I fell in love with my kitty Fluffy, who passed away a year ago at the age of 17, when I met her when she was a kitten and I was six years old. She was licking my hand and was as sweet as could be, that’s why I picked her out of all the other kittens! I fell in love with our kitty Niko, who we found lost outside this last summer, after just a few days. I knew if we didn’t find the owner quick Niko would end up staying with us forever, and that’s just what happened and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

I heard about a sweet little kitty that had literally blown into a neighborhood down in Salt Lake City during a storm. A family “took her in.” NOT. My friend lived down the street from the “family.” I drove down from Park City and found that “taking her in” meant leaving the garage door partially open. I scooped up this 4-month old gray kitty and found an open sore on her back thigh. She snuggled against me and purred. I told the “family,” I was taking her. Sitting at my friend’s counter for dinner, I named her Maude. (Like Maude in Harold and Maude.) We drove back up the canyon. I need to clean her wound, so I took her into the bathtub with me. . .she purred. She was home. She’s been with me for seven years now. . .my heart is starting to break because she has a mass growing near her heart. I’d love to win this poster. I’m a huge fan of Missy!

I first fell in love with Dusty when I saw his photo on the FB page of a friend that belongs to a group I am also in that supports big cats. I was smitten, mesmerized and borderline obsessed by him. I corresponded with the friend, and learned his story, which only made me love him all the more. He was orphaned when both his mom and dad cats were hit by cars within days of each other. Dusty and his littermates were rescued by my friend, Michelle. That he was located nearly 11 hours away in Bristol, Virginia did nothing to diminish my intense connection to him. We traded messages back and forth, and I heard about his siblings- two brothers and a sister. I shared photos of them with some colleagues at work. Soon my rescue mission involved two orphaned kittens- Dusty and his brother Sherbet. Michelle was kind enough to agree to drive 3 hours to meet us, cutting our trip down to 8 hours one way. I googled hotels in the area, and quickly had the trip planned. We set out on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. After a slight detour after we discovered the OnStar directions were not exactly correct, we finally were on our way. The plan was to meet at the hotel on Sunday so that the kittens would not have to spend the night in a hotel, and we would have a safe place to transfer them to our carriers, and even spend a few minutes getting to know them. I fell hopelessly in love with Dusty instantly, and he has been by my side ever since. He is truly a momma’s boy. His story doesn’t end there. Several days after getting him home, I discovered a tiny bump on his back. Since he was only 8 weeks old, the vet didn’t think it was anything to worry about. We watched it carefully for a few days, but it changed dramatically in size and density. We had to have it removed immediately, and elected to neuter him at the same time. We were stunned when the biopsy came back as cancer- a mast cell tumor. Not even the oncologist had ever seen cancer in a 10 week old kitten. Thankfully, he has remained cancer free, although he has had a few other episodes that sent him to the ER. At 7 months old he broke his front leg trying to fly off the stairs to get his favorite pipe cleaner toy, and spent a month in a cast that had to be changed 15 times due to his uncanny ability to take it off, get it wet, and generally be a kitten with it. At 9 months old he had a derma cyst removed from his neck, which thankfully turned out to be benign. I’ve told Dusty that he does not need to rush through his nine lives so quickly. Many people have said how lucky Dusty is to have had me rescue him, but I disagree. I am the one who is lucky- I have a very special cat in my life who loves me unconditionally, and we have a very special bond that often only comes once in a lifetime. I had been so lonely since my soul kitty Sasha passed away, but Dusty fills a void in my heart that was waiting for a special kitty to love. He doesn’t replace Sasha, he is both the same and very different from her. She will always have a special place in my heart, and just when I thought I would never love a kitty again in the same way, Dusty came along. You could say lightning struck twice, for I think I found another soul kitty to fill that void. For that I am truly grateful, and truly blessed.

Bowie’s always been a good cat, but when I realized how much of a cuddle bug he was, that made him that much more endearing.

I fell in love with one of my cats the Minute she came through the shelter door. I worked at the shelter at the time and a woman brought in two, six month old tortoiseshell girls. The woman had the mother, some kind of purebred kitty, who had gotten out and got pregnant. The woman said she just couldn’t have cats that weren’t purebred, but she waited until they were six months old to bring them to the shelter, and hadn’t socialized them at all. They were beautiful, they looked like shorthair persians with torti coloration….but they were so scared. We set them up in a cage, with a nice hideyhole bed. When I checked on them a liitle later, all you could see were eyes, they looked like two little owls. We tried to adopt them out,but they were so shy, people didn’t really get to see them. I brought them home to foster (ya right) and they never left. I named them Pygmy and Gnoma (names for owls) and they were my everything. Gnoma has since passed away, but Pygmy is still with me today. She is my heart, my soul and my smile. It is because of her, and my other cats, that I fought so hard to make it through chemo! Oh, she has also become super social and very silly!

I have 5 cats….all with a different story, but I will share the story of the last 2 to join our family. They are brother & sister twins…who the “people” next door just threw outside when they moved. They said they were coming back for them, so at first I just fed them outside,(it was spring) and they slept on their porch. Days and then weeks past,and it was apparent they weren’t coming back for them, as they kept telling me. I already had 3 cats,wasn’t looking for more. My attempts at finding them another home failed.

When one day one went briefly missing, I panicked, and brought the sissy in the house while weeping for her brother. That night he came home, and brought him inside, and they have been indoor cats ever since. How they stole my heart? Every time I came home and drove in to the driveway,they would run to my yard and as I got out of the car,ran to me and rolled on their backs….couldn’t turn my back at that kind of trust

Late 1995, when I first met Toes (my profile pic) as a kitten and she selected me (though I did not realize it – not understanding cats) even before her 1st owner started to neglect her. He left her behind when he moved and when I moved in to the old room…Toes & I were inseparable.
Kidney failure took her in 2010, but I still have her housemate Marbles with me and we are debating whether a new feline housemate is desirable. Toes taught me all kinds of things about kitty behavior and I continue to miss her…but I am luck to still have her housemate, Marbles a very Tortie kitty gal.

My Munchkin cat was a stray kitten at the recycle center in town. She walked up to me as I was throwing cans into the bin. She got scared off when someone walked to the same area. A few days later, a friend called me to tell me that the ASPCA officer caught her and wanted to know it I wanted her. Of course I said yes and she has been my little baby cat for 13 years now.