I inherited my first cat last December

[TruckFump]

And I was not so sure about this. I spent many years being afraid of cats. My best friend in HS had a cat, Millicent, that would just strike out and bite and scratch for no reason. My first and last experience with a cat. I loved dogs and have had dogs all my life. Even the dog that no one could manage, I got along with just fine.

So, I got a roommate in 2013, Joe, and he passed away last December. He had a cat that he brought with him. A really cute cat, but I kept my distance because I was not sure about "cat creatures."

My dog was not sure either. Well, it will be six months tomorrow that Joe passed and his black and white cat is now a loved, adored and cherished member of my family. It's just the three of us and there is almost enough room on my queen sized bed for all of us to cuddle, sleep, watch TV, and have snack time.

Domino, my kitty love, is elderly, but he gets around just fine. I had to put a small 2-step ladder by the side of the bed for him to get on the bed, but he still jumps off the bed and is very, very quick on his feet...especially when the front door opens. Cat knows the sound of keys in the lock and the doorbell and NEVER fails to alert to these sounds.

I never thought in my life I would love a cat, but Domino changed my mind!!! I now consider myself a true member of the DU cat and dog lovers membership!

Glad I inherited him. I finally saw how great a cat can be.

[rampartc]

1. i have had the remarkable experience of several feline friendships

I am glad that you and domino are getting along.

[TruckFump]

3. He is a boon companion.

Very smart and lovable as all heck!

[rampartc]

5. many people are surprised at how smart they are

most people ate experienced with kittens and young cats. it takes them a few years to catch on, but I find mature cats to be extremely bright.

[TruckFump]

8. IMO, he is exceptionally smart.

He just amazes me some days.

LOL, out of the cat and the dog, I do believe I rate well behind them in native intelligence!

[rampartc]

10. ah, but we do have opposable thumbs.

[Bayard]

2. Good for you!

Cats are just grand!

[TruckFump]

4. I never thought so until I became the sole parent to Domino

My roommate was 88 when he passed and one of his major worries was about who would take care of and love his beloved cat, Domino. Well, I could not re-home Domino. I felt he was too old, had been re-homed once as a young kitty and he was content with me and the dog, Abigail. I took good care of Domino and would always have taken good care of him because of my late roommate.

But...when that kitty got up on my bed, snuggled close, and put his paw on my hand and tried to get me to pet him, that was the start of my love for him. I was so touched by his actions. Great little guy.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. I had a similar experience with my first cat...

It was a rescue kitten and previous experiences with cats did not go well. This kitten bonded with me, and the three cats after that also bonded.

Cats are obviously not dogs, and are not pack animals like dogs are, But they are capable of deep relationships every bit as much as dogs.

[TruckFump]

7. Yes, I totally agree.

Domino is now totally bonded to me and "asks" to get up on my lap. He actually learned the word "down" from my late roommate and is very well behaved. If I am working at my computer and he wants up, I say, "down" and he sits down and waits until I move my chair back to jump up in my lap.

Cute as hell, too. I am trying to figure out how to get a copy of him that I saved from my cell phone posted on this thread.

Edit for typo

[Fla Dem]

11. Kind of a several step process, but you might try this.

This is how I get pictures on my cell phone over to my pc picture files so I can post them.

1. from your cell phone email the photo to your email.

2. Once the email has arrived with the photo save the photo to the Save Pictures file.

3 Go to https://postimages.org/

4.

Click on "Choose Image".

That should open up your Saved Picture file

5. Double click on the picture you saved. That should open up a new window in Postimage.

6. Double click on "Direct Link" option.

7. Copy & Paste Direct Link in your post.

Done

Hope it works for you. Glad you have such a wonderful bond with Domino.

[TruckFump]

12. Thank you!

I shall try that!

[TruckFump]

13. Hoping I did this correctly!

[link:|

WoooooooooooooHoooooooooooooo...thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Scarsdale]

14. What a handsome guy!

Cats really are "cool". They are every bit as loveable as dogs, maybe more so at times. So glad you decided to keep him with you in "his" home and yours.

[TruckFump]

16. Yep, he is a good looking cat.

I am a bit prejudice as to his looks...maybe because it is HIS home!

[pazzyanne]

31. ...and his "tuxedo" doesn't hurt in the looks department either!

I love cats and had them all my life. My Mom had a cat named Boots when she married my Dad. All of her children have cats in their homes, as do her grandchildren. Cats can be addicting!

[TruckFump]

32. LOL! Tuxedo cat!

How perfect for him. Makes me think of Bustifer Jones from Cats!

[FuzzyRabbit]

15. What a beautiful kitty cat!

I love black and white kitties.

Looking at his ears you can tell he wasn't quite sure about having his picture taken.

[TruckFump]

17. He got up on the coffee table and took over the blanket that was the dog's BD gift.

I am thinking that may have been his problem with the pic. Figured I was getting evidence against him!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. Cats are wonderful and weird.

I can't imagine life without them.

[Rebl2]

18. I think

if you spend time with them they warm up to you. I think this especially true with a kitten. If you take the time to play with them and spend time with them they almost won’t leave you alone. We’ve had cats that follow us around and want to know where we are in the house at all times!

[More_Cowbell]

19. You're a wonderful person for doing this

I donate to a few animal shelters, and there are always sad stories about a cat or dog being brought in because the owner died and no one would take the pet.

I'm so glad you're all having fun.

[TruckFump]

21. I just could not re-home him or put him in a shelter.

His owner was my dear friend, a really great guy. I knew that I would take the cat. I just did not think I could come to love my "Kitty Boy" as I do. All my life, I have been a total dog lover. I am really a softy about dogs -- particularly terriers. But...Domino grew on me and I found that I am just crazy about him. I'm not sure if it is just because they are my friends, but my "cat people" friends say he is a very special cat. Very social. My friend who was his owner told me that cats turn out very well if you just talk to them a lot and interact with them -- he loved both cats and dogs and loved my terriers. He raised a wonderful kitty.

I am lucky to have gotten to know my first cat-person.

[maddiemom]

35. Cats also seem to sense more about your state of mind and health than do dogs.

I've had dogs, cats and horses for most of my life and loved them all. Horses, of course, are the most timid, despite their size and ability to harm. Their eyes are set as prey--to the sides of their heads. Dogs' and cats' eyes are set straightforward in front, as predators and carnivores. As a retired senior citizen in an apartment, I only have cats these days---and they need less attention than dogs. Nonetheless over the years I've found a number of my cats are always attuned to when I am sick or feeling down. They tend to hang around and cuddle up, whether or not they are outwardly affectionate in general.

[TruckFump]

36. I never had a horse.

I am terrified of them. I believe that anything that BIG that I am going to travel on MUST have power steering and brakes! This terror most likely arose when I was about 7 and taking riding lessons and the horse ran away with me and I was hurt. Never got back on and never wanted to.

As to my Boy Kitty and Baby Girl Doggy...both are very affectionate. The dog, a terrier, is a bit more aloof -- as terriers can be. She also is only two years old. Boy Kitty is most likely close to 14 and tends to stay close to me unless the front door opens and he can escape. Always comes right back. IMO, this most likely is a game with him.

Love them both and glad they get along.

[maddiemom]

39. Your riding instructor ( I've been one myself) should have been shot.

You didn't need to continue riding lessons, but how badly were you hurt? That would never happen in the first place with a competent instructor. If you were seriously hurt or just got hysterical ( not unlikely at seven), you should have been encouraged, given a little time, to climb back on, even to just sit, or get used to the pony or older, super calm horse that you should have been on. You didn't need to seriously learn to ride, but ending up "terrified" of horses is inexcusable. Many children at one time or another want to ride a horse/have a pony. Over the years I've helped a number of friends' kids to try riding. Most get it out of their systems. Good if they can have the chance to try! BTW, as with any animal (including humans), some horses can just be psycho.sadly. Most horses however, no matter their size, are instinctively aware they are "prey, rather than predators, and strike out if needed.

[TruckFump]

41. I fell off the horse and my foot was caught in the stirrup.

Ankle was badly twisted, but not broken, and I was dragged through brush -- lots of scratches and cuts and full of dirt. They did not put me back on because I was rushed to the ER for treatment because they thought my ankle was broken. Something spooked the horse, I guess. Never found out because I would have eaten broken glass covered with shit before I ever got near a horse again.

I have avoided being near horses at all possible costs since that accident. What is odd, I love the harness races, but I cannot go to any race where there are riders on the horses. I think it's a fear that the rider will fall off and the horse will drag him.

[maddiemom]

43. A very bad experience which could happen to any rider not wearing proper boots or solid heels.

Please tell tell me you weren't wearing tennis shoes. Whatever you were wearing on your feet, you should never have been out on any horse that wasn't quiet enough to be nearly comatose.( SEVEN years old? You should have been in a ring) .Harness racing takes a whole lotta.other handling, but a horse is a horse...

[TruckFump]

44. Wow, this happened over 60 years ago.

I know it was English riding lessons. I think, but not sure, I had on some kind of boots. The horse was standing by the stables and the next thing, it was off and running like crazy. There was a patch of trees and natural ground cover close by and that is where the horse was headed.

[demigoddess]

20. if you had met our cat Tonto you would have been a cat person

long ago. He came when I whistled, he loved to ride in cars, he played a game with my daughter who is retarded and let her win. He would watch birds just inches from his face and not attack them. And he visited me after he died. I think he is in heaven on the right hand of God.

[TruckFump]

22. Wow...

...that is some cat! I gotta say, I feel the same way about my Scottish Terrier I lost in October 2017. So, I understand!

[maddiemom]

37. Yes!. Cats usually do come when called (and know their names) if they are familiar with their home

territory. I'm curious as to how Tonto visited you after he died. Our cats often sat on the outside sill of our large living room window when they wanted back inside. Tasha, a much loved cat, who was very careful about crossing the lightly traveled road we lived on across from a golf course, where she liked to hunt, was struck by a car which had obviously swerved to deliberately hit her. About six months later, I went downstairs, for some reason, after going to bed. Our dog followed me. As I passed the living room window, a cat identical to Tasha was sitting in the usual place on the outside window sill. I froze, but our dog, just trotted blithely by. A strange cat would have sent him into a frenzy. I stopped in the next room, totally freaked. It took a few seconds before I turned around and went back. The cat was gone and I actually called out the front door, uselessly. Over many years, inevitably losing many much loved "animal companions," nothing else like this ever happened to me.

[demigoddess]

38. I feel ghosts, I do not see them. I was asleep one afternoon

when exhausted. I felt him on the back of my legs kneading me, like he usually did. It woke me up enough the second time that I thought "but we don't have a cat" then I felt weight come down on me and more kneading, I was freaked so got up and went into another room.

sorry to hear how your cat died. Tonto died because he laid under the tire of a neighbor's car. the horrible creature of a man drove over him. He was 16 years old and was slowing down a lot so maybe it was his time. But the neighbor probably took pleasure in it. He hated women.

[maddiemom]

40. Actually, I've had some of those same sensations you mentiion:

Usually while falling asleep,
.
.

[demigoddess]

46. the others I was awake. One cat we had would visit me every

morning. Every morning he would lay along my leg in bed while my husband dressed for work. After he died he would also come and do that, I could feel his warmth and his purring, then one morning, I felt him sit up and hop across the bed to meet another of our cats who he had been best buddies with, and they bounded off together and I haven't felt either of them since. So I have been visited by 3 cats. Ones who have died while they were with us. All adopted as adult cats. Call me crazy but I have been visited by both my fathers also.

[Mme. Defarge]

23. This is on my favorite cocktail napkins.

😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻

[TruckFump]

24. That's really cute!

Looks like it's from the 1950s. Very cool.

[Mme. Defarge]

25. Well, so am I -

from the ‘50’s & ‘60’s.

[Hoyt]

26. Was always a dog person, even badly allergic to cats, until my FIL left us his cat.

Didn't take long to become an admirer and servant.

Still love to roll in the grass and rub a dog's belly, but cats are it for me now. So cool, and easy to care for. I have the scars to prove you can't bathe cats, though, and they get really grumpy if you neglect their box.

[JudyM]

27. Great love story and handsome cat!

[Karadeniz]

28. Congratulations on becoming pet bipartisan! More to love!❤

[MFM008]

29. I detested cats

Then one came around my apartment and was so sweet.
Now i have 3 little deplorables.
🐱🐱🐱

[Rhiannon12866]

30. I inherited my first cat back in 2000.

When my uncle died, I agreed to adopt his two cats to prevent his unpleasant wife from dropping them off at some shelter. The one I'd never met before turned out to be the best cat I'll ever know, so pretty and friendly and she loved my two dogs. Her name was Rhiannon.

[Demovictory9]

33. yay!! great story

[TruckFump]

34. Thanks.

He's been reading on "his" page and thanked me for the profile picture!

[3catwoman3]

45. I have long believed that people who say/think they don't like cats...

...have just not met the right one. I had a cat many years ago who was such an interesting character that he won over many people. One was my uncle, with whom we stayed for a couple of nights on our way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to my husband’s Air Force assignment at K I Sawyer AFB.

I remember my uncle very clearly saying, “I don’t like cats, but I like THIS cat.

How delightful that you and Domino are enjoying each other. One of our 3 is a “tuxie,” and has many endearing behaviors. Her name is Chessie, because of her black and white coloring.

Besides being called tuxedos, black and white cats are also known as “cow cats,” because their markings are like Holstein cows.

[catrose]

47. I'm so glad for you and Domino!

I work with a cat rescue, and we've had several senior cats come our way this week because the owner died or went into a nursing home. Domino got to stay in the home he was used to! Lucky boy! And you're a great person.