When was the moment you first bonded with your pet? I remember bringing

[applegrove]

Monster home from the vet's office. He was two years old and had just been fixed. I fed him and he seemed fine with that. He really wanted to be friends. All of a sudden he jumped on my bed and I lay down beside him. He started to purr and purr and cuddle. I knew then he was going to be an excellent companion.

I brought Twilight home as a kitten. I didn't know how Monster would be with her so I put Twilight down on the ground and put a turned over laundry basket on top of her so Monster couldn't get "at" her. She immediately started to poke her little paws out through the slits of the laundry basket. Monster couldn't resist. He started to play with her. And we were three!

[nolabear]

1. When I got Bunny, my cat, she was tiny and covered in fleas.

I mean COVERED. She was too young to treat chemically so I got a flea comb and a bowl of soapy water and combed this little squalling critter for literally hours outside my front door. By the end, I was officially her mother. She's been Miss Bunneh, B. Rabbit, my little Bunny ever since. (Btw she's a very fluffy grey tailless cat with white feet, hence the name).

[applegrove]

2. Sounds like love.

[TorchTheWitch]

3. I bond immediately

and not just my own pets, though there's no question the maternal thing is there FAR more with my own pets. Certainly the bond becomes stonger over time, but it's always there from the first moment. Sort of like a love at first sight thing, I guess. I think animals also get that undefinable mysterious zing when they clap eyes on a certain person or animal and just KNOW immediately.

[old mark]

4. Our first dog together died in 2003 while I was recovering from heart surgery,

and friends who took in many rescue dogs visited and brought Peanut (Cory) along...they gave him to us. He is a large dog who then was over 110 pounds, Doberman/Great Dane, and it took a few days till we started to bond with him, and longer till he started to bond with us, but he is sleeping on the sofa behind me right this second, wrapped in an old grey Army blanket with his big ol' head on a pillow. He is ten now, and still suffering the after effects of a very resistant infection resulting from cancer surgery last January. He is finally recovering. We don't want to lose him. He has a great complex personality, and he is like our kid and he thinks he runs the world.


mark

[femmocrat]

5. The second I saw her!

And oh, those sweet puppy kisses! Such a lovable little girl!

[Courtesy Flush]

6. I did NOT want this cat!!!!

Crafty little devil had other plans, though.

[Demoiselle]

9. Oh my. Of course you had no say in the matter!

Clearly the cat was in charge from the beginning. You posed for a photograph with her. And note the proprietary paw on your arm.
What a beauty. I love (and respect) Calicos.

[RandomKoolzip]

7. The day my cat Jim made me an omlette.

It was a terrible omlette, but shit, the fact that he tried was totally sweet.

[bluedigger]

8. When she puked on my shoe during our "interview".

Once a puppy throws up on you the decision is out of your hands.:shrug:

[Orsino]

10. Loading Obie into the car, I think.

We'd met him as a puppy, a stray hanging around a relative's house. When he was run over by a car, some kind-hearted folks took him to a vet, but the basic care they paid for just put a cast on the leg that was completely smashed up. That was when we decided to adopt him, and it meant a forty-mile drive to pick him up. I guess it was when I tried to put him in the back seat of the car as gently as possible, and I saw how quiet and trusting he was, that did it for me. It was another fifty miles to the specialist vet that put a metal plate in the leg, and Obie was relaxed, not fussing at all. "Am I your dog now?" he seemed to be asking.

He's a good boy.

[pink-o]

11. In my last apartment, my upstairs neighbors had a little problem with cleanliness

So my ground floor flat became the Underground Railroad for rodent life. Seriously, I would rather wake up to Anacondas and tarantulas than rats--but I couldn't force myself to do the traps, and the sonar didn't work. So figuring the enemy of my enemy was my friend, I got a shelter cat.

Now, I was never a cat lover, and I just figured the little feline would stake out her own territory and interact with me only when she wanted to be fed. And the shelter folks told me not to push a relationship, that the best thing to orient her to her new home was to put her in a room by herself with food and litter, leaving her until she was comfortable. I did that, but only lasted for an hour before I had to peek in though the door. And what did I see? Little kitty had just emerged from under the bed and was looking around at her new surroundings. Spotting me, she froze. I lowered myself down to the carpet so as to be less intimidating, and she immediately crawled into my lap and started purring up a storm.

So that was 10 years ago. She's 13 now, and as cuddly, affectionate and playful as ever. And OF COURSE she has a willing human supplicant who's there to see to her every need because she melted my heart that day. But she also did her duty: no more rodents darkened my door.

I now live in a different place, and when my mom died I gave the cat to my father, who spoils her ever more than I did. But she converted me into a cat person, I think they're awesome now!