4 posts tagged “cats”
Do you have a pet? What kind of pet do you own, and why did you choose it?
Submitted by Brendz.
Yes, we have two cats. We didn't choose these cats from any certain place. When we moved into the house we bought a year and a half ago, we found a pregnant cat there. A few days later, she had five kittens. I talked to our neighbor later and found out that the previous owners had abandoned the cat when they moved. We hadn't the money to pay for vet bills of the cats at first, so I called the Humane Society, thinking they would help us find homes for them. They said that if we kept two of them that they would help with vet costs, specifically with spaying them. We kept Mittens and Tiger Lily and I took them for their shots. When they got old enough, I contacted them again and they said that they would send paperwork for us to fill out to help with the spaying. I took care of that and sent it back. We never heard back from them. Again, I called. They said they had never received it and she would send another one. Didn't get it. Soon after, tax season came around and we decided we would get them spayed as soon as we got the tax check. They both figured out how to get out of the house the week beforehand though and ended up pregnant. Mittens had 5 kittens on May 15 and Tiger Lily had 6 kittens on May 22. As the Humane Society had not helped us, we dropped off 4 of Mittens' kitties with them. An Amish family took Tiger Lily as she had changed once she got pregnant and nipped a bit at us. Because of our move, we didn't have the time to figure out if she was going to change back. We knew the Amish family and knew they would give her a good home. My sister took Lily's kittens and found homes for them in St. Louis. We'll be able to see at least one of them when we visit since she was adopted by neighbors of my sister. I'll have to ask if any of the others were adopted by people we know well enough to get pictures or updates from. Anyway, the one we kept from Mittens' batch was Charlie. He's a sweetheart. He seems to know when I'm upset or just need a little destressing. He will come and pat my face if I'm upset and lay down on the bed or he'll jump onto my lap if I just need to relax a bit. Petting always helps me to settle down and relax.
My kids got a bit too much cabin fever today and were so stir crazy since we’ve been stuck inside for pretty much 3 weeks now with these frigid temperatures. They donned a lot of clothes (and I did as well) and went outside, into the 5 inches of snow we got here. The snow was not the snowball type, but that didn’t stop them. They picked up handfulls and threw it in the air, at each other, and at me while I was trying to take pictures with my camera phone which made my pictures turn out blurry. At least I didn’t have my good camera out there. The older kids lasted about 20 minutes out there and Noelle, AnnaBeth, and I only lasted 15 minutes. The cats got outside while we were all trying to get in through the dining room door and get our shoes off. Tiger Lily didn’t last 30 seconds. She hated the snow on her feet. Mittens stayed out a total of 5 minutes before she was begging to come in. She enjoyed cuddling up with me for a while to warm up. Since she hardly ever cuddles, that was a treat.
My cats are sisters, but so different. Tiger Lily is very social. She likes sitting on laps and being around when we have people here. Mittens likes to hide when there are lots of people around. It's not that she doesn't like people. She's just not social. She shows up, makes the rounds around to smell everyone's feet, yet avoid all hands except mine and then usually leaves the room. Tiger Lily likes a slower pace. She likes playing with things that don't go very far usually, unless it's a bouncy ball. She prefers me to play with her by putting my hand under a blanket and wiggling it or letting a string hang from my hand with a little shaking. She only time I've really seen her get active is when James is playing with the before mentioned boucy ball or if she is playing with her sister. Mittens likes active play. She chases her sister, chases the bouncy ball, chases a string if someone is running and dragging it behind them, or likes being chased. James (as my active son) is usually the one playing with her. He is learning how to chase a cat and Mittens really likes the way he does it. I've even pounced at her a few times. She also likes playing with the plastic ring off of a milk jug. She hits it and pounces on it and does all kinds of cat acrobatics while playing with it. Quite interesting to watch. She also likes to experiment with things to see what happens. She has learned that if the kitchen floor is clean that she can slide across it. She knows exactly where to stop running so she can slide to a stop just in front of her feeding dish. I find that extremely funny. It is also very funny when we've done a small mop job, but I didn't do the whole floor, like last night. She slid so far and then hit a spot where she couldn't slide and almost fell on her face. Tiger Lily has tried this sliding thing, but usually ends up on her side, face, or hitting the wall. She scattered all the food one day by sliding straight into the dish. Anyway, those are my cats. You've had a glimpse into the pet life here. Sorry if it bored you any.
How many pets have you owned in your lifetime? Tell us about them.
Submitted by jennajellopy.vox.com.
We've had mostly cats. When I was little, a mother cat had three kittens under our house in the country. The mother left, but we still had the three cats. They had kittens and more kittens and some died, left, or were adopted. The most we had were 15 cats. I had names for all of them, but I can't remember them now. I was kind of young. We finally had to get rid of them, except one, because we were moving. We kept Blackie. We found out after we kept her that she was already pregnant. She had four kittens and my parents let us keep one and took the rest to the humane society. That was Jockie. He was the first kitten that was actually mine. After he died, we got Mittens and had him for 11 years. He died my sophomore year of college. The cats Jeremy and I have had were Oliver, Samson, Pepper and now Mittens and Tiger Lily (we had their mother, Striped Beauty, and three brothers, Prince Charming, JonCat, and Blackie for a few weeks as well.)
As for other animals, we had some hamsters (I only remember the name of one, Joey), some goldfish, and an Australian Sheepdog named Sydney. Actually, now that I think about it. I think Sydney was after I was out of my parents' house. We took care of a Cock-a-poo dog, Katie for a little while before she died. She had been Jeremy's family's dog and had stayed at his parents house until we took her. She was so old though and didn't last long. We've helped take care of my sister and brother-in-law's dog a few times and that was fun.
We're talking about getting a dog sometime, but waiting for more income.
