I was patting my cat Slinky last night, and thinking back to the night two years ago when I came home to find a little black kitten on my porch, waiting by the door, and eager to come inside. I put out food and water and decided that if she was still there in the morning, I would get her looked at by the vet that day. I probably don’t need to say that she slept inside that night.
Anybody else have a similar experience?
Yes. When my husband and I first got together his work send him to Calgary for 10 days and when he got home he found mice droppings in his kitchen. Couple days later he and his buddy were outside and this neighbourhood stray cat walked in the front door and curled up on his couch. He said: “This is a business arrangement. You can stay as long as you keep the mice out.” Long story short, the cat gave us 4 kittens. One day I was playing with the kittens and I looked down to see one little female on her back in my lap gazing up adoringly at me. I took a picture, checked the markings to remember which one, and that was my new cat. We still have them both. (PS: The mother cat DID eventually catch 2 mice in the house!)
When we were walking through the Animal Rescue League room, Midnight reached out of her cage and snagged me. It was very deliberate. So she went home with us.
My dog Ursula didn’t so much choose me as she did my other dog.
My mother came to live with me in 2007. She was always a cat person, and when Sydney Hellcat died, 96 year old Mom was beside herself with grief. Obviously we needed a cat and after looking at rescue cats, we decided on a four-year old named Ella. But when we went to see her, she wasn’t there. Thinking she may be at the “Super Cat Adoption Day”, we went there. She wasn’t there either, but a cage of kittens caught our attention. And that’s when we saw Mikko. Mikko was the name of my grandmother’s cat that she had when Mom was born and the two of them became best friends. It was kismet. So we got Mikko number 2 and Mom was thrilled until she passed away the following year.
We got our shih tzu through a shelter. One of the women that volunteers there lives near us and she brought our guy over for a visit before we officially adopted him. He immediately snuggled with me and loved being near my daughter and husband. He never left after that, it was love all around. I’m so happy he chose us because my heart would have broken if he hadn’t.
When I got out of college I was going to be living at home for next 2 years, paying rent to my parents and saving up to move out.
I asked Mom if she would mind if I got a cat. (we obviously needed a cat, we only had 3 dogs, a cat, 2 birds, a snake, several hamsters, 2 guinea pigs, and some fish).
She said OK. I looked in the paper, there was an ad, black and white 2 year old female cat to a good home.
I went to the apartment and the lady says “Spooky’s very shy, doesn’t like people much”. I sat on the floor, wiggled my fingers and said “Kitty?” and she tore out from the next room, got in my lap, and started purring.
I figure she was saying “get me out of this place!”.
Figured out on the way home that she was sick and running a fever. First stop, the vet, for medicine for a kidney infection.
Poor Pookha, they weren’t taking very good care of her. She was my sweet kitty for the next 10 years.
Not me but I dated a guy once who had a “meet cute” story with one of his cats. He was moving in to his new place and had the door propped open, and a cat came in and made herself at home in one of his empty boxes. She stayed forever.
We went to a shelter in search of a puppy. When we approached the large outdoor pen that held a dozen or so dogs, I spotted a black and white puppy sitting by himself, looking lost and vulnerable. As soon as he saw us at the fence, he perked up and came right to us. He made it very clear that we were not to leave without him. We were able to take him home the same day. That was over ten years ago. We couldn’t ask for a better dog.
No story to add, but wanted to say I LOVE THIS THREAD !!
Yep. Our neighbor had a menagerie that they ignored. Several cats run over or stolen, dogs that barked incessantly through neglect and were given away. Their little black tuxedo managed to survive through it all, but began hanging out at our house when they got yet another damn kitten (she hates other cats). We didn’t mind her being here, as our kitty friend of 20 years had died recently and she provided some grief therapy.
Well, the drama next door continued unabated until the grandparents called it quits. After the divorce, they sold the house and were moving back east. We got the distinct impression that this cat was going to end up either abandoned or euthanized, so we told them we would take her, if they agreed. They were more than happy to give her up, even though she was the little girl’s pet.
She’s with us still, and is the sweetest cat in the world (and I grew up with cats). A happy end for all.
Yep. I went to the county shelter and he started talking to me as soon as I walked in the door. I took him to the meet & greet room to see how we did. Welp, 2 days later I brought him home and renamed him Velcro. He’s sitting on my shoulder as I type - that’s one of his favorite spots.
Abigail was sitting on a cat tree and did something very similar to me. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a new cat, having lost one a few months earlier 
, so I decided to go back a few days later, and if she was still there, I would take her home.
She was, and I did, and she’s curled up on her favorite spot on top of the couch as I type this. 
Tuxedo showed up in my yard shortly after 9/11, neutered, declawed, and parasite-ridden. :mad: What kind of sicko dumps a declawed cat, anyway? I thought he was a not fully grown kitten; my vet said he was between 18 and 24 months old, so he’s always been my “Millennium Kitty” and is probably sleeping on my bed. 
I went to visit my Mother at her apartment one snowy January day and right after I got out of my car in the parking lot an orange blur grabbed me around the knees. He ran ahead of me down the sidewalk, stopping every few feet to look back and see if I was coming. At the corner he went left and I dashed straight ahead into my Mother’s building as I really didn’t need another cat in my life at that point. A couple of hours later my brother came by and guess who walked into the apartment with him? The idiot fuzzball had been sitting outside the building, in the snow, waiting the whole time apparently. I recognized Fate’s slap upside my head and gave in. No regrets at all.
I don’t think my cat chose us. I suspect he was too sick, too cold or too stupid to run away from the two humans and their three giant slobbering dogs one cold winter day when I scooped him up, tucked him shivering into my coat, and took him home. Animal control checked him for a chip, found nothing and told us we could keep him if we wanted to, as long as we made an effort to find his owner. Vet visit that day to clear up the abscess under his leg and treat the flea infestation, more visits to have him vaccinated and neutered and a few hundred dollars later, I had a free cat. No owner ever surfaced to claim him. I suppose he has chosen us… he houdinis out the door between the dogs’ legs every so often, despite my best efforts to make him an indoor cat, but always returns.
More!
A bit more than a dozen years ago when the standard poodle we had while our son was growing up died. All of us were heartbroken. Because of allergies we wanted to get a stick with poodles.
Our son found a breeder that seemed quite reputable and definitely not a puppy mill. They were located in very northern New Hampshire and due to a snow storm had a litter whose puppies were older and had not been selected. We said that was fine and they brought out the puppies – about 6 of them as I recall. We played with them for a while and selected “Katie”.
The breeder said she had one other younger puppy, a half sister, who had not been chosen. She brought her out. The first thing “Sarah” did was walk over to me and untie my shoelaces, then lay down at my feet. That was what our other dog had always done as a puppy. Needless to say we tearfully acquired a second puppy that day.
My husband and I went to find a cat at the local shelter. We met and fell in love with all of them. I had no idea how to decide until I picked up this pretty gray girl and she gave me the typical cat love bite. That was all it took.
Mystery turned up on our back porch when she was six months old.
We got a couple of kittens for a couple of the kids … but one of the kittens just latched on to me, literally, couldn’t go anywhere in the house or yard without her following me … she’s not so much my cat, more like I’m her human … she stands guard on my bedroom, no other cat is allowed in …
Such a dear … while I was watching TV on Aug 29th, 2005, she as a kitten was jumping up spinning around bouncing off walls … like a hurricane … so I named her Katrina …
When Hallgirl2 was in middle school, she came home from the bus stop, excited that a cat at the bus stop had come up to her, dropped onto the sidewalk and rolled to her back at Hallgirl2’s feet. Could we keep her? I had to run to the pharmacy, but told Hallgirl2 that when we were finished, we’d go back to the bus stop and IF the cat was still there, and she knocked on a few doors to make sure she didn’t belong to anyone, we could keep her. What were the chances that she’d find the cat more than 30 minutes later? Fate saw that as a challenge. As soon as we pulled up to the curb, she came running out, stopped at Hallgirl2’s feet, and flipped onto her back. We named her Maya and had her for many years. Oddly enough, she latched onto Hallboy and would sleep with him every night until he left for BMT. She was pretty old by then, and her health went steadily downhill after her human left. Two weeks before he was set to come home for a visit, she took a nosedive and I had to take her to the vet for the final time. Hallboy’s voice over the phone as he told her how much he loved her was the last thing she heard as she slipped away.
…there’s something in my eye…
Let me tell you about Jack. Hallboy and I had just moved into the house I bought and it was July and hot as hell, but we had the windows open and was doing some painting inside. I kept hearing a kitten crying, but when I’d go outside, I couldn’t locate it. I’d come in, and hear it cry. Go out and not see anything. Finally, I went out and saw a flash of fur around the corner of a neighbor’s house. I sent Hallboy (aka the Cat Whisperer) to go find it. He went out with a handful of dried cat food and came back a few minutes later with a tiny bit of fluff. That tiny bit of fluff is now my Jack (one of four cats) and is no longer a tiny bit of fluff.
Ah, one more.
One Saturday morning, I was headed, ironically enough, to Petsmart to buy cat food, when I happened to stop at a garage sale. In the back was a pet crate with a litter of tiny kittens and one larger kitten, older than the rest (from another litter). He was an onery little thing, stepping all over the other kittens, reaching through the bars to try and grab anything he could get his paws on. I took that one, and Pip joined our family–my garage sale cat.
