Why a cat?

[Kazz]

Just wondering about this and can't recall having this thread before. But why did you first choose a cat?

My first cat Archie came when I moved from home to a flat and wanted something to come home to rather than being a " wall" like Shirley Valentine,

I was working full time, young and out and about so a dog was not an option at the time. Wanted more than a hamster do not like caged birds (think they should be free to fly) so it was a cat, friend of a friend of my sister had a litter of kittens I got Archie....to young I know now but think they just wanted them gone before a holiday.
So that was my first cat. Had had cats at home when I was young but we were a dog family.

So why did you choose/get a cat?

[Squirrel]

Interesting question!

Grew up with several animals (mostly one at a time) - the usual gamut of fish, hamsters, and then finally a dog. Mum would say that we were a 'dog' kind of family - though when I was considering a pet for myself as an adult I just felt I didn't want to be tied down to Having to take dog out for a walk regardless of the weather!!!

Why a cat? Well a few reasons really. I wanted something of reasonable size. Hamsters and the like are nice, but I live on my own and I felt like having an animal with its own presence, not something that can be hid away in the corner!!!

I'd a few friends with cats while I was at uni, and being a very animal orientated person (and these being mostly very friendly cats) I spent a lot of time with them and loved it, but the main reason for getting Cloud was the story of the lady who had adopted Lucky - Clouds cat-mum.

I think I've mentioned this before, so will keep it brief. I came into the story pretty well near the end. A friend of mine was getting a cat from her next door neighbour, and mentioned to me that said neighbour was struggling to find homes for them... Cause of that I ended up seeking an intro.

I found out over time that cat-mum had turned up on her door step, pregnant, and had eventually had a first litter of kittens while there. My friend had hoped to get one, but they were all snapped up. Mum-cat had been crying to get out, and as she was nursing at the time, the neighbour had let her out... Net result was my little ones litter!

So, she went through a second pregnancy, and with a fair bit of difficulty the kittens were eventually rehomed.

[angieh]

My mum and most of her family were cat lovers and had grown up with cats. My dad hated them. I wasn't allowed furry animals of any kind when I was a child because of my asthma.

When I met my OH and we were getting to the "serious" bit, I think more or less the first thing I asked was "do you like cats?" When we moved to our second house which was not on a main road, we decided to get a cat when we came back from our annual holiday and someone brought an unwanted kitten into the place I worked. That was Merlin. I was hooked and strangely enough cats have never seemed to affect my breathing.

[lynz85]

I had a mini zoo growing up!! We were a dog family at first (with the extra goldfish budgies canaries cockateil gerbils and rats!!) but we didnt get a cat until i was in my early teens. I dont know why we never had a cat before then, i dont know if my mum was aprehensive as we had a doberman but she got on great with our first cat! i must have moaned too much so my mum gave in!! I got mondo as when i moved out my mum wouldnt let me take jungle and i had my rats but i missed having a cat around.

[Velvet]

We had cats growing up, mum loves them. Always ginger (or marmalade as mum calls them) cats & always boys, mostly long haired.

My lifestyle never suited having cats, often away at weekends, you can put the dogs in the car & off you go. I know folk with cats that do it however i would have been too wary of losing a cat so i waited & waited - many years in fact. The time had to be right

We got Tim & some months later Amber & just love having them. Neither are cuddly lap cats but they show affection in other ways - they both have their own wee individual characters. Tim tolerates my lifting him & cuddling him. Amber tolerates it for about 15 seconds then struggles to get down

I have noticed lately that not only does Amber knead the bed spread she has taken to "sucking" it & purring softly while she kneads

[dandysmom]

Great thread idea, Kazz!

Never considered anything else! Grew up with a cat; grandma had a cat, aunt had a cat, neighbors on either side had a cat. No one I knew had a dog; there was an elderly crochety cocker spaniel in the neighborhood that our moms told us to stay away from. Always a reader, I enjoyed dog and horse books growing up, but never occurred to me to want either of them.

'Mom had a budgie, I had tropical fish and assorted reptiles growing up, but for love and companionship there could only be a cat.

[farthing]

I didn't really choose cats but ended up with a stray kitten found outside my work on November. He was very small, the vet thought about 4 weeks- freezing and covered in fleas. He was black and white and sitting on a patch of snow, so I called him Snowy.
I had to finish weaning him and because I only had a dog and him could spend a lot of time with him. He was a house cat and would give a paw, then the other and lie down and sit up too. He could also be very wicked but was such a character. We then got Spats to be company for him when I moved in with Mike... and things just grew from there.

[JBalways2000]

This is such an interesting thread! As for me, i am a life long animal lover but i didnt get to have many pets growing up. My dad grew up on a farm so also had a love for animals, my mom grew up with lots of pets but just didnt like them. Not in the nasty way, she hates animal cruelty as much as the next person, but she has just never been keen on the feel of them! lol My Dad did talk her into letting me have a rabbit(and a couple of budgies and a hamster over the years) and when i had my bunny, Misty, i was always being told to watch out for next doors cat when she was running around the garden so i actually started to dislike cats thinking they would eat my bunny I have wanted a dog for aslong as i can remember so if anyone had asked i wouldnt have hesitated saying i was a dog person!

When i met my partner 10 years ago we realised one of the many things we had in common was our love of animals and so began the start of getting lots of pets! we have had so many over the years, but until the cats it was small animals, mostly ratties Just a few weeks before getting AJ and Raven we were going to get a dog-i had researched and researched and we had even gone to the local dogs home and found a gorgeous doggy there. We just wernt sure if we were ready for that big of a commitment and one day when i rang the home we were told the doggy had gone of to another new home. We took that as a sign.

We then started thinking about getting kitties, and i very naughtily had a look on preloved only to fall inlove with some gorgeous kittens looking for a home not far from us. I chose AJ from the photo and also really wanted a full black kitty but when the lady got back to me the black kitty had been spoken for. my partner had wanted Raven from the start, so he was our second choice! We were meant to have my boy all along, he was coming to us one way or another wasnt he? so thats pretty much it-we came home with two gorgeous kittens and i can honestly say they have changed our lives and i can also now say without a doubt that i am most definately a cat person

[pamela81]

i grew up around dogs and did initially want a one. But due to being out during the day and a dog needing constant walks, i couldnt have 1 and also my dad became allergic to the fur and we had to give our collie away years ago. When i met Steven, i still wanted a dog but teh more we thought about it, it wasnt practical. OH has grown up around cats and suggested we get 1. I wasnt a 100% sure but went to the cats protection to llook anyway and i fell in love with Harris I knew he was the 1 for our home and tehn recently as you know we wanted a friend for him and it was the same with Skye, i felt the same feeling with her that i did when i first saw Harris and knew she was going to come and join our family Wouldnt be without any of them now

[Tink]

When I was a little kid, we had cats that roamed as they liked. I remember mostly seeing and playing with them intermittently then they would leave and come home awhile later all beat up. I never got too much chance to get attached.
Then when I was 11 there was a litter of kittens born in our backyard. The mom was a stray we'd seen around alot hanging with one of our old outside boys but she was very feral and really too young to be having babies. We watched her start carrying them off one by one. By the time she'd gotten the first kitten and dropped him on the roof of my neighbors house we knew she was not ready to be a mother and my Mom went out and took the kittens that were left..six of them. Two we kept (Tigger and Cuddles) and the other four we found homes for once they were old enough and weaned.
Those were my Mom's cats and I was just starting to discover boys and all the awkwardness of being a preteen/teenager and was much too distracted to pay them much attention.
I eventually grew up and moved out and at my first apartment with my high school boyfriend we got a cat that was horribly sick and undernourished at a pet shop just as we were checking out our new neighborhood. I loved that cat but once he grew adult and healthy, my focus went to other things like trying to support myself and dealing with an abusive relationship and really I wasn't ready for the commitment of him. Years went by and we finally broke it off and I took that cat with me but I could only afford to take a small bedroom in someone else's apartment and they wouldn't let him roam the whole apartment and he was pretty miserable. My ex wanted him back and as he had a bigger house I decided it was best to let that kitty go. Years later I ran into my ex and he said he'd lost him while he was having a party one night and people were going in and out. We were both young and foolish, I guess.
Then I had a very tough period of a lot of painful things happen. An animal was absolutely out of the question, I couldn't even care for myself. Things got really bad and I ended up leaving state and a few months later met K online. We moved quite fast and I was moved in several weeks later. I was a bit of a wreck then but K persisted and in hindsight I see he helped me find myself and stability. About a year and a half into our relationship, I'd been moping about. I'd brought up a cat to him several times but he shot the idea down and I fed the cats that visited our backyard pond. Never really felt his dogs were mine or very bonded. I knew I needed something but not sure what.
Then he brought home Kuan Yin and that was my last little push into this better phase of my life. I became a Mom and fell head over heels. No more destructive behavior, wouldn't want to expose my precious baby to such things. I observed everything about her and fell more and more in love with cats. Honestly she was the first cat I was really grown up enough and ready for, I think so I could fully appreciate them.
Now I have three and I feel that I am finally old enough and mature enough to know what I want and who I am and a big part of that is a cat lover