One of the few things on the Dope that’s more popular than hating certain politicians is loving cuddly felines. Well, and not so cuddly felines. And toe-biting felines.
You get my point.
Anyways, here’s my personal lead in. About two years ago, we fostered a litter of kittens. They were adorable, and as I posted in a thread around that time, we were simply forced to adopt two of them. At that time, we swore we would never foster any more kittens, because we already had three.
(I trust you see where this is going?)
Well… last year, we fostered another litter of kittens. Four orange boy cats, and one black and white girl cat. She was tiny. She was very, very friendly and very purr-ful. The vet who saw her remarked that she was one of the loudest purring kittens he’d ever seen at such a young age. And she was a shoulder cat, due to me training her. She was the first shoulder cat I’d ever had. Her name was Cherry… she came with that name, so we didn’t change it. She was adorable.
And although she was a mutt, we thought she had a lot of Chantilly-Tiffany in her, due to her habit of ‘chirping’ at me, along with a few other behaviors.
But we’d made a promise. No more cats!
We sent her, and her litter mates, back to the SPCA. They sent them all down to the North Shore Animal League. We were very sad.
My fiancee was, at the time, working at the SPCA as a summer gig, which is how we got to foster the kittens in the first place. One day, while making her rounds, she noticed a small black and white kitten in a mislabeled cage. Evidently, as it turns out, due to the ministrations of one of our cats (Baxter, nee Checkers), had been aggressively grooming all the little kittens while they were in our home. He had actually managed to lick a bald spot on one of Cherry’s legs, and the NSAL has a policy about only accepting “perfect” kittens, so Cherry stayed in a cage as the SPCA for a month before Lunarnoodle found her. ( 
)
So… Lunar called me one day from the SPCA saying “She’s here!”
Of course, I had no blessed idea wtf she was talking about. But when she made it clear that Cherry had not, in fact, been lost to us and sent down to Long Island to be adopted out, I jumped at the chance (and so did Lunar). Just in time, we filled out the adoption paperwork as another couple was coming into the SPCA to adopt Cherry.
Cherry, for her part, was the happiest I’ve ever seen her. When we got her home, and Lunar and I were sitting at either side of an L shaped couch in our living room, Cherry spent a least half an hour bounding across the couch and leaping onto one of our shoulders, and then bounding back across the couch and leaping onto the other person’s shoulder. Maybe an hour. She missed us and, without a doubt, remembered us.
So… we got another cat. She is still tiny, and will stay small for her entire life. She is the sweetest, most adorable cat.
In the history of cats.
Yes.
She is.
And here are pictures to prove it.
Cherry says:
Cherry, Queen of the Couch.
Just chillin’, yo.
You have interrupted naptime on the lapcouch. I hope you have a good reason, human.
I am considering pouncing your camera.
Ahhhhhh, lounging.
I’m ready for my closeup.
Were I any cooler, I’d be ice cold.
I are just teh ordinary non-remarkable catfish, you put more fishes in here now, yes?
So, cat loving dopers, add your own cat stories and cat pictures.
Let’s get this party started.
