Most of ours have been planned except my first cat and one of the dogs we had. The cat was a kitten of my mum's cat who escaped before she'd been spayed. Indy lived to 16 and had a heart attack at the vets as they wanted a blood sample from her. Think that was one of the hardest drives I'd ever had- back home with her body in the cat carrier. I'd had her for more than half my life and it was really odd with no Indy around looking down on me.

We've always lived in rural areas so had at least one terrier to keep the rats down. Our last terrier died so my parents went to an RSPCA shelter to get another as they had a litter of JRT's in. My Mum doesn't really like dogs, but she hates rats even worse (apologies rat lovers). While they were there a skinny black puppy came and sat on her feet. My Mum got talking to the woman who ran the shelter who said she'd been there for 12 weeks and was going to be put down because she wasn't gaining weight and was ill. So my Mum picked her up and said she'd have her. Got her to a vets the next day and she had really bad gastroenteritis. A good few courses of antibiotics later she started putting on weight and looking healthy. Lived to a decent age too.

I never expected to have a pet cat, I didn't even like cats much - but our cat was very very insistent about moving in with us. Every time I opened the door she'd run in, and she'd sit outside crying all night. A friend housesat for me one weekend and when I came back the cat was on the sofa, and my friend berated me for not having left any catfood for her!

ooh your a meany - but at least you come round eventually

fate- my dog suzy (who is now 8 yrs old ) walked out in front of my sisters car and collapsed on the road.. she was approx 1 yr old , being chased by several male dogs. we noticed she had a bad back leg and could not walk. we thought she had been hit by a car.. cutting a long story short.. she had severe arthritis the vet said, from not being feed properly as a pup or had been lying on hard concrete for her first year.. this I would believe as she would "wet" the floor when you open back door. she is the best dog I ever had, mix of rottweiller and black labrador, so friendly and had been on arthritis mediction and injections for the last yrs with good and bad days - despite pain in her legs she still always is so happy, she is a def a womans best friend!!

We have 1 dog Candela and 5 cats,
all were gained by fate, when we moved to Spain the female cat was living wild in the garden, she used to scavange at the bins so started feeding her, she then had kittens, now we had few more, but her and I were great friends by then, some kittens dies so the remaining three and mum were nutered, so 4 cats, all still with us. Then Candela was found wandering in the campo, countryside to you, byt a friend and eventualy at 4 yrs old ended up with us, she had been lose for 9 months and was in a bad state, the Cid I think have written about before, he joined us last year.

But this is it no more pets too difficult for us to go away.

love them all to bits mind you

i grew up with dogs.

but my first cat found me when i was a student... she moved herself in and that was that.

later, another cat found us. he broke our cat flap several times, so determined was he to move in with us.

That's adorable!

Fate. When we were kids my and my sister were camping out in the garden in a tent, and one night something woke me up, there was definately something in the tent with us - it scared the life out of us - it was a black cat. We shooed it out. Later it came back. We shooed it out again, we had never been close to a cat before and we terrified of this little black beast that insisted on moving in with us. Looking back on it now the cat was very patient with us, she didn't lose it or hiss or spit she was very calm and non threatening, so much so that I grew fascinated with this beautiful black ball of fur and decided to fetch some milk for it, and pestered my mother for some cat biscuits, and my fear gradually drained away - she ended up moving in with us. We later found she belonged to the woman who lived over the road but as she moved away she said keep it as it spent more time with us than with her - so we did. Years later she never came home, we think she was run over - I must have been that upset that my mother got us another cat, and he turned out to be the greatest cat who ever lived, and me and my sister have been confirmed cat people ever since - my mother, who grew up with dogs is a dog person, though she doesn't mind them. I think she adopted the cats for our sake.

She later had a dog after my parents separated and although he was a great dog, I'm still a cat person at heart.

we have always had cats and my Mum decided that the nursing home she worked in needed one so she took one of the residents with her and they chose a cat he was lovely they called him Winston after Winston Churchill and the residents middle name was Winston. She got another to keep him company called Churchill but he was too boisterousso one of the other members of staff took him home. When Winston died she got another called Spencer he was also lovey and then she Clemmie(Clementine) but her and Spencer didn't get on and as she is blind in one eye the residents were going up to too quickly and she was being neurotic so my Mum brought her home to see if she would settle down as she had got stuck in the cat flap and Spencer wouldn't let her out and she had turned into a right cow. She came home and only my younger brother and I could get close to her, then one night I woke up and found her asleep on bed next to my pillow, she had climbed up a tree onto the balcony and then jumped up onto the window ledge and though the small window. She came in at night that way every night, some mornings I would wake up and find her under the duvet Spencer ended up coming home to us as well when the Nursing home closed down and they tolerated each other, she slept next to him the night before we had him put to sleep. It was always said that Clemmie was my cat she hated everyone else except my younger brother and partner, so when my partner and I moved out the cat came. Now when everyone comes round she is the biggest tart and is all over them like rash.

Fate I'd say. I was with my ex at the time and she wanted to get a kitten whereas I didn't and kept saying no.But she kept on and on and eventually I said ok. A couple of years later we went to a pet shop for something, I was looking around and I instantly fell in love with a kitten and I practically begged my ex to get him

Now shes gone and I still got my 2 boys

Fate.

A woman at work knew I loved cats but my OH was never really keen. Her sister in law was involved in animal rescue and had a litter of semi feral cats to rehome.

She asked me if i'd be interested in taking the mother and one kitten. I was apprehensive as I'd never cared for a cat in my adult life. Anyway, convinced the OH, but we got two of the kittens (think they hadn't got homes for all the litter when we adopted so they decided to keep the mammy with them).

4 yrs later - boy is on my lap at the moment doing his kneading and purring like mad. Girl is snuggled up in the hot press happy as larry.

They're are not the most domesticated - quite feisty and don't like strangers - still some feral in them. They love us though. Wouldn't be without them.

After we got our dog put down my parents didn't want anymore pets really, but then I wanted another pet a few years later so we found a puppy then.

Our dog choc lab Oscar was planned got him at 8 weeks he's now nearly 6.

Our cat mr pip was planned we got him from cpl when Oscar was 3 they adore each other.

Our other cat was very unplanned we went to Dorset 2 years ago with Oscar and living outside the cottage was a lovely black cat who used to come in everyday for food...fast forward a week and she was in a cat box in the car coming home with us.

She really is the best holiday reminder we could ever have got,she gives us so much love laughs every day.we decided to call her billie Holliday ...

My Mother was knocked down by a van but it was thought she had no serious injury. The following Monday my cat Gemma passed aged 17. Then on the Friday my Mother took a turn for the worse and her cat Misty came to me.
Tragically, Mum passed away, so Misty has been with me ever since. What a comfort she has been, I call her my little angel.

Sadly I had to have my little girl put to sleep a couple of weeks ago . She had kidney disease and hadn't been eating properly for months. She stopped eating altogether about four days before and she was just wasting away. As hard a decision as it was, it was the right thing to do. She's not suffering anymore.

I've got a new companion now. A 5 year old big white bruiser of a girl from a cat sanctuary . She's had a bit of an unsettled recent past but she's making herself at home now. Her original owners emigrated and passed her on to a relative. The relative had dogs and as she doesn't get on with them she was passed on to the cat sanctuary. She was there for two weeks then I got her. She could never replace my previous cat, but it's nice having a feline around the place again.

awh, that's awful about your old cat but i'm glad you've found another one -you're right its nice having them round and cats make a home imho - i love opening our gate and the cat jumping off the window to greet me.

Thanks asp . I really miss that old cat but it was horrible when there was no cat here. The new one's settling in nicely though .

She's not got around to greeting me when I come home (apart from once) but she reminds me when it's time to get her breakfast. Lie-ins are a thing of the past I think .

I agree. Cats really do make a home .

Sounding good with the new puss, Gabbitas. Our borrowed cat was just inflicted on us. A friend of my son's from school asked him! who no longer lives here! if we'd look after a cat for a year whilst they were in Dubai. Railroaded into catsitting for a year. She's a fluffy back thing, and is no trouble, though it's difficult to know how much affection to lavish on her, assuming we are handing her back in 10 months time. I wonder how big an assumption that is. The 2 Maine Coons are not over the moon about it all, but they get by. Leo would like to be friends, but new cat is having none of it. How she can resist his advances I don't know, it's possibly his only failure.

Mine was a stray. He just walked in and no-one knew who he belonged to and he wasn't chipped and was semi feral.

Thanks MAW. She's doing well, but I appreciate it'll take time for her to fully be at ease. She's come on leaps and bounds since the first day though.

I hope it's not too much of a wrench assuming you have to give your borrowed cat back. You're bound to grow attached after ten months. I'm sure your Maine Coons will be fine with her once the pecking order is established and understood by all parties. Maybe she and Leo will end up being best pals .

I think our little cat coming to us was just fate. He was just sat next to my car one day so I went out to see If he would come over. I was crouched down with my hand out and he slowly walked over and touched my fingers with his nose. He then litteraly threw him self on the floor and started rolling round. I scratched his belly and after a minute or so he jumped up and walked to the front door and sat waiting to be let in. That was about 3 years ago and he hasn't left since.

All my pets have been planned, but when my wife was living with her parents (when we got together) and one their neighbours had 'adopted' a cat that had just turned up one day and decided to stay (since then there have been two more they've adopted LOL). The neighbours already had two cats, and the view was one more wasn't really an issue.

The odd bit was that the adopted cat, Lily, also decided to timeshare between the neighbours house, and my wife's parents' house. She decided to come in one day, made herself at home on my wife's bed and stayed. This seemed to start a bit of a trend as the other two that have been adopted (their original two cats have since passed away), have been time sharing between the two houses.

Max (a black cat that looks like a mini panther with vampire fangs), has actually set up shop more or less permanently with her parents (although he does tend to pop over the fence to see the neighbours). It seems to be like those two houses are just like a little cat sanctuary as other cats occasionally appear and then disappear a few days later, and then come back to visit. So, I guess it's definitely fate in their case.

All 4 are fate!

I was living in Cyprus and my neighbors called me over one day handed a white bundle to me and said "do you want it if not we will take him to the farm" euphemism for something far more sinister I suspect. So I was now the proud owner of Max a 3 month old Pointer x Beagle Cyprus Hunting Dog.

Took Max to the beach for a walk a couple of weeks later and he went off for a run and came back with Muttley a Collie x lord only knows what pup that came home with us.

A year later I was driving out of the village one evening when I saw a very small pup standing at the side of the road, I opened my car door and it jumped into the car and onto my lap and that is how Molly a jack russell x Beagle came to me.

When I left Cyprus all three went into kennells for a month then joined me in Holland, my plane ticket was under 200 euro's and I am not even going to tell you what theirs was But no way were they not coming with me.

4 years on and they are now used to a life of central heating and dog walking parks however at the first sign of sunshine all three are out in the garden collectively boiling their brains.

My horse I bought in Holland,never intended to at all, I went with a friend to look at a horse and to test ride it for her, she took one look at it and went no thanks but asked me to test ride it anyhow as she was too embarrassed to say she didn't want him as he was ugly. I test rode him, fell in love, charged about looking for somewhere to keep him and collected him 48 hours later, never regretted it he is a total star and has been far more successful than the very pretty horse she bought a couple of months later