It has been 5 of years since we have had a cat and It has been even longer ( 20 years) since we have had a house cat. On the farm outdoor cats are good because they do a nice job of keeping mice out of the barn. Mice chew the baling twine that keeps bales of hay together making every cat a welcome guest if you want nice rows of hay all winter. But house cats are usually a luxury on a farm. They really serve no purpose other than companionship and that is usually the dogs roll beyond the other jobs they perform. So when we moved off the farm and into a subdivision we had no inside animals at all, a cat seemed like a perfect choice for Christopher. We still have our bunnies but this pet can sleep and play with Christopher now that Tom is away more these days.
I spent off and on about two months looking at different ideas about what kind of cat to get and where to get it from. Not a surprise to my husband,that I always seemed to come back to the idea of adoption of an unwanted pet. I could have gotten Christopher a kitten or a fancy pure bred but the cost was high and I really didn’t want a tiny baby that Christopher would not be able to care for on his own. I am hoping that having a cat will teach some responsibility lessons to him also.
So I found myself looking again and again at kittens on the local animal shelter sites. So the weekend that Tom had to leave town he said it would be fine to go look at cats at the shelter and we found that perfect kitty for Christopher. The front one in the photo is the one Christopher choose from about 10 cats and kittens that day. She is soooo friendly and curious.
So over the next day I got supplies and food for a nice female Domestic Short hair that Christopher named Jinn or Jinni depending on the day. He was so excited when he got home from school to find her waiting for him. If I did not know better, I would have thought that this cat had another “boy” at her old home. Their interaction was amazing to watch. It was as if she had not seen him in days and wanted nothing more than to spend time with her long-lost “boy”. She would not leave his side from the minute he got home to the time he went to bed. She loves him and he loves her and they seem to bring out the best in each other.
Jinn just turned a year old on St Patrick’s day so she is still very young and playful. She reminds me of my child hood cat who I had the pleasure of spending 13 long years with at my child hood home.
We all have had a pet in our lives that we loved, mine was a tiny long-haired tabby cat, named Princess. She was loyal and loving through every stage of my young life and I can only hope that Jinn can give Christopher the same experience of love I got when I was 6 and my mother brought home my first kitten.My husband has the same feeling about a farm Collie that he named King. He lived 15 wonderful years on the farm and was my husbands best friend.
Do any of you have pet memories that have lasted a life time? Were they with Dogs, Cats or other pets? Let me know I would love to write more about our pet memories one day.
Mountain Mama Reads and Writes 
She’s so pretty. I’m glad they have hit it off so well. Enjoy!
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I so enjoyed your post. I not only love that you got a shelter pet but you picked one that was not a baby. It is hard to pick a favorite but I think it would the the cat we adopted when she was five, because her new blended family had an asthmatic child, and the child who had had what was to be our cat for 5 years had to give her up. We had her for nearly 17 years and she was a loving gem and I still miss her.
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We have had several dogs over the years that needed new homes but this is the first cat. I think we got a good one also. Thanks for the comment Jolynn
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About 18 years ago, someone dumped four puppies on our farm. We gave one to my brother-in-law, but no one else wanted the other three. They weren’t the prettiest dogs you ever saw, but they were the most devoted, and the best friends you could ever want. All three lived until they were 12 and 13 years old. They were good farm dogs. I still miss them.
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