Oh my gosh, I loved this story (pdf here) about an agency that helps troops bring home the stray animals they “adopt” while serving overseas! It was so heart warming to read how the animals provide a sense of normalcy when the troops are there, and serve as a connection to the country their tour was in when they bring them back to their home country. Definitely read it if you want to feel all warm and fuzzy! Ha ha.
Reading that made me think of Data’s adoption story, which is obviously NOTHING like that, but I realized, has never been shared in a blog post*! So, horrible segue be damned, here it is!
When I was in college in Iowa, and was still two years away from moving to Chicagoland to be with Steven, we’d talk about what kind of pet we’d like to have, when we lived together.
Steven had never had a pet cat before (and I had), but for whatever reason, we decided we’d like to have a gray cat someday. Apparently, I mentioned this to my friend Kelsey, because when she saw a gray cat roaming around her neighborhood in early February 2005, she called me to tell me about it! I went over to meet Data for the first time!
Doesn’t Data look different than he does now?
Data was friendly, looked well fed, and didn’t have front claws, so we thought maybe he was an abandoned house cat. I sent pictures to Steven and told him about Data and was all “OMG IT’S A SIGN WE MUST ADOPT THIS CAT!”
And at first, Steven was like, “Um… no.” But for whatever reason, he warmed up to the idea, and said yes. Maybe it was that I said we could name him Data (after the Star Trek character)? Or the fact that I had to leave very soon for a trip to New York City and we had to decide what to do with Data, because he kept going back to my friend’s apartment.
So we took Data to the local shelter. He was required to stay there a week, to see if whoever ditched him ever looked for him (they didn’t), and to make sure he was healthy/give him shots/etc.
Unfortunately, I was still in NYC when the week long time frame ended and he was officially up for adoption, so I had Andrew and his wife pick up Data. The shelter had named him Chip, which we thought was funny – Data Chip! And when Andrew and his wife went to pick up Data and took some time checking out the other cats for fun, he reminded them they were there for him by sticking his arm out of the cage and bopping them on the head! Ha ha.
Data stayed with them for a few days until I got back. And got his first (and only!) bath and loved up on their cats.
I got back from NYC on Valentine’s Day and picked Data up immediately! I was so excited to have him! He lived in my apartment for five days (which was so fun for me!) until Steven and I met in Iowa the following weekend, so he could take Data home!
First family photo!
And Steven and Data have been besties ever since. Ha ha. Actually, it took Steven awhile to get used to having a cat in the house, since he never had one around before, but it didn’t take long for them to get used to each other, and become wonderful companions!
Data never lets me forget that he’s lived in our house longer than me. Ha ha, when I first moved in, I felt like I was ruining their boys club! That’s why I spoil him so much… so he’ll like me as much as Steven. Yeah, that’s it! Hee hee!
If you have a pet, where are they from?
*But has been shared here from which I am totally copying.
I love hearing adoption stories 🙂 and Data Chip lol it’s like it was meant to be 🙂
You and Steven look like babies in that first family photo!
CB came from the Greenville, SC humane society in March 2005. Walked into the puppy room and my eyes went instantly to him in a little cage. It was love at first sight for both of us 🙂
It was SO meant to be!
Gosh, I know, we really do! Nutso!
Aww! Man, CB is well traveled! 😀
AWHHHHHHHHH I love this story….
My husband secretely researched getting our golden retriever (Sammy) for me a couple months after Sophia turned 1 as I was still struggling with PPD pretty bad. We picked him up when he was about 8 weeks old, and he’s had his paws wrapped around my heart every since.
Aww, I love that he went to all that secretive work! 😀
Awww, I hate to think of little Data roaming the streets without a home. So glad he has such a fantastic life with you guys. He is such an amazing cat. He reminds me a bit of my former cat Frankie just in being so personable. That sense that Data is a little person in a fur suit, which is what Frankie seemed like. As though he could easily enter our conversations but he chose not to!
Aww, thank you! And yep, that is EXACTLY what he is like! I love how you put it – “a little person in a fur suit.” Ha ha!
You know, I don’t know if I ever made the connection that Data was a stray before you guys got him! That is such a sweet story!
Aw, Data Potata! So lucky for both of you to have found each other. 🙂
I am not sure if I’ve ever told you this story? My roommate and I wanted a pet, and cats were the most reasonable for city living. We went to a local shelter I had been referred to by a friend, did the whole interview, and were led into “the kitten room.” Bastet (who was Jane at the time) hopped right up on my lap as soon as I sat down and fell asleep. She was so cute anyway (we really liked tabbies!) that I took it as a sign.
Well, as we’re getting ready to fill out the paperwork, the adoption counselor let us know she and her sister Amelia (now Beatrice) were the last two of their litter (Mama was dropped at the shelter while pregnant, and the 4 boys had already been adopted out) and it would be really nice if we could take both of them… without hesitation, we agreed!
Hard to believe that was 14 years ago this month. Wow!!
Aww! I hadn’t heard your story! Thanks for sharing it! That is awesome you were able to take them both 🙂 And that Bastet let you know you were hers. Hee hee.
I never knew Data’s story before! I love it though!! I think it’s fantastic that Data has a great home now!!
=^..^=
Aww, what a sweet story! I love rescue pets. Our cat is a neighborhood stray that just sort of showed up one day and never really left. Our dog is adopted from a shelter.
Aww! That is great you took your cat in! 🙂 And adopted your dog 🙂
You all look so cute in that last picture – and so young! Loved hearing Data’s story…he is such a gorgeous cat.
Ha ha ha! Thanks! I can’t get over how young we look in that photo. Craziness!
I adopted Olive from my best friend Genevieve. She adopted Olive when she was a kitten, and Gen’s daughter named her “Chewie” because she kept sneezing (“a choo”). I always liked Chewie and thought she was adorable and threatened to steal her from Gen. (I also ALWAYS wanted a cat growing up by my mom hated cats.) Well, then Gen got pregnant with baby #2 and Chewie didn’t handle it so well. Started going outside of the litter box, all over the house. Not really something you want to deal with when you have two little ones who play on the floor, crawl, etc. So Gen asked if I wanted to adopt her. Around this time, Robert was off at boot camp and I was living alone. Our landlord didn’t allow cats, but we had been good tenants, and I played the “my husband is gone at boot camp” card and he allowed it. This month is actually 5 years since I adopted her! Wow.
Ha! That is a fun reason to name her Chewie! So she got nuts just when Gen got pregnant again? Or, that was the first time witnessing her get pregnant? Cats are so funny 🙂 That is great you were able to take her! 🙂
That was Chewie/Olive’s first pregnancy experience. Gen’s first kid was born in Jan 2006 and they think Olive was born in April 2007.
Awwww, this is precious!!! I love hearing adoption stories. All of mine have been rescues, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My dearly departed Lucy was my first pet as an adult. I found her the day before my 18th birthday as a tiny little pup in the middle of a four-lane road while I was on my way to work. C.C. (OUR gray cat) came next about two years later when we adopted her from the local shelter. It was just those two till Lucy passed in 2009, then we adopted Bella from a bully breed rescue. She was sooooooo attention demanding and had a never-ending supply of energy, so after just a few months we decided she needed a sibling and adopted Harley from the same bully rescue. They are truly our family! I’d love to have more, but the cat says NO. haha
Aww! What was Lucy like? I am not sure I’ve heard any stories about her!
I SO HEAR ya on the cat dictating the family is big enough! We keep telling people that Data is an only child, lol! 🙂
I adopted Bogie within 1 month of moving to Chicagoland, a family was going to have to get rid of him because their other cat didn’t like him (he was 6 months old at the time), then we saved Bella from someone who was going to be evicted if she didn’t get rid of Bella.
Aw, love this story! Makes me wish we had been more clever about naming our dogs…Maggie and Chloe are not as cool as names from TNG. I got Maggie from a breeder that I got one of my childhood dogs from (Maggie is the great niece of my first dog) and my hubby got Chloe from a friend of a friend’s family who found her and her brother roaming on the family farm when they were puppies. He snatched her up before she made it to the shelter.
I love hearing pet adoption stories! Some people go “baby-crazy” but I went “puppy-crazy” a few years ago – so much that we moved from a great apartment into a house so that we could get a dog. And then we ended up with two! They came with established names, but I love learning different pets’ names, like Data (Data Chip is a great “formal name”, by the way!). It’s funny – we have our dogs’ shelter pictures (they were briefly in a shelter before a rescue group fostered them), and we call these their “lock-up” photos.
I think that is a GREAT reason to move! 🙂
What were their previous names?! Ha ha ha, their jail pics?! 🙂
We decided to keep their names – Gus and Milo – since they were 6 years old and their former owner named them, not the shelter. But, yes, the jail pics are pretty funny – one of them looks really happy (he’s cute but not very smart).
Late to the commenting game but just wanted to say that I love hearing about how animals come to be part of a person’s family! And it really blows my mind to think about how and why animals have been domesticated to live with us!
That being said, my Roxy came to me after being bounced around to 4 homes by the time she was 12 weeks old in November 2004. Several months earlier my roommate had adopted a Jack Russell for a guy she had been seeing and I fell in love with the puppy/breed and really wanted to get one (of course that relationship ended and so did my ability to hang out/snuggle with said puppy). Well one day, my roommate’s friend called because her coworker was looking for a home for a JRT puppy (now Roxy) or else she was taking it to the shelter. I had no idea what the dog looked like or really what the whole story was, but I took a leap of faith and went and met the person the weekend of Thanksgiving and said I would gladly take the puppy for a “trial”…and the rest is history!
Aww, that is so fun how you came to like that breed so much and how Roxy came in to your life! It was meant to be!
I got my second pup by bribing my fiance with margaritas :p
LOL!
Great story Kim! I will be looking to adopt a kitten hopefully next summer. It is time to have a cat in this house. 🙂
Woo hoo!
Ah, I guess I’d never thought about how Data had come into your lives. I love how he was bopping Andrew and his wife on the head. That’s just so…Data, ha.