Welcome to Gaia! ::

We have three cats now, and I love them all dearly, but one of our cats (who I literally found starving on the side of the road in the rain, and weeks of trying to find his owner yielded nothing, so he's secretly kind of my favourite; all our kitties are rescues, but Dmitri is the only one we actually found dying in the street ourselves, and I was the one who found him and carried him home, so we have an extra-special bond) seems to just absorb all the good smells on our flat and none of the bad ones.

I realise that cats are generally pretty clean animals, and our other cats don't smell bad or anything, but Dmitri always smells like incense or hookah tobacco (which for those of you who don't know smells nothing like normal tobacco or cigarette smoke; it smells like whatever flavour it is, like peach or strawberry or chocolate mint) or scented candles. Whatever nice scent he was last around. And he seems immune to absorbing smells like cigarette smoke or garlic or that after-smell that lingers after cooking salmon. It's awesome. He's the world's most adorable air freshener.

Whenever I've had a bad day or just a long day, I love hugging him and burying my nose in his fur. I'm slightly allergic to cats, so this usually makes my eyes itchy and watery, but it's so worth it. He has such velvety-soft fur and he always smells awesome. He's also a sweetheart and is usually the most tolerating of excessive cuddles of all our cats. He'll frequently fall asleep in my arms or on my lap. And he's so cute. He has white tuxedo markings, except his body is blue-grey instead of black.

Our other cats are Coda, who is a gorgeous blue Abyssinian that we adopted from an animal shelter. I don't know how such a gorgeous, obviously well-bred cat ended up in a shelter, but I guess someone found her pregnant on the street and brought her in. She had her kittens in the shelter and everyone was tripping over each other trying to get one of her four kittens (who were, admittedly, criminally adorable), but we didn't want to deal with the extra maintenance of raising a kitten, so we adopted the mamma kitty. She's young (she's about three now, she was about a year old when we got her, so she was kind of the feline equivalent of a teenage mother) and really spunky and playful. She's adorable and she knows it. She's the princess of the castle. She's really sweet, though. She loves to groom everyone, including people. She'll lick your hand and arm for ages if you let her. The worst is when I'm sleeping and my bare feet are exposed, and she starts licking my feet. I have really ticklish feet, so it never fails to freak me out waking up to the cat licking my toes. She'll also groom the other cats until they get annoyed with her. Maybe she has cat OCD.

The first cat we got is really more my partner's cat, Hermes. He's white with black spots, like a cow. We found him when we moved into a flat we lived in a few years ago. His previous owners had just left him behind, but the neighbours had been leaving food and water out for him, so he'd stuck around. Henry, my partner, has always liked cats (I seriously was NOT a cat person until we got Hermes), so he decided we'd keep him. He's a really chill, mellow cat. He likes to watch television and movies. Or at least, it seems like he does. Whenever we're watching something, he always settles down in front of us and stares intently at the screen until whatever we're watching is over.



What about you guys? Do you have any pets and if so, do you have any pets that are just extra special for some reason? Do you prefer to rescue pets when you can, or do you get them from breeders or pet stores? Have any cute/funny/interesting stories to share about your pet(s)?


I think we may have already had a pet thread in the past, if it ever existed, it was a long time ago and we have a lot of new members since then, so I'm making another one.

I currently have four cats. I lost my dog when I was 14 and I swore to myself that I'd never get another pet because losing them just hurts too much, but one day my mom fetched me from school and there was a little cat in the backseat. Turns out that she had rescued it from being kicked around by the kids in her school (my mom's a teacher). I was initially reluctant to the idea, but I warmed up to the new addition to our family in no time at all.

One of my cats is particularly endearing. He's a black-greyish tabby called Magician (not that he actually performs magic tricks, but watch a show called Breaking the Magician's Code and you'll see what I mean, My cat has the same markings on his face as the magician's mask) and he's the biggest cat in the house. He's a gentle giant though...despite his size, he just loves to snuggle up to people and settle down on our laps (although he half hangs out because he's too big). And if you're lounging on your chair and have your fingers and toes dangling out, watch out as he'll instantly make a beeline for them and rub up against them! Magician's also a sucker for belly rubs.