weeks to
keep from spreading the remnants of his illness to the other kitties,
but he's now a fully integrated part of the family. He's now the kitty
who enjoys climbing up on my chest for a snuggle.

Dan

I know that people give away pets for all sorts of reasons and I guess
it'll always be a mystery as to why his original owners didn't want
him anymore. He's a healthy 12 lb long haired black domestic breed
(although when he wants to be held he likes to melt in your arms like
a ragdoll, he doesn't seem to have any of the other characteristics of
that breed) Not an unusual looking cat but very attractive. He's by
far the most athletic cat I've ever been around, but he's not really
bad about jumping on things like the kitchen counter that I would
prefer he not get on. He's real fastidious and always uses the
litterbox. He and Kona have settled down to a roomate kind of
relationship with only occasional spats, so I would tend to doubt that
there was another cat that he couldn't get along with.

Cleopatra and Amelia were adopted from the animal shelter, so we don't
know much about their previous lives. Tabitha was adopted from a a
neighbor of my brother's who was preparing to move out of the area and
couldn't take all of the recent batch of kittens (I believe the people
did take mom cat in to be fixed once the kittens were rehomed).

Sammy is the one who had it rough. When he was about 6 or 7 weeks old he
was dumped by the side of the road. The road he was dumped beside was
the entrance to a grocery warehouse - the truck entrance. Fortunately
the little kitten saw a big hedge and settled in under the hedge for
protection, and stayed out of the way of the big rigs that rolled within
4 feet of him all day.

He obviously wanted to be a part of a home - whenever he would here
people coming towards him, he would crawl out from under the hedge, sit
in the middle of the sidewalk, and look cute. He was also obviously very
scared of people, because as soon as anyone got within 5 feet of him
he'd dart back under the hedge to hide. This continued for a couple
days, with several of us working at the warehouse leaving cans of kitten
food and bowls of water out for him. After about the second day I
started seeing that he was sick - runny eyes, runny nose, sneezing. I
set a trap that night after the day shift went home, and within 5
minutes I had a tiny orange prisoner.

It was actually quite amusing seeing him checking out the trap. If
you've ever looked inside a hedge you've seen that it has little
branches of varying sizes. Well, a couple minutes after I put the trap
in place and returned to my pickup to watch, I saw a cute little orange
head poking up out of the top of the hedge. The kitten had climbed up
the internal branches and poked his head out. When he didn't see any
dangers nearby, he continued his climb and emerged on top of hedge. He
then walked gingerly over the top of the hedge (a standard privet hedge)
to look over the trap. I have never ween anything quite as amusing or
cute as that little orange kitten walking the top of the hedge!

Anyhow, he decided the trap didn't look threatening so he walked in,
helped himself to the can of food inside, and didn't even notice when
the door slammed shut behind him. He didn't start to get scared until I
walked up and carried the trap away. Took him to the vet, left him there
for a couple days for intensive treatment of his various infections,
then brought him home. He had to stay in isolation for a couple weeks to
keep from spreading the remnants of his illness to the other kitties,
but he's now a fully integrated part of the family. He's now the kitty
who enjoys climbing up on my chest for a snuggle.

Dan

I know that people give away pets for all sorts of reasons and I guess
it'll always be a mystery as to why his original owners didn't want
him anymore. He's a healthy 12 lb long haired black domestic breed
(although when he wants to be held he likes to melt in your arms like
a ragdoll, he doesn't seem to have any of the other characteristics of
that breed) Not an unusual looking cat but very attractive. He's by
far the most athletic cat I've ever been around, but he's not really
bad about jumping on things like the kitchen counter that I would
prefer he not get on. He's real fastidious and always uses the
litterbox. He and Kona have settled down to a roomate kind of
relationship with only occasional spats, so I would tend to doubt that
there was another cat that he couldn't get along with.

Cleopatra and Amelia were adopted from the animal shelter, so we don't
know much about their previous lives. Tabitha was adopted from a a
neighbor of my brother's who was preparing to move out of the area and
couldn't take all of the recent batch of kittens (I believe the people
did take mom cat in to be fixed once the kittens were rehomed).

Sammy is the one who had it rough. When he was about 6 or 7 weeks old he
was dumped by the side of the road. The road he was dumped beside was
the entrance to a grocery warehouse - the truck entrance. Fortunately
the little kitten saw a big hedge and settled in under the hedge for
protection, and stayed out of the way of the big rigs that rolled within
4 feet of him all day.

He obviously wanted to be a part of a home - whenever he would here
people coming towards him, he would crawl out from under the hedge, sit
in the middle of the sidewalk, and look cute. He was also obviously very
scared of people, because as soon as anyone got within 5 feet of him
he'd dart back under the hedge to hide. This continued for a couple
days, with several of us working at the warehouse leaving cans of kitten
food and bowls of water out for him. After about the second day I
started seeing that he was sick - runny eyes, runny nose, sneezing. I
set a trap that night after the day shift went home, and within 5
minutes I had a tiny orange prisoner.

It was actually quite amusing seeing him checking out the trap. If
you've ever looked inside a hedge you've seen that it has little
branches of varying sizes. Well, a couple minutes after I put the trap
in place and returned to my pickup to watch, I saw a cute little orange
head poking up out of the top of the hedge. The kitten had climbed up
the internal branches and poked his head out. When he didn't see any
dangers nearby, he continued his climb and emerged on top of hedge. He
then walked gingerly over the top of the hedge (a standard privet hedge)
to look over the trap. I have never ween anything quite as amusing or
cute as that little orange kitten walking the top of the hedge!

Anyhow, he decided the trap didn't look threatening so he walked in,
helped himself to the can of food inside, and didn't even notice when
the door slammed shut behind him. He didn't start to get scared until I
walked up and carried the trap away. Took him to the vet, left him there
for a couple days for intensive treatment of his various infections,
then brought him home. He had to stay in isolation for a couple weeks to
keep from spreading the remnants of his illness to the other kitties,
but he's now a fully integrated part of the family. He's now the kitty
who enjoys climbing up on my chest for a snuggle.

Dan