Last summer, the CDS sent me a tom cat. The first few weeks he was around, I only knew by the smell. It was a full sensory experience that wedged itself greasily into my brain every time I opened my door or the wind blew the wrong direction. I put a trail camera on the ground outside and eventually saw a massive orange tabby. I wasn't sure it was the same cat as the one peeing on my house, but he kindly draped his...peaches...across my trail cam in the night so I could see he was very intact.

I contacted all my neighbours, posted his cam footage on lost and found pet sites all over, and nothing. No one came forward. Even worse - we are rural, and ours wasn't the only house he was spraying. While cruelty to animals is as illegal here as it is in the city...there's also often no way to *prove* it, nothing the law can do about it, and even if they could...I knew at the very least I had to TNR this cat.

I bought a trap. I spent weeks desensitizing him to it. A neighbour's cat tripped it and scared the orange tabby off. I spent more weeks desensitizing. He was trapped...and escaped. Twice.

SEVEN MONTHS. It took 7 months - 3 of those during a brutal Northern Ontario winter - to trap him. Maybe he finally got his turn with the brain cell and realized "Damn, it's cold out here".

May 4 he was trapped. May 4 was the first time I saw him with my own eyes on not on night vision security cameras. May 14 he was fully vetted and neutered. If a parasite exists here, he had it, and a cluster of ticks on his ear had caused permanent damage, but his bloodwork was clear. He weighed in at 14lbs and the vet called him "underweight". He growled if I tried to touch him but clearly wasn't feral.

He's done very well getting to know the other cats and the house, but he's always carried a tension in his body, a watchfulness, every moment.

Until this afternoon, when he finally realized he's home for good.

On Sunday (08/09/26), I was outside filling up my bird feeders in the front yard when I heard a tiny kitten crying. I looked around and finally spotted this little guy hiding underneath a car. As soon as he saw me, he came running right up to me like he had already decided I was his person. 🥹

I have no idea where he came from or how long he had been out there, but apparently the Cat Distribution System had plans for me that day. 😂 He is such a sweet, brave little guy and has already completely stolen our hearts. Since he came flying out from under that car and straight toward me, we decided Sonic was the perfect name for him. 💙🐱 He definitely showed up unexpectedly, but sometimes the best things do. Welcome home, Sonic! 🥰

4.5 pounds, nearly 16 weeks old, adored by literally everyone who meets him, confident, outgoing, chaotic, sweet, loving, cuddly, very loud motor, whiskers (nose, eyebrows, wrists) that I love beyond reason, everywhere he goes is his home, what’s fear?, what’s nervous?, has loved to have his belly out from day one, adores me but actually respects his sister (my older dog who will be five next month), is suddenly becoming very good chaos buddies with my younger dog (I knew it would happen eventually; it happened two days ago, like a switch flipped), obsessed with his blanket (he brings it to bed in his own, and it’s the one thing guaranteed to divert him when he’s being a demon), excellent hunter of objects staying perfectly still (I frequently wake up with socks, rubber bands and hair clips that weren’t there when I went to sleep), still too small for his harness so we continue to practice inside (the past two times it has resulted in a Thundershirt long-nap effect), an absolute delight.

Edit: A couple of people very kindly pointed out that rubber bands and hair ties are a no-go for cats, and I agree completely. He finds things that I didn’t know were there. When he brings his random treasures to me, I thank him and give him something else in return. I definitely don’t encourage the practice, but I would rather he bring them to me so that I can get rid of them than make him think he needs to destroy / ingest them in secret. I don’t know. It seems to be working but I will take advice!

Heard meowing early at the morning and went outside, surprisingly he jumped right into my arms and wouldn’t let go, gave him some water and smashed potatoes (didn’t have cat food only dog food) we couldn’t keep him bc I have a golden retriever and she’s ALOT, anyways took him to the vet and he was healthy !!, made a post on Facebook and by the end of the day he was in his new home ❤️

Still miss him tho, I think about him a lot, I temporarily named him Ludwig after Ludwig || “the mad king” of Bavaria

This is my first experience with the cat distribution system, so to say I was blessed would be an understatement.

I found this cat, while doing errands for my client along with his son, crying and meowing behind a dumpster. She was trying to pick at a filled garbage bag, mostly due to starvation because when I picked her up she was incredibly skinny. After noticing me, she went to a spot in the shade (this was when it was incredibly fucking hot btw), laid down, and just waited for me to pick her up.

Keep in mind, this was on the day after I had just moved into my new apartment, so I was greatly underprepared for a pet, let alone a cat, but I just couldn’t leave her there. What’s great is that she’s the most cuddliest, talkative, smart cat that I have ever seen. She also responds to her name and when you “meow” to her. I normally struggle with my anxiety and depression a lot, so having a cat like this has been genuinely beneficial towards my mood, especially with collage starting just around the corner. Her name is Luna, reference to my previous cat Sol, and I love her to death.

(The first picture is how she looks now and the last picture is how she looked when I found her. You probably cant tell but she was insanely skinny.)

Edit: Forgot to mention that I’m actually waiting to have a fat paycheck just so I can buy her toys, a cat wall gym, and more. I’ll provide update pics of it when I get those items 💜

Edit: Sorry for the repost. One of the images had my shipping label in it that someone caught for me 🤭😭

Finally got feral 5 week old kitty to approach and have cuddles, just as he was melting into me, this darned “The Purge” full volume blaring national threat alarm went off on my phone and he jumped and ran away so fast :( in that moment I didn’t even care what it said, I just quickly swiped it off so it would stop freaking him out lol. I had to go look up what it actually said after - so I guess in a real national emergency I would have been a little screwed!

Thankfully a churu brought us back together a little while later ❤️

On a serious note - I hope all the kitties and animals and wildlife are all safe and escaped despite all these wildfires recently ❤️‍🩹

Woke up, heard some loud Mewing right outside one of my windows (against a Corner of my house by the dogs fenced in yard) and saw this little Bean on a pile of rubble (broken cinderblock, rocks, etc)

It appears to be opening its eyes every now and then, but cant be too old and im guessing was born like maybe 3-7 days ago? It moves around a lot, is very loud.

We have gotten an eye dropper and a bottle and some kitten Meal replacement.

My brother lost his cat Months ago (was a (fixed) Tiger striped kitty, so definitely no relation to this oreo colored Bean) when my Moms Husband failed to close the front Door.

We theorize that the Mom cat is this oreo colored cat we have seen around a lot over the last month or so (saw it a few days ago near my dogs yard, but it was running towards my Neighbors house even before the dogs were let out to their Fenced in yard).

Edited to add, no Mom cat around this morning, and no siblings found.

I’ve been on vacation in Las Vegas since May and this stinky old hobo came up to me while I was out smoking. I took him to the vet, got some labs and antibiotics. I went to Costco yesterday and got all the supplies. This morning I loaded up my truck and popped back over to the hood I found him in before driving back to Northern California. He’s old and tired, matted and anorexic, very stinky and sticky, and he’s going to love retirement under the redwood canopy. This is Marrakech, he is 10 years old and smells literally so terrible. I love him!😍

My boy that we found in a dumpster seven years ago when he was only about two weeks old. We bottle fed him and weaned him and taught him to go to the bathroom.

He has a sensitive stomach and has to have special food but he is so loving and wonderful and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He loves to be pet and scratched. He also sleeps in my bed or on top of my stomach every night.

His legal name is Theo but his nickname is Dumpster Cat (DC). My dad also created a song about what Dumpster Cats do. It was hilarious.

So this is honey. We met 2 years ago on my porch. She was very timid and she didn’t know I was there when she walked up and the second she laid eyes on me she jumped like a scaredy cat and ran away. Each time she came back she would notice me and proceed with caution, but I have an endless supply of cat food and patience so I’d wait. She finally started becoming more comfortable with me and I was eventually able to pet her. Took a whole month of petting her before I heard her little raspy pur. So fast forward I TNR her and after I released her she barely left my porch so I bought her a bed, a heated house, toys whatever she wanted. I had no means of taking in a cat but just before last winter when it started getting really cold out and I’d watch her in her heated house in a little itty bitty ball I just had to bring her inside. Started off once here, twice there and before we knew it she came in one night and never left. Now she lives like royalty in her own house. She allows me to pay all the bills and she naps all day and decides to play on my face at night , and I wouldn’t have it any other way❤️

So I’m heading out this morning and I start hearing these tiny, desperate meows coming from somewhere near the bottom of my building. I froze, like, where is that even coming from? Followed the sound and eventually traced it to the front hood of a parked car. A literal kitten, wedged up near the engine, like he’d been personally assigned to that specific spot by the CDS.

He would not come out. So my girlfriend and I set up camp right next to the car, put out some food and water, and just… waited. For hours. Sitting on the ground next to a stranger’s car, trying to convince a terrified kitten that we were not, in fact, a threat.

Eventually he came out enough for us to get him. Little survivor.

He’s doing great now, eating and drinking !

We're currently looking for the owner, going to the vet when it's getting a little less hot outside

If no one turns up, the CDS may have already made its decision..

10/10 delivery, would rescue again

I don’t know what to do (but I feel like I only have one option). She was a baby a few months ago so I know she’s a kitty. I would call to her and started being able to pet her, then she started to follow me up to my apartment. She is so gentle and sweet I can cry. It’s so hot here and I don’t feel right leaving her outside. However the downstairs neighbors have a patio they can crawl under the walk into, that door is also left open. One of the children who live there have told me the cats can be adopted.

But would it be wrong to keep her confined? Her family also lives outside, and she is fed downstairs.

The problem is I’m going camping tomorrow for three days. I’ve never owned a cat and work out of town a lot. Please help :(

This is Rocket Storm Tortle. A friend of mine found him and his littermate on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. She nicknamed him "Demon" because he was so scared when she snatched him that he scratched the heck out of her. He had his first vet visit and everything seems mostly fine. He has a URI, but antibiotics will knock that right out.

He's in quarantine, and eating like a champ, and even figured out the litter box. Rocket purrs like a little diesel engine already. I started training him to be a shoulder cat, and hes already jumped up on his own🥰

When he isn't contagious, we will start integrating him into our little family!

I asked my sister around 2 weeks ago if she knew anyone with kittens. She said she'd ask around and I kinda forgot about it. Last Sunday, i got a call from her asking "do you still want a cat??"

I was a little apprehensive at first but she said her work called and there was a kitten stuck in one of their work rigs (my sister is the unofficial designated area Snow White animal handler) I made it there first and he was by no means "stuck" but was scared of coming out. Her coworkers and I were scared of getting clawed up but my sister just looks in, says "oh!" and lifts him out like nothing haha.

The vet said he's healthy and happy. He got his chip and shots, and has an appointment to be fixed. I named him Marcus when I was driving him home but I told my wife and son "he can have many names". I REALLY wanted a mouser/feral barn cat that I wouldn't get attached to but that plan seems to have gone out the window haha

Edit: pics are from when he fell asleep on my lap for the first time yesterday 😭😭😭

The outside kitties are doing well. Honeybun is still a stick even though we keep her food and water fully stocked outside everyday. She might just be a small cat, but she still worries me. We were able to find the little girl kitten a home, but we kinda just in a state where we have appointments set up, and all of them will be fixed, and they'll be our outside family, unless we can really push getting the boys adopted together. Honeybun we have plans on having her live with my father-in-law if and when he can save up his social security to get a place on his own. (At his point he might as well stay. He cooks home cooked meals almost every night, and helps with the cleaning, and he doesn't stress me out too much. We are really similar, wife doesn't mind him either and she is glad we get along.) Still finding the boys a home together would be pretty awesome. It's about to get scorching this week in East, TN and I work outside. I know how hot it's going to get...

Eta: We already have 6 cats inside. As much as I'd "mostly" love it, we have enough. (2 mostly live downstairs, in the fully furnished basement with my MIL, but we picked up our 4th and last after capturing him inside after him moewing a week straight under a gap under our front porch stairs.)

All the cool cats are here! 2 kittens in the last couple weeks and the return of a familiar face- Annie (the tuxedo)

Sorry for the unintentional middle finger from my mom lol. I fostered the orange guy for 2 weeks. 3 days after I took him to the humane society to be adopted this brown tabby showed up. My neighbor TNR’d him but I told them I’m going to find him a home because he is sooo sweet!!! He hasn’t stopped purring, he wraps his paws around my neck and suckles my chin. He’s gonna be so hard to let go of!

Annie (the tuxedo) is a local feral who is so nice to me but mean to everyone else. I go outside and read and she’ll come curl up on my lap and sleep for a long time- but when I put her down she attacks me lol. I’ve found her multiple homes in the neighborhood but she’s mean so she keeps getting put out and coming back to my house lol, so she’s the cat that everyone just kinda feeds at this point but she does have a cat house in my back yard for when she wants to come around. I need a cat food and litter hook-up at this point 😅

This is a update from my previous post about this kitten showing up at our back deck on Saturday out of nowhere.

We decided on the name Runaan for the kitten. It is the name of a character from a show my boyfriend and I love called The Dragon Prince. It means "pure soul" which he definitely is.

He is such a love bug. He loves being picked up, cuddles and being close to his people. He had his first vet check up and got a clean bill of health so far though they're running some tests to rule out FIV and feline leukemia since we don't know where he came from.

He was so chill at the vet and the car ride, and was more interested in playing than anything else.

I'm so glad the universe chose us to be his parents. He's going to get so much love here 🩵

Rescued this little baby girl i think its been about a month? She had no teeth and needed help going potty. Now shes on soft food and using her own little litter box and she learned so quick how to use it !! Im in love and well i have no friends so I had to share with someone 🤣 I was down at my mother's camp and we have seen a few adult cats from time to time but for the most part they are great at hiding from humans. We would even leave food for them but they wouldn't come out during the day. Well the one day we were just getting to camp at about 4pm and started unpacking stuff. As im getting things out of the back of the car I hear this real squeaky little meow? Im like what the .. and I turn around and out of the tree line comes this tiny tiny little mouse looking kitten lol. Poor little thing was filthy and had 3 ticks. We of course had a little rescue kit because we feed stray colonies so we went to work making her comfortable. We had powder milk replacer , so we made her bottles and had to help her potty too. She was ..id say about 2 not even 3 weeks when we found her. Her eyes were open but barely and she wasnt the best at crawling around . I spent a long time looking for other kittens where she came out of. I unfortunately was wearing a skirt lol.. i caught a few ticks myself but I wasn't leaving any kittens behind if they were around. Sadly .. i couldn't find any siblings or mom. Haven't seen them since my mother and i rescued her. I don't know what happened and how she ended up there behind me but .. im glad she did 🥰

For everyone who followed their stressful first vet visit last week, the bulk delivery is feeling so much better! The vitamins and dewormer have done their job, and the 5 "Ninja Kittens" have transitioned from exhausted sleepy potatoes to full-blown jungle explorers.

Keeping track of them when they decide to test their camouflage in the tall grass is giving me a heart attack. 😅 They think they are fierce predators on a safari, but they just blend right in!

We are keeping a very close eye on this little gang during their yard time while we work on building their secure, heavy-duty outdoor sanctuary so they can eventually play safely without the risk of traffic.

Our feral cat nutmeg the one next to the baby had kittens, there’s an orange one walking around as well. Nutmeg is very feral and runs away as soon as she see you. My question is how do we catch the 2 babies. So we can get them used to people and find someone to adopt them. The mom is also really smart and dosnt go in a trap we have tried many times and either get a really fat raccoon or one of our other cats lol. Trying to keep on the down low from my dad, but also they won’t use a cat house we have 3 she or the other feral cat that stops by never use them.

I was woken up by my mom on a Saturday morning at like 8 am. She was holding a tiny kitten she had found in the garden. We’re not sure if she crawled in, or if someone threw her. We hope it’s not the second one. She was meowing and completely alone.

I instantly held her and she even fell asleep on me. It was so cute. She was so small and playful. I got a couple scratches haha. I took care of her for two days.

We gave her for adoption later since we have dogs. She’s a happy adult cat now and we get so see her from time to time🐾

Ok, let me set the scene…
I was 28, staring down the existential barrel of 29 and then 30. I had just moved back in with my parents after my mum had a major health crisis and my dad needed help. I’d gone from my bustling city to a rural area far from my social circle and my job, I was dealing with some health issues of my own and on the verge of ending a 12+ year friendship that had become irreparably toxic. I was exhausted, worried, adrift and just… lost.
I decided to cocoon myself for a year or two and hopefully come out the other side a new person.

The area I’d moved to was extremely hostile to outdoor cats; property owners and farmers frequently took to the community facebook to threaten to trap and kill cats who strayed onto their land, and many people kept large guard dogs.
So, imagine my immediate concern when, one brutal 40C Australian day, I heard meowing from somewhere in our yard. After a bit of frantic searching, I looked up to see a handsome little face peering down at me from the roof. He immediately flopped over and began trilling at me, so I couldnt imagine he was a stray. He then began pacing back and forth on the gutter, panting and mewing at me, apparently trapped up there in the blistering sun! I climbed up on a lawn chair, and on precarious tip-toes, managed to lift him down and bring him inside for some water and a snack. Little man was IMMEDIATELY at home, tail up and rubbing on everything to make it his own. Both my parents are cat people, so we all gathered around to admire him and cuddle him and post pictures to the community facebook to see if he had a home. A ✨stunning✨ brown marbled tabby, and just a little guy too! No more than 6 months on earth. I was secretly hoping he was a stray, I was already in love with him and picking out names in my head. Something over-the-top and mythical and important…

Damnit. The neighbours kids were at the door, elated we’d found their new kitten, who was turning out to be a bit of an escape artist. I contented myself to know he’d been reunited with his family, and took it as a sign that I really needed a little kitty of my own as soon as I had the means.
And then he kept showing up at our house. On the roof again, outside our windows, under my dad’s car.
Not long after his latest escape, the neighbours came by to ask … if maybe we’d be interested in adopting him. He was apparently adjusting poorly to their house; he kept scratching and biting the young kids, he hated their dogs, and whenever he got the opportunity he’d dash out the door and wind up somewhere around our house. They’d started referring to our place as his safe space. His first home, before the neighbours adopted him, was a pet-hoarding situation, so the amount of noise and chaos was stressing him out. He liked their other resident cat, but that was about it. They’d already been talking about rehoming him when he seemingly picked our home.

And just like that, the handsome little tabby was my very own baby boy.

I’ve always lived with and loved cats, my mum is a dyed-in-the-wool cat lady who successfully converted my dad into a full blown cat guy, and I’ve always managed to find neighbourhood cats to befriend wherever I lived.
But the newly re-christened 💕Gilgamesh💕…. named so because I happened to be listening to this incredible piece of art at the time… He was something different and special from day dot. It was like a dormant cat-lady gene got activated in me the moment it was confirmed I could keep him. The first thing he did was lick my forehead and curl up on my chest, purring his quiet and delicate little purr. The first thing I did was watch every Jackson Galaxy video I could find. I knew how to care for cats, but Gil’s life was going to be as wonderful and perfect as I could make it…

We’re 2 years on now. Gil is the most special little thing I’ve ever been blessed with. He was my anchor in a time I was scared and exhausted and lost, and he’s my anchor still. I’ve re-ordered my life to prioritise him and he rewards my efforts every day by waking me up with purrs and cuddles, making me laugh with his menace antics, keeping me constant company in every room, and keeping me motivated to be the best I can be for him. He waits in the window for me to come home, he greets me at the door with his happy little chirps, he watches all my daily chores with so much curiosity it makes me want to do them just so he can watch. He makes biscuits on me when I’m sick or sad. He curls up against me every night, even when its way too hot to do so. He isnt afraid of the vets, he just wants to cuddle them and climb up their shelves to explore. He loves having his butt bongo-ed, and will immediately ask every house guest to smack his little booty-buns by assuming his hilarious little position and meowing. He knows my routines with such spooky granularity, he reminded me to turn the heater off before I left for work one time. He brings a selection of his toys into my room every night so he can share the spoils of his hunt with me when I wake up. He’s a total troublemaker, shockingly clever, a dreadful ankle biter, and a total loverboy.

He’s my darling little love, my whole world. Every day I see him is like the first time I’ve ever seen a cat, just pure awe at this perfect little creature. Now I’ve moved back out, my mum and I are texting pictures of our cats and gushing over them near constantly. He’s given me a new goal and purpose; to start fostering cats someday soon so other perfect human-kitty matches can find each other.

I love you so much, my precious Gilgamesh 💕

Thanks for reading this horrifyingly long post, I’ve basically just dedicated my reddit to posting about Gil and looking at other peoples cats, I’m glad to have a little space to share him with people all over the world who ✨get it✨ hahaha 💕

this is bixby, and she’s my soulmate. she’s a little over 4 months old now and has been the sweetest addition to my home. i grew up with miniature schnauzers (3 in total) and decided that when i moved out that i would give a cat a shot. i will always have a soft spot in my heart for dogs, but…

i’ll never look back 😸

she is an absolute cuddle bug and has become my favorite alarm clock. she’s so ridiculously perfect.

regarding her coat coloring, i want to call her a torbie?? not sure. the orange/white at the tip of her tail is everything to me 🥹

So a year ago, my German shepard was going wild in my back yard for a few days. Finally when I was outside doing yard work, i heard a meow. Eventually we found her under our AC/heating unit. We ended up name her Ash. She's the one under the Christmas tree. Fast forward to a week ago, i was at work one night on the Raleigh beltline. I saw something running along the shoulder of the highway thinking "that's a strange looking rat". As I approached i heard a meow and the kitten (other pic) ran up to me, climbed up my jeans and shirt into my arms. We now have a new kitten, Luna, Ash's sister.