Where did your pets come from?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

If I recall correctly…

Our first pet (and only dog), Harold, we got from a traditional pet store inside a shopping mall. (He was the only pet we acquired in this manner).

Our first cat, Prancer, “followed my sister home” one day; he was previously a stray.

We got our next generation of cats, Thomas (“Tommy”) and Simba, from the animal shelter.

Prancer’s life was unfortunately cut short when he escaped and got hit by a car, but Harold, Tommy and Simba all lived to a ripe old age.

The day that Tommy died (one horrible December 23 night), we went to an animal shelter and got the first cat of the next generation, Hailey.

After Harold and Simba passed away, we got Gizmo from a litter that my sister’s best friend had had. Later, we got his nephew Toby in the same way, the day of our big move from Indianapolis to Virginia Beach.

In Chesapeake, we got Mystique and Skylar when my sister saw them in the wild, very young and abandoned by their mother. We had, at that time, 5 cats at the same time.

We had to surrender all five when we got evicted from a place in Suffolk; they went to an animal shelter.

Later, we rented a room in someone else’s house, and we had two “loaner” cats (that really belonged to that family), J. D. (“Jack Daniels”) and Mocha.

We also had some very temporary cats along the way.

62

Our dog, a boxer, came from a rescue shelter. Our cat, a whoknows, we raised from birth when my MIL found her abandoned.

63

I foster and so did my mother before me, so the majority of our pets have been foster failures.

There have been two dogs in my life who were ‘purchased’. They were my husband’s hunting dogs. One of them, an English Setter, is still with me. He’s 11 and quite an elderly fellow for a Setter. He’s also a 3-year stomach cancer survivor.

My second dog, Pepsi, was found running about in the Pepsi Center’s parking lot by one of my boys who had been there attending an event. He brought her home so that we could look for her owner. No owner turned up and Pepsi never left. Her DNA test revealed she has border collie, setter, and lab antecedents. We estimate that she’s about 5 years old.

My third dog, Daragan, an Irish Setter, came to me as a foster pup. He was about 6 months old and practically feral. It’s been a long road with him, but we are firmly mother-and-son now. Foster fail for certain. He will be two in June.

My cat, Cattius Maximus, jumped in the hatchback of my car when I was loading groceries. I never knew where he came from, although we advertised him. He just somehow picked me out from all the people in the parking lot that day. Wise choice on his part. Not sure how old Max is. Vet’s best guess is 5-6 years old.

64

Our dog and her predecessor were rescues. Current dog was in a kill shelter in Tennessee until an animal-rescue group of private pilots flew her up to the rescue organization in Northern Virginia where we got her.

My bird came from a pet shop, and his mother probably came to this country in a paper towel tube stuffed down someone’s pants.

65

I inherited Leet the Wonder Dog[sup]TM[/sup] from my son, when he got too big for his apartment. (Leet, not my son.) I was going to be a hard-nose and say that if my son didn’t find another home for him, it was off to the pound. Two weeks! Maximum!

Then he looked at me with his big brown eyes and said “You’ll take of everything, won’t you, Grandpa?” This month makes four years, as a matter of fact.

Regards,
Shodan

66

My cat Riley came from a friend of the family who moved to a new rental house and forgot to check if the landlord allowed pets first. I had just lost my previous cat a week or so earlier to a tumor. My sister texted me a picture of this little orange and white piece of fluff and says “You need a new cat, right?” How could I say no to that? That was six years ago and the piece of fluff is now a sixteen pound behemoth snoring on the back of my chair. :slight_smile:

67

I have no idea where my childhood pets came from. My parents just came home with them, as far as I knew.

Our first cat when I was an adult wandered into the house several times, then got stuck on our (flat) roof after climbing the walnut tree in the backyard on a very cold January night. We kept her after that, after posting signs. She’s still with us.

Our next two cats were from the first litter of my uncle’s cat. They’re also still with us. Unfortunately, my uncle became a crazy cat man and that cat had at least three more litters, with the male offspring of that first one. It got bad…the family finally convinced him to let them go (after he lost his apartment because of them), but he’s since started again. Won’t spay or neuter because he “wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me”.

Our rabbit (now our late rabbit) my husband actually found in a crosswalk near our house coming home from his third shift job (which he’s since quit). It was a domestic Dutch, not a wild rabbit.

Our dog, Daisy, is from our local Humane League, surrendered by a “breeder”, along with her whole litter. We think she’s a border/bearded collie cross, which may be why the litter was surrendered (not purebred either way). Picking the right puppy is the second-best decision I ever made.

68

Childhood dog was from a litter that my aunt’s dog had. For my child & early adulthood cats, one was from a litter that my mom’s friend had, they other was a stray I found. My first two adult pets (cats) were two purebred Bengal kittens I got from a reputable breeder I found in a Cat Fancy magazine listing (pre-internet). My current two cats I both got from the same private cat shelter.

No pet stores or puppy mills (which are essentially the same thing)…

69

All cats. I love dogs and other pets too but I travel and the cats tolerate my absence better.

Frank the Waiter - rescued by friends of mine. Frank literally jumped into Ken’s arms when he stepped outside to get the newspaper.
Rocky and Mia - Humane Society adoption. The pair were turned in because “the new baby is allergic”. No, the male owner was abusive. It took Mia years to come out of her shell and trust men again. I am grateful to the people for turning them over to the shelter rather than making them suffer more abuse. Rocky, the younger of the pair is now 17 and my only cat at the moment.
Pitch Black - rescued by a neighboring child of my friends who fostered Frank. Pitch was my baby.
Miss Kitty - a manx with health issues, she was found living in a warehouse up north with many other feral cats and dogs. When her rescuer (who also rescued the other animals) had terminal cancer, I offered to take her. She was elderly and only stayed on the earth a few more months. She was sweet and a great mouser.

70

I’ll list the current menagerie but virtually all our pets have been strays/rescues.

Ashley is a purebred Basset Hound with AKC papers and a sense of entitlement to prove it. We got her from an aunt who is a breeder.

Ginger is an orange tabby who was passed to us from a colleague who was being transferred to the UK and did not want to have her in quarantine for six months.

Loki is a stray black and white tuxedo male Miss DrumBum found at the schoolyard.

Hattie and Missy are a pair of kittens that were found in the bushes when they were about a week old. We fashioned some baby bottles and took turns feeding them formula. They would suck the bottle dry, crawl under our chin and pee, then fall asleep.

The latest addition is Mr. O’Malley who looks a bit like a Maine Coon. He is a year old and must weigh close to 10 kilos.

71

Jazz, English cocker spaniel born in France and living in the Netherlands, almost 14. We bought him from a breeder on a French farm in Normandy - check before, she was actually the secretary of the French cocker spaniel club.

72

4 cats. The older pair were adopted from the local animal placement shelter. They are sisters. The other two are adopted ferals. They are uncle/niece. Anybody interested in their adoption stories can search this forum for my user name and “Caelan” or “Brindle.” All 4 of them are curled up on the couch beside me right now.

73

Just over six years ago, this brown, ugly long furred cat turned up as a stray. Fed it and thought it would move on.

It didn’t. Decent cat food gave it diarrhea so my wife, being a cat person, bathed it, took it to the vet and adopted it. We had his long hair cut and it turned out to be a Blue Persian who is now known as Keyser Soze.

We had a Siamese as well who was queen of the house so Keyser was very quiet. Keyser was attacked by a dog and lost one of his legs and the Siamese was totally protective. She would watch over him all night.

Siamese passed on and Keyser asserted his personality. We had him flown over the continent when we moved. Because of the breed and age- we are unsure- but believe him to be over 15- he costs us about $300 a month.

And we don’t begrudge a cent of it. He is the most stubborn, dependent cat I have ever seen, but he is our pet.