How I Got My Cat...

To tell the story of how I came across my current cat, I have to first tell you about her mother, Butter. It's odd, having a black cat that has a name that doesn't fit her appearance at all. And obviously the name 'Butter' can't be about a personality trait of hers, because there's no possible way that this word could ever mean anything related to personality...right?

Well, we stumbled across Butter when I was younger, probably six years old. We were staying up north at my grandparent's house, and suddenly we found this black cat getting into the garbage. Since my grandmother was a kind woman (and she was sick of hearing my younger sister and I complain about the poor, starving animal and how badly she needed food) she took pity on the cat and decided to give her a saucer of milk. During our week-long stay, the cat stuck around the house, and my sister and I spent most of our time outside playing with her. She was a sweetheart, and so tame that it was hard to believe that she didn't have an owner.

After a while, even my mother started to fall in love with the cat. When I asked half-heartedly if I we could take her home and keep her (wholly expecting for the answer to be a big fat 'no!') I was pleasantly surprised when my mother agreed. Since we were leaving that day, my mother left my sister and I at my grandmother's house to pack up, while she ran to the pet store to get a cat carrier, food, litter box, and all the stuff that we would be needing. When she got back...the cat had disappeared. My sister and I were heartbroken, and we convinced my mom to wait one whole hour before she finally gave up, and made us get in the car.

Just as we started the car, we saw a streak of black bolting towards us - Butter was back, and just in time! So we loaded her into the carrier (actually, she pretty much climbed into it herself. I always thought she was an incredibly smart cat...) and brought her to her new home. When we first got home and let her inside the house, she bolted straight to the table, leaped upon it, and began to lick some butter out of an empty popcorn bag we had left there before leaving for my grandmother's house! And that is how she came upon the name Butter.

As for my current cat, Licorice, she was from Butter's first surviving litter. Butter had been extremely skinny when we found her, and malnourished, so it had taken a while for us to get her back to health. During this time she had two failed litters, and we were beginning to think she'd never actually have kittens. She finally did, though, and we had four kittens - two were black like her, and two were tabbies. The tabbies and one of the black cats all went to different homes. Sadly, all of them died or ran away within the first year. Licorice, however stayed with us. She's been living with us for over eleven years now, and I couldn't be happier with her.

What happened to Butter? She died around seven years ago She was a great cat, though, and she gave us her daughter who is absolutely the best cat that an owner could ask for.

 

That's such a sweet story! It's great you guys could take her in a love her. And I think she jumped into that carrier because she loved you guys already and wanted to go home with you. What a cute way to come up with her name! Her name almost could have been Popcorn. And the poor girl, it must have been hard on her to loose those two litters. At least she had the one, and you got Licorice from it! We gave all but Dusty away from Sassy's litter. My cousin still has one, Cupcake, but the rest died or ran away from their homes too, and that was disappointing but at least we have 2 of her babies surviving!
It's sad when they pass away but you've got a very positive way to look at it because she gave your family a great gift in Licorice!

 

That's such a cute story! The way you guys got together sounds like she was your soulmate in cat form, lol. I'm glad you have one of her kittens still to keep you company! It's always worse if you lose the cat entirely.

 

It is a sweet story, and I love retelling it and reminiscing with my mother or younger sister about it And Butter did seem to like us, from the very beginning. I think she very well could have been our "pet soul mate" or something. She actually came to us during a rough time in our lives and gave us plenty of joy and laughter, and it was funny how she just showed up out of the blue like that.

It is always sad to lose a cat, and I'm sorry to hear about the loss of two of your kittens, CinnamonKiss. But Licorice is definitely a blessing to us. She's actually just like her mother in every way, even in looks! Most people would come over and wouldn't be able to tell the two cats apart when Butter was still living - the only indicator was a small scar over Licorice's eye (which has grown in since, so now she looks exactly like momma). She has the same type of personality, and she even enjoys the same sleeping spots that her mother did!

 

Sassy had 5 kittens and 4 of them were given away, and of them 3 died/were lost. I'm not sure where you got 2 from
Awww, that's really sweet! Our two look nothing alike, from size to coloring. Maybe she learned from her momma and now they're identical in behavior! I bet she always saw her mom sleeping in those places and when she passed away she could smell her, it was the easiest way to still be with her, which is a really heartwarming idea. She would be where her mom used to and maybe she was mourning her at the same time, cats are so unique that way.

 

Oops, small error on my part - sorry about that. I'm not the smartest (or the most alert) in the early a.m. hours xD
Cats really are unique, and mine seems to feel emotion really noticeably, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some emotional cause for her to sleep in the same places as her mother and such. I swear, cats have the most emotional faces I have ever seen in a typical house pet. When my cat looks at me, I can tell when she's grumpy, when she's bored, when she's thinking "These idiotic humans need to just let me outside so I can get away!". I like other animals, and I'm sure that they're emotional/expressive as well. But I see it a lot more in cats, particularly my cat.

 

It's okay, I think everyone's pretty sluggish in the morning hours!
Yes! They do, but I think the more you know the cat the easier it is to tell what they're feeling. Sassy doesn't go through too many emotions, she's a very simple cat. But Dusty can run the gamut of emotions and he can change them pretty fast! Cats do, considering they have a pretty bad reputation for being kind of cold. I think it's because we have cats that we notice it more. Someone who doesn't like cats or have experience with them probably wouldn't notice their expressions. Dogs have emotion and express it pretty well. I think it would be hard for some of the smaller house pets to express emotion through their face. Body language wold have to be used for them, and I wonder in snake owners can see a difference at all!

 

Yeah, that makes sense. My friend doesn't see it when my cat has certain expressions - I'll mention it, and she'll just shrug and be like, "It's your cat. If you say so." I think cats are normally considered cold because while dogs acknowledge their owners as the master, cats usually think of themselves as the masters. At least, that's how I see it. I think that smaller animals like rodents are better at expressing themselves through vocal cues - squeaks, squeals, and some of them make little 'purring' noises.

 

Cats absolutely have facial expressions. Look at the eyes of this cat that was rescued by a fireman. It's obvious that the cat has been to hell and back.

 

Exactly! That picture is perfect proof. Some of the facial expressions are far less pronounced than fear, but they are there if you're willing to look and know the cat well enough to find them.

 

That is a truly heartbreaking expression. I hope that poor cat wasn't traumatized. And good on that fireman for rescuing the poor baby.

 

I hate how people in movies (like superheros or firemen or something) or even some people in real life complain about how they're getting the "pointless" jobs of saving cats from trees and stuff like that. I know that being stuck in a tree isn't such a big deal, but stuck in a fire is. And there is a family who considers that cat one of their loved ones. People feel like they're not helping "real people" by saving animals, but they are...just in a more emotional than physical way.

 

I agree, it is an important pet to someone and if they're like my household, our pets are family. And even if you're not saving people from heartbreak and pain, you're saving the life of a living, breathing, feeling creature from the pain of a terrible death. I wish people would be more understanding. They don't have to go out and own a pet, but if they would be more understanding of how important pets are to pet owners it would be a positive step between pet owners and non-pet owners.

 

I got my cat Dipstick, while working for a vet clinic. I always say it was love at first bite. He was about 4 weeks old when this young girl brought him in for a check up. She had just found him on her porch and wanted to take care of him . So, we did the basic exam and found that he needed a few different kinds of medicine for his aliments, but nothing serious. He was also covered with fleas so we sprayed him down, and while I was holding him he bite me. Well now the poor kitten and to be in quarantine because we had no idea if he had rabies or not.
So, she took him home, but didn't take care of him like she needed to, so her mom got stuck with looking after him, and she hated cats. She brought him in about 4 days later, he hadn't hardly eaten, was freezing cold, and had a heart rate of about 60, which is extremely low. Since he still had 6 more days to go in quarantine, we had to keep him alive. It was a mad rush to get him warm, give him IV fluids, and try to get him to eat. The whole time I was too emotional to help, so I stayed up front in the office. The doctor comes up about 1 hour later and said for me to go help the other girl, my worst fear was that she needed my help to fill out the death record. I walked back there and here he is eating like a little piglet, just purring and rubbing up against her hand. He took one look at me and jumped out of the cage and ran over to me. Now mind you he was only about 1 pound and he fit in the palm of your hand. Well, I just started sobbing at this point and hugging him to me.
He stayed at the office for about 4 weeks, but I did bring him home on the days the office was closed. Eventually he was well enough for me to keep him at home and he has been thriving ever since. Thank God for small miracles.