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scloyd

Lifer
May 23, 2018
5,941
12,038
We've always had dogs...a black lab, a pug and a beagle. Everytime we lost one, I cried like a baby. A couple of years ago we had to put our beagle down. I told my wife "I don't want any more pets. I don't want to go through that ever again". They're so loyal and give you so much love. No more pets!

Guess what? About a year ago my wife talked me into getting a kitten. Sure, why not? It's just a cat, I won't feel the same way about a cat. WRONG!

Here's our male cat with two names. My wife calls him Dori and I call him Claude Vincent. He responds to both names along with kitty.

20200827_140056.jpg

It took about a week before I fell in love with sweetheart. I hope this cat out lives me.
 

doug535

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 28, 2019
270
1,307
57
Independence, MO.
We've always had dogs...a black lab, a pug and a beagle. Everytime we lost one, I cried like a baby. A couple of years ago we had to put our beagle down. I told my wife "I don't want any more pets. I don't want to go through that ever again". They're so loyal and give you so much love. No more pets!

Guess what? About a year ago my wife talked me into getting a kitten. Sure, why not? It's just a cat, I won't feel the same way about a cat. WRONG!

Here's our male cat with two names. My wife calls him Dori and I call him Claude Vincent. He responds to both names along with kitty.

View attachment 41025

It took about a week before I fell in love with sweetheart. I hope this cat out lives me.
They have a way of luring you in, the animals that is.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Claude Vincent looks like a sage, and perhaps he is. Many dogs are so approachable and affectionate, you hardly have to learn to like them. Cats are much more gradual, but essentially do the same thing. But they demonstrate their choice in the matter more. Cats are much more companionable than their reputation would suggest. Among cats, Maine Coons are some of the most dependably sociable; they have some dog-like traits, though they are still independent and discerning. Dogs bowl me over with their affection and acceptance. Cats do so by conferring their friendship. Most cats assume they rule the world, and anoint me to rule a little bit of mine. I don't think cats understand their own comparative size, and will stalk much larger animals as if they are game, like white tail deer. Emotionally, cats seem quite developed and advanced, more than people in some ways; what they feel and what they think are highly aligned.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Even if you are young, or relatively so, it is smart to recruit a willing friend or two as godparents to pets, if they were needed. If cats don't like their appointed foster parents they will sometimes solicit a new owner among neighbors. That happened when an elderly friend's son took her cat after she passed. She, the cat, then selected a worthy welcoming neighbor and took up with them. In another case, a friend's cat showed up on a neighbor's photo Christmas card while he is still alive and healthy, and boy was he surprised.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
Both my cats came from an well-run rescue place. One where the animals didn't live in cages all the time, but was only open on weekends when the "foster parents" would bring them in for a few hours to meet prospective adopters in a huge window-walled playroom filled with toys, cat furniture, and a couple human chairs.

My girlcattt had been "in the system" for 8.5 months, because she wouldn't approach ANYBODY. She didn't act scared or bite or hiss or anything, she just refused to interact, and people would pass on adopting her. After 20 minutes or so of being pointedly ignored, they'd say, "Sorry, not this one. Who's next?"

When I showed up the first time it was to get a BFOC. (Big Friendly Orange Cat) The rescue people always craftily ask if you'd like to familiarize yourself with how things worked by meeting a couple NON-candidate cats first. (Meaning, in my case, not a BFOC.)

Why? I learned afterward it was with the hope of having happen exactly what DID happen. The "familiarize yourself with how things worked" cats were always the hard cases that no one had adopted, you see...

And the alternately regal and goofy little raccoon-colored girl cat they brought in---the one nobody had wanted in 8.5 months and was a near polar opposite of a BFOC---was instantly my best friend for life. She was all over me in the best possible way and after playing for a solid half hour decided to take a nap on my shoulder.

The staff of the adoption place literally lined up outside along the clear wall to see it for themselves, and one of them was openly crying.

CATS CHOOSE THEIR HUMANS

Been there, done that, seen it.

Twice

Because three months later when I decided girlcattt needed a playmate/friend, the exact same thing happened again.

A big, gawky, ginger boycattt that had ignored every human he'd been put into the playroom with for 3.5 months jumped straight into my lap and stayed there like I was a magnet. For fun (again the staff was at the window), I'd set him on the floor and he'd jump right back up. This went on for half an hour. His choice was made, and that was that. It was equal parts amazing and slightly sad to think of all the time he'd spent alone, a hostage to his instincts, waiting for the right human to come along.
 

doug535

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 28, 2019
270
1,307
57
Independence, MO.
My daughter is taking our cat if we go first.

A pet is a huge commitment and you need to plan for those arrangements early.
Absolutely they're a huge commitment, I also have an African Gray Timneh that I got in 1996, that's about half-life for one of these birds. My son is supposed to inherit her if the wife and I go before she does
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,400
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Cats do go into mourning, but they (mostly) seem to manage it pretty well, have a hard time, then create new attachments and carry on with fairly healthy grieving. But they grieve. The boy siblings backed off when the little older female they'd contested with fell ill. I was surprised and afraid they'd have to be shut off in different rooms, but the boys looked mystified and troubled, and let her go in peace, and were none too happy afterward. Now they are more competitive with each other, of course. It's complicated, subtle, and ever changing; sometimes they are most brotherly and snooze side by side. It's drama and conspicuously sentient behavior. Funny, the little female was older and was prescribed a special diet, but was never down ill, whereas both the boys, at different times of life, were perilously ill and were brought back with vet bills like the cost of a thoroughbred race horse -- well, so it seemed.
 
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
We're listening to an audio book about Churchill and the Blitz. Turns out Winston was a big can fancier. A government caravan of military advisors were driving to a country estate sort of like Camp David in the U.S., and Sir Winston realized his cat Nelson wasn't aboard, so the whole caravan stopped and someone trucked back to Ten Downing Street to capture Nelson under a waste basket -- this was a war strategy emergency after all. With Nelson aboard, the defense of England continued. A cat resembling the last ones he owned in his lifetime, a so-called Marmalade, still resides at his estate at Chartwell ... I've actually been there. Other famous cat fanciers included Hemingway, Julia Childs, Mark Twain, and Andy Warhol, among many others.
 
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