Can a cat choose you?

[Techno Commander]

We were adopted by a small black and white cat several years ago. She just appeard and decided to stay. we put up some found posters and after a week she was collected by her owner. Half an hour later, she was back with us. We phoned the owner who told us it was now our cat!!

We never did give her a name, we just called her "cat" as she was very much a free spirit and did things her own way (as cats do). She passed away a couple of years ago now and I still miss her.



Your tabby looks gorgeous. Enjoy being its slave.

[anthonyTD]

Anthony,your story puts me in mind of a cat that used to visit my mate's house.This was back in my early teens.My mate's dad was the estate manager of Mar Lodge estate,just outside Braemar.The house was in the middle of nowhere and I used to go and stay at weekends occasionally. For years they'd had this cat coming for something to eat from time to time,which they'd named Bootsy.He was a half wildcat,muscled like a Rottweiler.He wouldn't let anyone near him,but would come in now and again and deign to eat some scraps and bugger off again.This cat was one mean dude,and indeed my mate's dad once saw it kill a young Roe deer!

Anyhow,one of the first weekends I went to stay,I was sitting in the kitchen,and in came Bootsy,doing his usual hissing at the dogs,who buggered off in a split second.He took a look at me, ran across the kitchen and jumped into my lap.Now,I'd been warned about this cat and how mean he could be,so I was shitting myself! This cat was so big,he was sitting on my lap looking me straight in the eye (I was sitting bolt upright by this time) I mean,this cat was HUGE!

He then curled up on my lap,and this growling noise ensued,which I realised was a purr,so I started stroking him tentatively,and he started digging his huge claws into me,which made me wince every time he did it,but I was too scared to move!

My mate's family,who had all been in the kitchen with me,were just sitting staring in amazement.His dad said "That cat's been coming here for 5 years,and he's never let anyone near him!"

I was a bit dubious at being accorded the honour of being the first,but I got used to him,and he'd always come and say hello whenever he saw me.

Why me? I have no idea,guess it's just a cat thing.

hi ali,
yes its all very odd why and how they choose, great story though.
anthony,TD...

[SteveW]

We were adopted by a small black and white cat several years ago. She just appeard and decided to stay. we put up some found posters and after a week she was collected by her owner. Half an hour later, she was back with us. We phoned the owner who told us it was now our cat!!

We never did give her a name, we just called her "cat" as she was very much a free spirit and did things her own way (as cats do). She passed away a couple of years ago now and I still miss her.



Your tabby looks gorgeous. Enjoy being its slave.

The ears tell the whole story of this Cat.

Brilliant, what a character.

[aquapiranha]

Steve, that is a beatiful cat. I hope you share many happy years togoether, there is something special about cats imo.

Andy, that is a lovely tale, it is amazing how you become attatched to animals.

[DSJR]

Hope you're able to keep that puss. if you can't obviously tell if it's a he or she, it's more likely to be a she cat, as males either have a bunch-of-grapes clearly on view, oe you can tell when they're having a posh-up around their nether regions (why is it that cats often wash with their "bits" in full view?).

I miss ours deeply and Mungo next-door knows this, so always comes and says hello when he's around..

[SteveW]

Hope you're able to keep that puss. if you can't obviously tell if it's a he or she, it's more likely to be a she cat, as males either have a bunch-of-grapes clearly on view, oe you can tell when they're having a posh-up around their nether regions (why is it that cats often wash with their "bits" in full view?).

I miss ours deeply and Mungo next-door knows this, so always comes and says hello when he's around..

No bunches of grapes 'round these parts. Mind you, don't they shrivel with lack of use.

Would these be obvious in a 3 month old kitten? Ok, so I'm guessing its age.

Anyway...lets assume I have a say in this.
Lets assume we all have a say i this.

Names if its female... and names if it's male please.

[aquapiranha]

Jane or John

Or, go for a famous name!...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_cats

[Stratmangler]

No bunches of grapes 'round these parts. Mind you, don't they shrivel with lack of use.

Would these be obvious in a 3 month old kitten? Ok, so I'm guessing its age.

Anyway...lets assume I have a say in this.
Lets assume we all have a say i this.

Names if its female... and names if it's male please.

This little fella was 5-6 weeks old when this shot was taken, so yes, they are easily visible.

[/QUOTE]

[Techno Commander]

The ears tell the whole story of this Cat.

Brilliant, what a character.

Aye, she had such an amazing character. Definitely a wise old lady who knew how to get exactly what she wanted. Here is her story.


The Story Of A Little Cat

It was a warm spring afternoon. The kind you get in early May, where its not to hot and the air is still fresh. I remember it so well. My girlfriend was away at her friends for a few days and I had the house to myself. I was sat relaxing in the garden enjoying the pleasantness of the day. I was fully stocked for an afternoon of pure indulgence. The radio was on, the beers were cold, I had a new book from Clive Cussler to read and some rather nice chicken sandwiches to snack upon. I had not a care in the world.

Maybe an hour had passed, maybe a bit more, but I was quite sure I saw some movement from the corner of my eye. I paused from literary induced action fantasies and looked around. There was nothing to be seen. Oh well, I returned to my book and the world of excitement within. Maybe another five minutes had gone by; when yet again I was sure I saw movement. I carefully scanned the garden. Nothing was stirring. I looked at the pile of empty beer cans, it wasn’t that large. Then I saw it, the ferns along the fence were definitely moving. Do we have another hedgehog I thought to myself?

I watched intently as the undergrowth slowly moved back and forth. A small face appeared. Definitely not a hedgy I thought. The small face looked at me, and then slowly scanned the garden. I returned her gaze and eventually our eyes met. Slowly the small face moved towards me, followed by the rest of her black & white feline body. As she moved closer I noticed the long proud whiskers, no youngster here I thought, but a cat of distinction.

She came to within a foot of where I was sat and like cats everywhere walked round my chair twice before seating herself in front of me. She stared up at me with her bright green eyes. I leant forwards and slowly stroked the back of her head, her purring indicated her pleasure my attention was giving. I looked to my side and carefully retrieved some small pieces of chicken from my sandwich. She happily ate these from my hand. Within five minutes, she was curled up on my lap enjoying the sunshine and my continued stroking of her as we leisurely shared the remains of the sandwiches.

I wonder where she came from I thought. I have never seen this cat before, many others, but definitely not this one. And why is she so friendly?

The day gently came to an end and I decided to retire indoors. As I picked up by belongings and headed off, the small cat followed, straight into the front room and made herself at home on one of the armchairs.

I want to bed that night with many thoughts of the day. I left the back door open in case little cat decided to leave. The following morning I arose to find cat still asleep on the chair. Oh well, I thought, better get her some food and promptly wandered off to the shop. After a good breakfast of Whiskers and milk, the cat trotted off to the garden for a spot of sun. I had to go out that day, so I left cat in the garden with the remains of her food and some water. When I returned, she was gone. My weekend friend was no more. Slowly over the coming days, my thoughts of her drifted away.

It must have been about five days later when I received an excited phone call from my Amanda. “Guess what I found” she said. Before I had a chance to answer she followed it with “can we keep her”? I presume you have found a small black & white cat I replied; and recounted the previous weekend’s escapade. My girlfriend confirmed it was the little cat, but she was in a bad shape, matted fur, and patches of missing fur, she was obviously in distress. What could have happened?

When I got home, I saw it was indeed the little cat from the previous weekend, but she looked in terrible state. She must have been living rough for some time. There was only one thing to do. We scooped her up and took her to the vets. The vet diagnosed a nasty case of flea infection and many sore patches of skin from her continued scratching. He quite literally doused her in flea spray (her fur was soaked) and gave her an anti inflammatory injection. She was also given one of those plastic collars to stop her cleaning herself and ingesting the flea lotion. She looked most indignant. When we got her home, she retired behind the sofa and refused to come out until she decided it was food time. Within a few days, she looked much better and we removed the collar. She could happily clean herself now and within no time, her coat was shining and she seemed so much happier.

We knew she wasn’t our cat and put some “found cat” posters up. A few days later, a lady came to the door to claim her. She had been away on holiday and had asked her father to mind the cats for her. She had 4 cats all together and this one had decided to go “walkabout”. She must have been living rough until we found her. Maybe she got lost, who knows? We were told the little cat was over 12 years old and had a rather “independent” personality. She picked up little cat and took her back to her home.

Amanda and I settled down for our dinner that evening, hardly had we started when the little cat appeared and sat opposite the table in front of us. She sat there quite motionless, with that special “feed me” look in her eyes. We again contacted the lady from “up the road”, she was not interested in coming back to collect the cat again. “It’s your cat now”, she said. Our lives changed on that day.

This all happened over 4 years ago now. Much has happened since. We never gave the cat a name; she seemed far too independent for this. She was simply known as “little cat”, although we knew that eventually her name would “come to us”. It wasn’t like she was a pet we decided to keep. It was far more like she had decided we could be her guardians, so that’s the way it was. She was the master of psychology and needed to do little more than give one of her “special stares” when she required food. I often wondered if she was secretly hypnotic. I also wondered if she was psychic as well. She could be asleep upstairs and you only needed to lift a packet of “Go Cat” from the cupboard and she would appear instantly at your feet. How did she know this, it wasn’t as if I would be shaking the box or anything?

She was a feisty little lady; her character and personality were far bigger than her physical size indicated. Our garden used to get regularly visited by a ginger Tom, who was at least 3 times her size. She was having none of this and soon taught him who was boss and whose garden it was. She would tear round the garden in a blur, race up the apple tree and survey her domain from atop the garden shed. She was definitely in charge of what happened in the garden.

I remember one spring, when all the little birds were trying to fly for the first time. Cat decided she wanted to “play” with the birds as they fell to the ground. She didn’t bother climbing the trees to catch the birds; she just waited patiently until the birds came to her. I don’t think she wanted to kill them, and she didn’t try to either. Unfortunately, she managed to remove their tail feathers making flight impossible for them. We spent almost a day trying to retrieve these little flightless birds from their hiding holes and placed them in a box to be delivered to the RSPCA.

After this episode, she never did this again, I think she just wanted to show us she could be a hunting cat when required and although old, she was still a proper cat, with the personality of a tiger. She wasn’t about to let us forger this.

When not in the garden, she had two favourite spots within the house which she claimed as her own. One was the windowsill in the dining room. The computer desk was also sighted here and so it worked for her on many levels. She was able to peer out the window and survey her little world in the garden, or more usually, sleep soundly in the stream of warm air coming from the back of the computer. Her other spot was in the living room. He had a huge pile of beanbags in the corner; she would climb to the top of these, create a small hollow on the uppermost bag and disappear within. Occasionally she would pop her head over the edge, just to check we were still there.

I will always remember the time we were eating pizza in the garden. We had been sat at the table for a little while before cat appeared. Instead of sitting at our feet like she usually did, she slowly walked behind the table. The next thing we saw, was has her little paw stretching above the table and giving us a little wave. Then a second paw appeared and slowly she pulled her head up above the table top and started at us. We both fell about laughing and carefully removed some meaty treats from the pizza for her. This is what cat was like, full of little surprises and a wonderful character.

Earlier this year, we finally gave her a name. As I mentioned earlier, this is something we deliberately left as we knew that eventually the right name for her would come along. Although it took some time. She is now called “Moomin”. For some reason, the name just came along and stuck with her, so that’s what it is. I think it suits her incredibly well.

Little Moomin is an old lady now. She is at least 16 years old. That’s well over 80 in human years. Her fur has patches of grey in it and her whiskers are looking a little bit droopy. She is still full of spirit and life, or is when she’s awake. I think she has decided to become a cat of leisure and enjoys resting. She still loves to go out into the garden, scratch her claws on the rose bush and survey her little territory. Even now, she still sees off any cats that invade her space. She is still acts like a little tiger.

Last weekend however, everything changed. Little Moomin was not herself; she sat on the window sill with her head bowed. She looked so sad. We took her to the vets, where she had a thorough examination and a blood test. It was a terribly anxious time waiting for the diagnosis. The results were not good. It appears she has not only had a stroke, but she has a kidney problem as well. She is on medication, but she looks so sad and frail. It is devastating to see her like this. On Friday before I went to work, I said good bye to her, I had tears in my eyes. I honestly thought she wouldn’t be there when I got home that evening.

The strength and character of this little cat is so amazing, she still clings to life and walks her “patch” in the garden. Yet the medication and the after effects of the stroke are causing problems. She looks so confused and hardly has the strength to move. She is finding it so difficult to be a cat any more. I am so worried about her. We love her so dearly it just makes me cry with sadness to see her like this. I do so hope she pulls through this ordeal.

What you have just read was written some weeks ago. Unfortunately little cat’s condition has deteriorated and she cannot go on. We have just come back from the vets with her little body wrapped in a blanket. I have cried for three hours and am absolutely devastated. She left us at sunset and I will stay with her tonight. She will be buried tomorrow at sunrise. We will remember her always. Especially when we look at the beautiful rose bush we will be planting tomorrow. Its name says it all.

**Spirit Of Freedom**

[Barry]

Andy,

I think your talents are wasted on AoS. By the time I got to the end of your eulogy, I had tears in my eyes.

It is amazing the effect pets of long duration have on us. Regardless of whether they are cats or dogs, they become part of the family and their departing is a great and sad loss.

Thanks for the 'The Story of The Little Cat'.

Regards