I apologize if I used a wrong tag or if this kind of discussion isn't allowed. I just thought this would be a fun discussion to have, plus I felt like sharing stories. For starters I have 2 cats, both of which came to us via the cat distribution system when they were kittens (although years apart.) My older cat is named Jake (the black cat with the scar on his nose), while our younger cat is Willow (white and gray cat.) we will start with Jake's story.

Jake:

To set the scene it was the 4th of July 2012. I was 12 years old. My dad was helping my grandparents around their house before our family get together later that evening (I live in the US.) A couple of runners come around to my grandparent's house with 4 kittens that look to be 3-4 weeks old possibly. They had found them alone on the side of the road. They were asking for a box to leave them in because they couldn't take them but didn't want them wondering into the road. My dad was basically like "nah they're coming home with me." And gave them to my older sister to bring home. There were two boy kittens and two girl kittens.

Until we could get a proper set up for the kittens we had them in a box in my room. But I had them out at one point on my bed. All of them fell asleep somewhere along my body, I remember Jake's brother fell asleep in the bend of my arm while one of his sisters was next to my belly. But Jake decided that he was going to curl up right under my chin. That's when I knew that if given the chance I was gonna keep him. We found homes for his 3 siblings and the rest is history. He's now my almost 12 year old cat and I wouldn't trade him for anything.

Willow:

I can't remember the exact date we got Willow. But I do remember I was 17 (almost 18) and was on my way back home from a school trip. My friend had texted me saying that her uncle (whom she lives with at the time) had brought home a kitten and was looking for a home for it. They couldn't keep her because they already had other animals that didn't get along with her. But anyway he had gotten her from his work. He works at a local hardware store and a feral mama had given birth next to the lumber yard. Which as you can imagine isn't safe for kittens, so once they started walking him and a couple of his coworkers went and gathered them. Last I knew they were trying to tnr mama but it's been years.

Willow had 2 brothers which were caughtand adopted by the coworkers while he caught Willow. Said friend had also texted my mom about her asking if we wanted her seeing as we had raised young kittens before. My mom was all for it, dad not so much. For context we had just lost our older cat a few weeks prior, said cat had claimed my dad as her person. But we all agreed that dad needed to at least meet her before he decided. So we brought her to my house to visit, gave her to my dad, and she instantly fell asleep in his beard. Like didn't even sniff him first, we literally set her on his chest and she went straight for the beard. He couldn't say no after that. 6 years later and she has him wrapped around her paw. (For those wondering, yes I do dress Willow up. I've been harness training her and taking her out since she was big enough to fit into a kitten harness. I also take her to events, like this outfit I made for her to wear to our local ren faire. She is unbothered by pretty much anything at this point 😂.)