What facts have you deduced about your cat's former life.....?

[StrictlySazz]

I reckon from her behaviour that my 3yr old from a rescue centre:

1. was given milk to drink (gets very excited when the fridge is opened and the white bottle removed)
   
2. was fed from tins (we feed from pouches, but opening a can of baked beans creates much interest)
   
3. was much loved (as she is a real people cat and if you don't pay her attention she taps you gently on the cheek)
   
   Bless 'em

[Wolfiefan]

I thought you were talking about reincarnation here. Mine was the Queen of Sheba!
When we first got ours we had no kids. They had come from a family with children and used to watch out the window and watch them playing.

[Gay40]

1. was probably punched as she flinches if you raise your arm too quickly near her
   
2. was probably kept short of food as she eats very quickly and keeps looking round nervously
   
3. scuttles out of the back door as if she has had a foot up her arse at some point
   
   On the plus side, she is now in a home where she is fed, loved and her bad habits excused. She's the baby of the family now x

[StrictlySazz]

Oh bless her Gay . I am sure over time she will relax into her lovely new setting and her past will become a distant memory

Wolfie - very cute watching the children playing

we do know a bit about why DCat ended up in a rescue (bullied by her own son after she went missing for a bit), but it is the reaction to small things and the look of expectation on her little face, that you know she has been in the situation before IYKWIM

[Gay40]

She was rescued as a kitten by the people over the road, but her behaviour was so bad that they struggled to love her and eventually just locked her out. This was late October
So...a sad hungry little face was sat on our icy back door step. I put some food out. Then she came inside for the next night as it was so cold.
3 years later, she is fat and fluffy and happily asleep on a warm sheepskin blanket.

[StrictlySazz]

Well done you on finding something she likes as a bed - ours rejected the cat bed (of course) and now seems to sleep on a leather seated dining chair. She was banned from the bedroom after being rather over zealous in bringing us live presents

[Pursang]

I thought you were referring to reincarnation too! Ours must have lived with a dog I think.
We 'rescued' him as a kitten from a couple who owned a pub (cat called Guinness, natch). He turned up there and wouldn't leave, but he was so wild they couldn't have him around the punters. So we get him home, he demolished the Christmas tree within hours, scratched holy hell out of everything in sight and then decided he would like to have a dog of his very own.
So...he inflicted himself on the inlaws' dog who incidentally hated cats (they live next door). Inlaws shop at M&S and buy whole cooked chickens and the like just for the animals...I don't blame him for jumping ship! Anyway, dog, after being given no choice by cat, has grown to love said cat, and all's well that ends well. Still makes me laugh though how they refer to him as 'your cat' when he's been naughty and munched the head off a mouse outside the patio doors at tea-time, but they're all 'our Guinness' when he's 'good' and catches a fieldmouse or something that got IN.

[StrictlySazz]

Oh dear. Thread titles all sound so obvious when they are in your head

Can i move in with your IL's Pursand?. One clever cat there aren't they all

[Hatwoman]

another one who thought reincarnation. my two lived on a planet where gravity was the other way around. they cannot stay upright - they love having their heads upside down - all the time.

in terms of more recent life I think they may have been a bit underfed - I've never known such food-driven cats - but I do think they were loved - incredibly affectionate - very well litter trained and very used to using a scratching post. I worry that maybe they were abandoned as part of a relationship break down, which I find very sad.

[Northernlurker]

We know ours lived on her wits for a bit. She is a scavenger through and through not a hunter. She adores cake or muffin papers and is prone to finding fluid in a cup or jug where she can then sit and dip her paw in and lick it off.

[kreechergotstuckupthechimney]

I know about my two. They were found by the canal, the product of a feral cat mum, goodness knows about their father.
They are both lovely looking cats, greyhead is more aloof than ginge. Ginge craves affection but grey is happy to sit beside you but not on you.

[Gay40]

I've always had rescue cats or cats that needed rehoming due to one thing and another, and I think it's amazing how much you can tell from their current behaviors.

[Lizcat]

My old boy (no longer with us) spent several years roughing it in the roughest part of town and clearly survived on chinese takeaways when ever we had one he would stare at it till we had finished.

[kreechergotstuckupthechimney]

Oh, and Debra had clearly been fed too many sweets. She had no teeth when we got her and was very attracted to boiled sweets. DH had a bit of a thing for clear mints. They come in twisty cellophane. Deb would be there as soon as he rattled the bag.

[StrictlySazz]

ROFL Lizcat - i'll bet eating a chinese takeaway became a bit of a hurried affair!

[DontCallMeBaby]

I've always thought that if you observed ours you would conclude that:

S had been kept short of food, as he wolfs food to the point where he throws up
P had been much better fed, as he grazes

They are brothers and we've had them from 8 weeks.

[candytuft63]

Sounds like Debra was owned by an elderly person. They eat tons of boiled sweets.
One of my rescues is terrified of walking sticks.

[mycatsaysach]

my rescue was a stray - she has tiny stumpy legs maybe caused by living under a low roof she had a litter of kittens too
she is getting a bit more friendly (after nearly 10 years) but doesn't like all the other pets even thought my crazy hound is in love with her and all her fluffiness
whenever i come home she is always at the gate shouting at me

[mycatsaysach]

btw all my cats are food crazy and possessive about their grub - one stray one pedigree and one bought from a very well to do family as a kitten.

[pinkhebe]

Probably weaned too early as He sucks his nipple for comfort

[TarquinGyrfalcon]

FalconCatOne was abandonned - the family who owned him moved house and left him behind - he ended up living under a car on a rubbish tip - he was quite young and by the time he was rescued his collar had grown into his skin - he hates having his neck touched

For the first couple of years we owned him if we went out he would wait, anxiously peering through the perspex catflap. He also used to get very upset when we went on our evening walk with the dogs - he would run across the field mewing and crying plaintivly for us to come back.

He also had nightmares - he would wake shrieking and leap up, it would take ages to calm him down.

He hates all other cats (even our cats) so I think he might have had to fight for food - he also used to break into the bag of catfood and raid the bins.

Five years on, he is completely relaxed and thinks he owns the house.