Do you remember your first cat? ?

My first cat was a tabby called Marshall! I was about 7 or 8, when Mum brought her home. I wanted a dog, but Dad was adamant that was a no no.

The local vicar visited Mums workplace and told her his cat had kittens and would she like one. Mum said she would have the black and white one. When she went to collect only the Tabby was left. She was disappointed but took her anyway. She didnt tell Dad!

Apparently he was silent all evening until around 9pm when he asked 'who is going to look after it'? Mum said, 'oh cats look after theirselves'!

She was quite spoiled Mum only fed her stewing steak or tinned shrimps. The odd time she gave her tinned cat food, she gagged!

She lived until she was 18 (I had long left home then). Apparently after they took her to the Vets, even Dad shed a tear!

The main cat I remember from childhood was a black and white one called Kitty who followed me to the end of the lane each morning before I crossed the road and went down the hill to school.

When I was eight, I had a kitten which I called Tosh! My mother volunteered for the RSPCA so he came via one of their contacts. He was tabby with a white front and paws. He was a real character and could open every internal door in our house. He was very happy to be handled and would lie in my arms like a baby. His favourite place to sleep was under my candlewick (remember those?) bedspread! I had left home 12 years before his demise at the age of 20! I’m away from home otherwise I’d find a photo of him to post.

I see cats on roofs round here, especially now people have tiled conservatory ones. Stanley sounds a character Fanny.

My first cat was called Tibby - I named her - and I was 3 years old. She was a kitten from my married brother’s cat who had a litter, and they lived 2 houses away from our family home.

I begged mum and dad for one of the kittens. I must have been a real nuisance knocking on my Sister in law’s door every day asking if I could play with the kittens.

I still have a photo of me with Tibby. She is curling her tail up against my leg and we’re in mum’s garden. She was black with a white bib and feet. I was just knee-high-to-a-grasshopper as the saying goes and the photograph was one of those tiny black+white ones about 3 inches square.

My first cat was Pollyanna, who was mainly white, I think. I was about 4 at the time, and I don't think she lasted a year - we lived on the busy A25, long before the M25 took some of the traffic away.

At primary school the headmistress had a large black cat called Binky. Getting the apostrophe right in 'Binky's paws' was a necessary step, given that he would come in with wet feet and walk all over your and my open exercise books during lessons!

Thanks everyone!
Jan I genuinely lolled at your memory of Marshall gagging on cat food.
They're such drama queens!

Fanny I think I would have gagged too. The cat food in the 60's looked and smelt evil! Kit E Kat I think it was called!

My first cat was a tuxedo called Whisky. I must only have been about 3 when he arrived. He was very tolerant and used to let me dress him up and put him in my doll's pram. Sadly he disappeared when he was 4 and we never saw him again.

He was the family cat. A stray that arrived and liked what he found. Then he disappeared for months, until my Mum saw him across the street and called to him. He came and stayed for the rest of his life. He never had a proper name - we called him Puss. He would come in my bedroom window during the night and I'd find him curled up on my feet in the morning.

Nope, never had pets!

FannyCornforth - I, too , read the thread as "first cat" - was delighted to see that there actually was one further down.
Had a cat in my extreme youth called -of all things - Spanky ! I don't remember him much but when my children were old enough to be "responsible" we got two Oriental cats. They were clever and devious and one lived to the ripe old age of 17. Had more Orientals but now have a ten year old rescued moggie . Decided it was kinder to give an unwanted cat a good home rather than have more pedigrees. This one is bone idle and has cost me a fortune in vet's bills but I wouldn't change him.

Funnily enough, Mum was only talking about Marshall yesterday! We lived in the grounds of the Council County Highways (house went with Dad's job). One day in the yard, she saw Marshall chasing a mouse, who in turn was being chased by a dog! A video opportunity missed! Apparently Marshall abandoned the mouse chase to run for safety herself!

Another time I was visiting with my then 2 year old DS. He was tormenting the cat a bit so she went to go outside. It was snowing heavily. After much thinking, she decided she would face the toddler rather than the snow!

Thank you Fanny for instigating these memories.

My parent were offered a wonderful house on a new housing estate back in 1950. We had been living in the four attic rooms - many flights of stairs - very damp, and my mother had a life long heart problem, Nothing much to take with, but as my Dad was bagging up the coal in the shed, many flights down in the back garden, he noticed that one of the many feral cats had a litter. He managed to catch one of these kittens and brought it back up stairs.. I was so delighted and cherished that tiny creature. Just called 'Tabby'.

As it grew it became very tame and even used to permit me and my friends put on it some of our dolls clothes and take it around in our dolls pram. When it got fed up with us it would just jump out.

We had a black cat called Jimmy when I was very young and what I remember most about him was that he sadly died young after being run over by a lorry, and I saw him with his head bashed in.
After a couple of years I was given a beautiful tortoishell kitten who I called Tinker Bell as I was heavily into Peter Pan by then. She lived for many years.
I have never had a cat since, although I plan to when Wiggy goes to bird heaven.

Ooh henetha, what is Wiggy?

Yes we were given one by a family that lived on a small holding near us, we went to look and she said we could take him there and then. We brought him home and named him Tiger.
Poor thing I’d thought he was small, but when we took him to the vet he was only 4 weeks old. We never really got on with him he was very nervous, and used to bite the dc and anybody else come to that.
He disappeared a year later, never found him. We’ve since had another one, much more placid, she lived until she was 12 ,the dc then in their twenties were heartbroken, even my dh who s nervous around animals shed a tear. No pets now, but Dil has 3 cats .

Hello FC. Wiggy is a cockatiel, a rare one. They are usually grey with orange cheeks, but she is white all over except for little black markings around her chest. Also she was hand tamed so climbs all over me, pecking me gently! She belongs to one of my granddaughters. I looked after Wiggy when she went to university, but I've had her ever since, almost ten years now.
Granddaughter's life moved on and she now lives in Ireland.
So Wiggy is here for keeps.

My first cat was called Tibby,Died in my arms at the age of 22, never went to the vet, never had any sort of commercial catfood lived off scraps from the table....?

Both sets of my grandparents called every single one of their cats Tibby

The if they talked about them it would be 'oh was that Tibby 1 or Tibby 2'
'no I think it was Tibby 3 actually'
'are you sure it wasn't Tibby 6'
Then other people in our family started having cats and calling them Tibby!

If this only happened in my family, it is very outing

My husbands Aunt had a thing about calling her dogs Jake too. This is very much like the Richard Richards thing isn't it?!!

Oh gosh lots of Tibby's appearing on this thread also

We had a beautiful grey cat with green eyes when I was very small -aged about 3 and she was my shadow. Even used to sit on the piano stool behind me at meal times ( I had to sit on that to be high enough to reach the table). Her official name was "Smokey" but I always called her "Chimney" (as smoke went up the chimney) and that soon got shortened to "Chimmy".

On the day my younger brother was in process of being born, at home, I was sent to a neighbours for the day, aged 6, and collected that evening by my eldest sister. Unbeknownst to me, the baby had been born at 3.20pm and at 3.30pm Chimmy had jumped from the field wall, opposite our house, straight into the hourly service bus and was killed outright.

I didn't find out immediately but eventually asked Mum where Chimmy was and she asked me if I wouldn't rather have my new baby brother. I said an emphatic no to that so she had to tell me that Chimmy was no more and in fact was buried in the garden. One sad little 6-year old!

We have had many cats in our lives since then and I have loved them all.

My first cat was a pretty ginger kitten which Dad named Spanker as he batted his paws about. I was about 5 or 6. He disappeared, I was very upset, don’t know if he wandered or got run over.

(Not sure if his name is PC nowadays, probably not!)

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Calendargirl

My first cat was a pretty ginger kitten which Dad named Spanker as he batted his paws about. I was about 5 or 6. He disappeared, I was very upset, don’t know if he wandered or got run over.

(Not sure if his name is PC nowadays, probably not!)

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My first cat was Tibby, too. We had several cats after her but I don’t remember any going to the vet, or certainly not on a regular basis. Tinned food came in later and it was called Kit-e-Kat. No injections for these cats but they seemed to thrive quite well.