Apologies in advance for a long-winded, rambling post, crappy cellphone pictures and pictures of cats that are technically not mine. Anyhoo:
I'm quite jealous of most everyone in this thread; I love cats, but I'm deathly allergic to them and I have asthma. In addition to that, my allergy seems to have gotten worse over the years, so I can't be in the same room with a cat(or be in a room that a cat has been in) for more than a few minutes. As a young kid, I actually grew up with a couple of cats, but the older I got, the worse my allergies got, so we had to give them away.
Anyhoo, I recently had a run in with some local stray kittens at a vending machine. One, actually, this guy:
http://imgur.com/t9uuu.jpg[IMG]
He came out as I was buying stuff from the vending machine and was surprisingly friendly. I've had strays sort of beg for food and stuff before, but this one came right up too me and started rubbing on my legs and what not. He had it in his head that I was buying him stuff from the vending machine, but cats don't drink coffee so I didn't have anything to give him. I petted him a bit and left, but he followed me all the way home. It's not terribly far for me on foot, but for a kitten, I'm sure it's a ways.
[IMG]http://imgur.com/9Eugs.jpg[IMG]
I wanted to adopt him, but given my severe allergy, I knew there was no way I could. I didn't want to just leave him outside my apartment, though, so I tossed him in my car and drove to a near-by 7/11 so I could buy him some food. I let him eat some wet food in the car and I bought some dry food to leave out for him now and then.
[IMG]http://imgur.com/8IfFF.jpg[IMG]
When I got him back to the vending machine, and I heard a meow off in the distance. "It must be the mother.", I thought, but suddenly kittens started coming out of the woodwork. There were 5 different types, so I left them some food and went on my way.
A few days later, I went back to leave them a bit more food and take some pictures.
[IMG]http://imgur.com/Ok01E.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://imgur.com/V4Owk.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://imgur.com/0XvGF.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://imgur.com/KcoLd.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
They may not live in your home, but they are your kitties now.
And let me say they are beautiful pussies.
Cats decide who gets their affection. They saw either a nice person or someone they could easily manipulate. You are a part of the pride now.