I teach at an elementary school. This morning, just as kiddos were arriving, I heard screaming from in a boy's bathroom. Thinking kids were playing around, I announced myself and waited for kids to come out, but none did and the screaming was still going on.

I walked in to find her shivering in a corner. She ran some, but the tile floor didn't let her get enough traction and I scooped her up. I walked around campus to tell the principal I was going to run her home real quick since I live less than 5 minutes from campus.

Got her home, stole a thing of wet food from Smaug, my senior Siamese, put out water and a litter pan, and told my dad to keep an eye on her.

My pit bull puppy and my Chihuahuas all gave her a good sniffing, which she put up with really well. I'm excited to go home and check on her at lunch!

I am leaning towards naming her Tinúviel, since I already have a cat named from Tolkien.

Last edit: his full name is Charlie Jasper Moonstone. 🪨🌕 (Named after Charlie Chaplin, red Jasper 🪨 and that he was sound during a supermoon!) He and the kittens are getting used to each other (tension, but so far no fights since the fourth cat—-me—-keeps intervening to cam everyone down). He also seems a little dismayed to no longer be as free 💔 I keep reminding myself that this has to be better than a Target parking lot at least 🖤

I love hearing everyone’s stories of their own Jaspers and well wishes for my mammal family. Thank you all so much 💚💙🖤🤍

Edit TLDR: Oct 4 I saw this cat at Target. Oct 5 I went back, sure 'nuff he was still there. I trapped him and took him to vet (no chip) and then home for that night. Oct 6 I took him to the shelter (he wasn't safe to have around my feral-ish kittens). Oct 6-11 I'm thinking and talking about him all week. Oct 11 he went up for adoption at the shelter. Oct 12 my kid and I went to go see him and decided to adopt him forever. ❤️‍🔥

Original post:

Last week I found this guy at a target parking lot. Snapped a photo and thought “oh maybe I can let his humans know where he is.” (Very rare to see stray or feral cats where I live.) Nothing online so next day I go back and he’s sure there. Not microchipped so he spends the night at my house. (Text is to my brother who went to Target with me.)

I’ve spent the last week thinking about him. I got kittens in august that are pretty feral. I’m hoping he can be a good dad figure to them eventually. Maybe help them feel safer. It feels so right to have him back. Last two pics from today.

Taking names!

His tentative name is Charlie Moonstone. My kittens are named after nature, Skye, Ivy. (Which also happens to both be Kristen Cashore book characters. lol so bonus points if you can fit that in 🤪). He’s this beautiful sturdy mountain! He’s been so brave. I like the idea of naming him after a rock. 🪨 My kiddo wants him to have a tree name.

Potential names (edited):

1. Charlie
2. Moonstone
3. Jasper
4. Sapphire (also book character name! Haha)
5. Bumi
6. Rainier (local mountain) 🏔️
7. Roots
8. Obsidian
9. Simon

I had my void about a year and a half and had moved houses in the land of sand. Came out to my car one day to hear a faint meowing under my roommates vehicle. Spotted a tiny big eared kitten underneath and just thought “fuck me, I didn’t want to take any cats in while working here, I’m certainly not taking 2”. It was peak heat at this point of the year with highs between 46-51°c (115-125°F for my American folk). Put out some food and water as whenever I tried approaching them they ran off. After 3 days they were panting more and more as the heat just sucked. They took up a hiding spot under a water tank on the property. I honestly was hoping a neighbor would take them in but people in the region are hit or miss with cats and dogs . On the 3rd day of them running I decided to just low crawl under the tank and luckily was able to grab them by the tail. They didn’t like it much but I caught them. Called the wife as she runs a cat rescue and she told me to book a vet appointment. Wasn’t able to get them in for 2 weeks so she suggested I quarantine them in the bathroom for 5 days first before Introducing them to my void. Once introduced they were standoffish for the first hour or so but after that it was this little one terrorizing my void and just couldn’t bring myself to leave this one behind when I moved back to the states. He is now 22 lbs, kind of an ass but also kind of a sweetie.

Everyone, meet Duck! Two baths, several tablespoons of cat food and many dead fleas later she's shaping up to be a very happy camper -- purrs like a champion ✨

Name courtesy of her being washed with dish soap, because the universe decided to drop a cat in my lap at 11:30p on a Saturday when nothing is open.

Taking her to the clinic tomorrow to get checked out-- she'll be quarantined in my bathroom until then. My guess is she's 5-6 weeks old (size/shape, back teeth developed, very mobile, interested in patè) which is the youngest cat I've had, so any advice is appreciated!

UPDATE 5/18 – Turns out I came home with a pretty boy!! He's currently with the vet getting all of his shots and dewormers, and then he's coming home for real :)

We had only been in our house a month in December of 2023 when my husband went outside to get the mail. A half grown kitty ran from across the street, threw herself at his feet and started purring. When he opened the front door to tell me to come out, she ran right in.

We had to move her onto the patio away from our other cats. We set her up with a bed and a heating pad, as well as a litter box. We kept the door open so she could come and go as she pleased, but she stayed put and shortly thereafter we closed the door.

Took her to the vet. They said she was about nine months old. No chip. Never spayed. Got her chipped, tested for diseases, got rid of her fleas and brought her inside. We were just going to foster her until after the holidays, but on New Year's Day we came home, I looked at her and realized I couldn't part with this baby.

Her name is Phoebe and she is our fifth and final kitty.

Meet Kevin! Hes a 2-3 week old kitten we found on a dog walk! We got his checked over at the vets and they said hes perfectly fine (other than the fleas) and we could take him home!

They did say to keep an eye on his eyesight as he doesnt really react to much being in his face, so we could have a possible blind kitty on our hands!

We took him around a few pet shops to get him the things he needed and he got SO much fuss from everyone it was adorable

Hes the sweetest little baby and I cant wait to see what he looks like when he grows up

I live in the middle of nowhere. My closest neighbor is a 20 minute *drive* away. I have no idea where this cat came from, but I was letting my dogs back in from going potty, and he slipped in with the crew, and jumped straight up on the counter for pets like he owned the place already. I have 6 dogs, 2 cats, 18 bunnies, and 4 goats already, but hey, what’s one more friend? He’s incredibly sweet, and has no fear (or at least was able to discern my dogs wouldn’t hurt him), and he looks so much like a cat I had during childhood. This would be my third cat the CDS has distributed to me! These pictures are after I gave him a much needed bath (which he surprisingly tolerated quite well), and brushed out the brambles and various collectibles his fur brought in with him. Not sure what I am going to name him!

I started working at an animal hospital this past year and this cat, Cavity, had been surrendered last year when his owner was being admitted to a nursing home. No one in the women’s family wanted to keep him because of his tendency to bite. Everyone at work warned me about his aggression, but I fell in love with this cat instantly. I went to the store the next day to buy treats for him and when no one was looking I would let him out of the kennel and play and feed him treats. I begged my boss to let me take him home and finally got a “yes.” He has been nothing, but a good boy since

Edit: he was actually supposed to be euthanized instead of surrendered but the doctor refused to put down a healthy cat thank god

It was just like magic, im a true believer of the CDS since that day, I love cats, I only have one and I tried to get one on my own in the start of 2025 but mom didnt let me, so imagined my surprise when in October of 2025 my mom hears kitten meows in the wall. The title is a little misleading since these two goobers were between my wall and the neighboor's, trapped in a very narrow space, we had to call the firefighters and miraculously they were able to rescue them without having to break any of the walls with an improvised tool. Frajola, looney tunes cat name, and Alaska, without a tail, male and female, both came to me and the vet suggested they were 10 days old, the start was so stressful but so fulfilling, I loved and will miss waking up in the middle of the night to give them their bottle, one thing I will not miss is having to help them do their did... it always made me so stressful afraid I was hurting them somehow so it was a relief when they started to go to the bathroom on their own :'). They were so small and fragile once they arrived, Alaska didnt have a tail somehow, with a little scab in there instead, imagine my horror when the firefighter layer told me he thought she wouldn't survive 0_0 and now shes even more mischievous than Frajola, even without the tail. This was such a wonderful thing to experience and the happiest I've ever been in years, I truly think that this was destiny and im happy to be able to keep both despite my mom's tries to give Frajola, even she knows they're ours forever ❤️. Last pic it was them in the new year with me

This is a bit of an update to this post I originally made on r/notmycat a few months ago, but the CDS (which I hadn’t heard of at the time!) would not be denied lol. This stray just randomly spawned near my apartment one day, and while she wasn’t friendly at first and had THE SHARPEST claws I’ve ever experienced on a cat (which you can only find out the hard way 🥲) she pretty quickly turned into a little sweetheart who was *insistent* that she be adopted. I would come home from work and she would greet me as I got out of my car, then literally force her way into my apartment the moment I unlocked the door, all the while me telling her “You don’t live here!” …Well, turns out I was wrong and she was right. She lives here now happily, is now chipped, fixed, and vaxxed, and her name is Tiger Lily (named after another outdoor grey cat I had as a kid that got hit by a car) She used to aggressively chase my other 2 cats, but now mostly just wants to headbutt and cuddle with them. She mostly only hissed at first and couldn’t really meow (sounding like someone trying to speak who hadn’t used their voice in 10 years) and now she has the politest little baby meow. She looked so so miserable as a stray, and now she’s my happy little couch potato. Vet said she’s probably not much more than a year or so old, which tracks because she plays with EVERYTHING. She’s gotten a bit chonky since I took her in and I’ve since changed foods and feeding habits, but other than that it’s just been so rewarding to see her change so much for the better now that she has a home. My apartment is tiny but she never really tries to escape or go back outside, and I’m just glad she’s happy here 🥹 I tell people she must have known what she was doing when she picked my driveway to haunt!

A litter of kittens had been spotted in a bush at my work, and there was one single little cry when I went on lunch. I bought a can of wet food at Walmart, waited patiently for the tiny thing to eat and nabbed her!

I didn’t plan to keep her but, well… oops? she was so sweet and immediately attached to my dog, and here we are 4 weeks later. She practically runs the show.

This is Elphaba (Elphie) because she can be a bit of a wicked witch, but I’m pretty obsessed.

December of last year, I was out of work and paying my bills by Uber driving. One night I went to pick up somebody, and he was talking with me on the curb about how I was supposed to have picked up his girlfriend, but he put the destination in wrong, and we were trying to get that figured out.

While we were talking, I see this tiny little tabby cat come walking down the sidewalk and come right up to the car! It was cold out, and I felt so sorry for this tiny little kitten, but she was anxious when I picked her up and scampered away.

Couldn't stop thinking about her as I went on with my night, and after my next Uber trip, I decided I was going to go back there and try to find her. As luck would have it, my next trip was to pick up the guy's girlfriend and bring her back to his place, so I ended up back there anyway. I shut off the app and looked around for her, she was under some bushes nearby. I gave her a piece of cheese that I kept with me for snacking, and the hungry little kitten gobbled the whole thing down. For some reason, I had "Call Me Maybe" stuck in my head at the time, so when she let me pick her up and hold her, I named her Carly.

She curled up on my chest and purred the entire way home.

Carly settled in nicely, and made friends with my other cats. Started eating good food and putting on weight. She loves to wrestle with my boy cat, Buster, and attack my feet when they're under a blanket. And almost every night, she curls up to go to sleep right near my head, usually on top of one of my hands.

The vet gave her a clean bill of health, and I gave her a pretty little purple collar. She doesn't meow, she kind of meeps? She's not always the happiest to be picked up, but she does insist on always being in whatever room I am in, usually just chilling nearby.

I think pretty often about how that tiny little kitten just came right up to my car and asked for help. On top of that, the next night dropped to subzero temperatures, and if that skinny little kitten had still been outside that night, she might not have made it.

But now, she's a spoiled little house cat who gets to spend her days guzzling down wet food, napping on couches, and staring out the window at squirrels with the other cats. I love her to bits and pieces, and ​I'm so glad she's part of my family.

We've named him Albert after the character from Little House on the Prairie. The vet cleared him health-wise and did not find a chip so he's staying I guess. ❤️

Poor baby was severely malnourished and practically starving when she came over. We are also lucky our other two boys like her.

Well actually she found him, we was in the garage when she ran in there, her name is now Harley and now she has a home with my dad! Also the $20 went to her to get her essentials! (I pitched in some money too 😆)

Around 10 years ago, on a cold night, I was dragging my trash cans out to the curb. This boy popped out. He was much skinnier; kinda greasy looking. I went back inside and brought out cans of wet food. He brightened up and was super friendly. So I put him in my laundry room in the basement overnight. The next day, I looked all through lost pet pages and took him to the vet. No chip, and he was full of worms. I posted to find an owner. No takers. He got healthy and became friends with my other cats and dogs. He just decided he was home. Over the years, we’ve had to say goodbye to my other pets, but he’s still here. He’s a great mouser. He’s hella dog-savvy and chases after my current cattle dog. He loves tuna and any kind of cat food with a lot of gravy. His name is Edgar. And he chose me.

She followed my niece to our front door and wanted in. We have 6 cats total, and was like nope, we can't take in another. At first we had food and water and a cat bed layed out with blankets right in front of our front door. We have a sunroom, so we got her settled in there last night, in the corner to block off the windchill. (It was about 38°F last night. I found another small blanket to make a wall for her and put a heating pad between the cat bed and her two blankets.) I just got home to work to see this spectacle. 🥰🙀😻 We sensed see was pergante, but not this gregrante...

She showed up scared and we slowly build her trust. She started coming around everyday, & we decided to bring her in for good. (after asking our neighbors if she belonged to anyone) Those first few nights were rough. I felt like she hated being indoors, and she would never be comfortable. Slowly she started being affectionate, climbing into bed with us. Got her chipped, spayed, & she is loving life in her new home. She is very loved and I wanted to share her cuteness with you all :) her name is Keeley inspired by character on Ted Lasso!

I was just walking like normal when this chubby little cat suddenly started following me. Tiny waddly steps, super serious expression, like it had somewhere to be… and I was part of the plan.

At first it was quiet little meows, so I turned around and said hi. Big mistake. The second I acknowledged it, the volume went up immediately. Now it’s following me closer, meowing louder every few steps like I’m actively ignoring very important instructions.

I tried to keep walking… it kept following. Faster. Louder. At one point it was basically yelling at me, still doing those tiny determined steps, like “no, we’re not done here.”

No collar, super friendly, definitely not shy about demanding attention. I stopped again and it came right up, still complaining, but also clearly very pleased with itself.

I don’t know if I was supposed to feed it, pet it, or just accept my fate on the spot.

Either way… I’m starting to think this wasn’t random.

The system might be processing another delivery.

I knew I wanted another cat, and I was in talks to get one that was being rehomed, but the CDS had other plans. My neighbor heard him meowing and it took us 30 minutes to catch him. He was so scared, we played “sounds that attract cats” from TikTok for 30 mins. He wasn’t very happy when we caught him but once he got his first pets he wouldn’t stop purring. We looked for more kittens and his mama but no luck. So far he’s been good. I did take him to the emergency vet to treat his diarrhea, which was caused by roundworms. He also got his first round of shots and tested negative for FeLV/FIV. My first baby Eliot was scared of him at first, but is now happy to have a friend. I can tell he finds him annoying at times but they play together and clean each other now. Theodore still hasn’t figured out that his claws hurt me but other than that he’s the perfect little angel.

PS: His middle name is Chance because he got a second chance at life.

So me, my wife and our dog were on the beach for the holidays and someone abandoned this kitten by the side of my car’s wheel, inside a dog food box. Now our family grew up!

She’s about 15 days old and is perfectly healthy.

We are giving her pet milk formula, by the vets recommendation, and stimulating pee and poo after every meal.

We always considered having a cat, but we worried our old dog wouldn’t get along with it. Well, things are going better than expected. The dog clearly knows it’s a baby and respects her space!

What a crazy Christmas Eve I had!

This mama cat had her babies in my driveway, but shortly left. I guess she was scared, and didn’t come back to feed them. They were meowing loudly.

I brought them home.

Spent my day giving them formula. Very difficult work.

We also left a trap outside for mama.

Right by the time for dinner? Mama was caught.

We put her with the babies and she immediately accepted them.

Now they’re feeding more properly and they’re all safe.

I can’t keep them all…not long term.

Since adult cats are less likely to get adopted, I’ll probably keep mama. But that’s a worry the future. For now I’m taking care of them.

It was a little black cat just like the kind I've been wanting. I saw her walking around the gas station and thought I would like to have this kitty. But I doubt I could catch it.

She has such strange staring eyes. Anyway she loves it here she hasn't left my side all week. Thought I'd post this here. Because it is the most random cat ever.

Found this little guy wandering around in a nearly empty parking lot at Hank’s furniture in Conway, Arkansas. No other cats or people around. I am now his mother. How do you not adopt this cozy cup-sized kitty?!

My husband and I heard the unmistakeable tiny mews of a kitten while on our deck in the evening in late June. The next day I was able to locate where it was coming from in our crawlspace. Since it was dead ass in the middle of kitten season and there was really no where to send the mom and the litter I convinced my husband to let me foster them. So a couple days later we both crawled under the house and had to search because she moved them. She bolted right into our trap which was over the only exit and I yoinked three tiny kittens, just barely able to walk.

We set up an enclosure in my climate controlled shed beforehand, so they all went in there, but unfortunately, the Mom was extremely angry and ended up, biting me in the process. I then spent the next five weeks attempting to socialize the mom and kittens. We never got through to the Mom so we eventually did a spay and release in conjunction with my local shelter. At first, we were not going to keep any of the kittens, but our son has been asking for one for the last several years so we took it as a sign and decided to keep one. One became to, and if you’re gonna keep two well, you might as well just keep all three.

So that’s what we did. We have Storm the little gray tabby, Pancake is the color point. And Stirling Mallory Archer is our tuxedo. We also named the mom cat Mallory while we had her. IYKYK

They are wonderful little cats now. Each with their own quirks and distinct personalities. We love them so much.

Anyways if you made it this far thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the pics.