Thanks, guys. This thread caused me to pet the pushy-cat that just jumped up onto my desk, rather than put her back on the floor :)
If I may indulge taurusowner, you can generally judge a man's character by the way he treats an animal. Domestic dogs and cats are the definition of innocence. One who would abuse their trust and loyalty is probably not someone who should himself be trusted.
One of our cats was a foster from a local shelter - he and his six littermates came to us at about four weeks, with no mom :( We kept the bunch until they were OK on the litterbox and solid food, but one had to stay; he'd almost died and my wife(then fiancee) couldn't bear to let him go after nursing him back to health.
Another of ours, the youngest, was also an adoption of sorts - the "cat lady" at our old condo complex had been feeding a feral, who had kittens. Three of them were adopted pretty quickly, but nobody came for the fourth. We like her pretty well :)
