20+ People Who Didn’t Plan to Have a Pet, but Fate Decided Otherwise

Some people choose a pet very carefully. They spend a long time deciding what animal they will take into the family, discussing a breed. Others get a pet that appears in their life unexpectedly. But this doesn’t mean that they love their four-legged friends any less.

“My mom had no intention of getting a pet. Then a stray cat accidentally came to her door. She just fell in love with it, and it looks like the cat has finally found a home.”

“I swore not to get animals after my pet went to the rainbow. And then in the car park, I heard a cat screaming. At first, I didn’t pay attention, but then I couldn’t stand it and went to look for it.”

“Found the poor thing under the hood of a coworker’s car. It’s been 2 years, and now it’s a cheeky cat who tries to steal food from plates and is afraid of delivery guys. He stomps loudly, talks to everyone and pretends to be a touch-me-not. Life is not the same without a cat.”

“My mom used to claim that she would never get an animal in her life. Now she has 2 kitties she picked up on the street.”

“Many years ago, I suggested to my husband to get a cat. And he said, ’Cats are not good. Dogs are the best.’ A couple of years later, all of a sudden, we got not even one cat but a few.”

“And today my husband says, ’Give more food to Basya, he brought a huge mouse. Basya is a good boy, Basya is a protector, Basya is our provider! I love Basya.’”

“I’ve been asking to get a cat for over a decade. Last year he showed up on my porch.”

“We found her when we were on vacation. At night in a field, far from people’s homes, alone, thin and hungry, with lots of parasites. We took her home, 800 miles by car. Look at her now.”

“My dad said he would never want cats a couple years ago. Now we have a home-based rescue with more than 12 cats in our house (including ours) at a time.”

When you pick up a cat, that has a surprise:

• There was no money, the fridge was empty for 2 days, and there was nowhere to get income from. I’m walking with my son, and a big, gorgeous cat starts following us. I think, we’ll live with a cat somehow.
  We came home, shared what we had with the cat, he ate and went to sleep. And then we looked closely and realized that the cat was a girl. And she was pregnant. Why oh why?! © Overheard / Ideer

“Saw a glimpse of this guy in a busy underpass. Took 4 passes to finally stop and snatch her. She thanks me with her teeth...”

“I don’t get cats, they come themselves. I just sit at home, and there’s a scratching at the door. I open it, and there it is, ’Hello, I’m your cat!’”

“I went to the pet store this morning for supplies and was adopted. Meet Enya. She likes to ride around on my head. What’s one more cat when we have 4 already?”

“My husband is a dog person, but I’m more of a cat person. The first year of marriage, I was waiting for him from work, and suddenly get a text from him, ’Look what a beauty, let’s take it!’ Now the cat is my husband’s favorite.”

“A friend of my wife’s found BooBoo in a gas station parking lot in March. He was sick and underweight. It took until July for him to be healthy, but here he is now, spoiled rotten!”

A neighbor turned out to be not so tough.

• Our upstairs neighbor is a very arrogant lady. She always has a serious face, and you can’t get a smile or a banal “good morning” from her. A couple of days ago, a dog came to our building. It was just a mongrel dog, the neighbors were feeding it.
  And this morning I saw that the “iron” lady, without changing in the face, came up to the dog, gave something to eat and, stroked the animal a couple of minutes, and took the doggy with her. I hope they are both happy. © Overheard / Ideer

“Husband didn’t want to have a dog. I caught them cuddling. My husband also makes up songs for the dog.”

“This little girl was abandoned by a neighbor in our complex and just cried and cried for help. I asked my husband for days if we could let her in and keep her, and he kept saying no.”

“Well, I somehow broke my husband, and he finally said yes, and she’s been our little baby girl ever since. He’s so obsessed and in love with her, and they are so sweet with each other! He was also allergic to cats and went on allergy meds for her and now has completely gotten over his cat allergy!”

“He didn’t know he wanted a dog, but he did! 2 months in, and they’re 2 peas in a pod!”

How a rat became an office employee.

• We have a rat called Chuchundra living in our office. A friend of our boss went to the other end of the country to work on a contract, and he asked to find it a new home. The boss couldn’t leave the rat at home — he has 2 cats, which immediately began to show culinary interest in it.
  He brought it to work, began to offer it to everyone, but no one wanted to take it. Some people had their own pets, others had family members who were allergic or afraid of rodents. The boss left her in the office for a while, he wanted to ask other acquaintances and asked us to help him find new owners.
  But the search somehow didn’t go well, and we all quickly got used to the fact that we were greeted with a cheerful murmur in the morning. Thus, Chuchundra became everyone’s favorite. © Overheard / Ideer

“My husband wanted a pedigree Maine Coon, even arranged to see kittens. But in the evening, he went for a walk with the dog and saw a black lump in a puddle. Brought it home, named Mara. She is 11 years old now, she considers herself of blue bloods.”

A stray dog has trained his owners to tidy up the kitchen.

• My daughter brought a little mutt off the street yesterday. It was dirty and shaggy. Well, we didn’t kick it back: we washed it, combed its hair.
  All night, the dog didn’t let us sleep — he ran around the flat. And in the morning we found out that he wanted to get to the goodies on the table. He tried this way and that way — somehow he pulled a stool out from under the table and climbed on it. He ate everything.
  Of course, we kept the dog, he’s everybody’s favorite now. But we’ve been hiding the food ever since.

“Grandpa didn’t want a cat, but now he chases it all day long. Before, we couldn’t get him to get off the sofa.”

“I didn’t want a cat, not now, not in the future. But fate turned out differently. Even though it’s only been 4 days, I already know that this is my cat and I don’t need any other cat.”

“On Friday night, my life was divided into a ’before’ and ’after.’ On my way home from work, I found a tiny kitten. I couldn’t just leave it, so I took it home. Wrote to the shelter, they said they don’t take such small kittens.
So I kept it. Since I wasn’t allowed to take a leave to care for the baby, I now take the four-legged coworker with me to work, as well as the set of a young mother: formula, bottle, wipes. Named Morty. It’s mine now!”

And here, owners didn’t recognize their pets after grooming. Check it out.