Hello fellow animal lovers! The idea for this thread came up in the GP IdF Cancellation thread, where we noticed a disproportionally high amount of posters with cat avatars (compared to skating related avatars). But this thread shouldn't be only about kitties but about all of your pets. I would like to invite everyone who wants to participate to take this opportunity and tell a story about the pet in your avatar. Of course you can also join if you don't have your pet's picture as your avatar, but then you need to post a photo at least (there are never enough cute animal pictures on the internet)
I will make the beginning: The feline in my avatar is Thor, a pure bred mongrel (whatever the cat equivalent is) during her first summer. Back when we took this photo, we had no idea that Thor was actually a female. My boyfriend and me had recently watched the avengers movie in the theatre (the one where Thor appears one-eyed) and when we found this kitty, one of her eyes was also swollen shut - so Thor it was. Found this kitty? - you might ask - that's not the usual way to come into possession of a cat. Well, actually my boyfriend and me just had moved in together and our new flat had a big garden that was right next to a farm. We moved in in spring and even though we both love all kinds of animals, we didn't feel we were ready for our own pet yet. However, one of the farmer's cats decided that the hedge in our garden was the perfect place to give birth to four little kitties. Only problem was, the mother cat was extremely shy and suspicious of humans and wouldn't let us anywhere near her babies. So we spent the next six months leaving food for the mother cat, spending a lot of time in the garden and gradually moving closer and getting acquainted with the kitties. They all had eye problems, but apart from that developed well. All the cat food and treats outside soon attracted four more cats from the farmer next door who joined our cat pride. At this stage, we finally found a non-profit charity who was willing to help us to catch the still semi-wild cats to get them to the vet for necessary vaccinations, de-worming (no idea about the proper English term here), and spaying/neutering. So one autumn day in the early morning hours, my boyfriend, two very nice ladies from the charity, and me spent three hours catching the cats in live traps (we managed to get all nine ) and getting them fixed and have their eyes treated at the vet's.
Now, a couple years later, the original mother cat was taken in by our neighbours next door, two of the farmer's cats moved in with my parents and now rule their home, and the four baby kitties (Thor and her siblings) and remaining two farmers' cats moved in with us. Five of them are pretty domesticated now to the point where they like to get cuddled (for ten seconds) and sleep on the sofa in the living room, only one is still rather distanced and only shows up to be fed but doesn't want anything further to do with us.
And this is the story of Thor and how we didn't feel ready for any pets but ended up with six cats nonetheless.
PS: The farmer never asked what became of the cats.
I will make the beginning: The feline in my avatar is Thor, a pure bred mongrel (whatever the cat equivalent is) during her first summer. Back when we took this photo, we had no idea that Thor was actually a female. My boyfriend and me had recently watched the avengers movie in the theatre (the one where Thor appears one-eyed) and when we found this kitty, one of her eyes was also swollen shut - so Thor it was. Found this kitty? - you might ask - that's not the usual way to come into possession of a cat. Well, actually my boyfriend and me just had moved in together and our new flat had a big garden that was right next to a farm. We moved in in spring and even though we both love all kinds of animals, we didn't feel we were ready for our own pet yet. However, one of the farmer's cats decided that the hedge in our garden was the perfect place to give birth to four little kitties. Only problem was, the mother cat was extremely shy and suspicious of humans and wouldn't let us anywhere near her babies. So we spent the next six months leaving food for the mother cat, spending a lot of time in the garden and gradually moving closer and getting acquainted with the kitties. They all had eye problems, but apart from that developed well. All the cat food and treats outside soon attracted four more cats from the farmer next door who joined our cat pride. At this stage, we finally found a non-profit charity who was willing to help us to catch the still semi-wild cats to get them to the vet for necessary vaccinations, de-worming (no idea about the proper English term here), and spaying/neutering. So one autumn day in the early morning hours, my boyfriend, two very nice ladies from the charity, and me spent three hours catching the cats in live traps (we managed to get all nine ) and getting them fixed and have their eyes treated at the vet's.
Now, a couple years later, the original mother cat was taken in by our neighbours next door, two of the farmer's cats moved in with my parents and now rule their home, and the four baby kitties (Thor and her siblings) and remaining two farmers' cats moved in with us. Five of them are pretty domesticated now to the point where they like to get cuddled (for ten seconds) and sleep on the sofa in the living room, only one is still rather distanced and only shows up to be fed but doesn't want anything further to do with us.
And this is the story of Thor and how we didn't feel ready for any pets but ended up with six cats nonetheless.
PS: The farmer never asked what became of the cats.