‘He chose me as his momma and I will always be his momma’: The emotional story of a cat momma and her cat distribution system delivered soul kitten who survived against the odds and stayed together through evictions and several rounds of ill health

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Sep 17, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

Life is a tough thing. Whether it is the fragility inherent in it that can break at any moment, or it is simply the courage and strength it takes to walk against the rising tide. But the bonds that we make, especially with our cat children are the things that help us keep going and to see us through to the end of our lives.

And today we have a life story of sorts to share with you that centers around a young woman and her cat. Detailing their journey from the day that they met, all the way until the sad sad day that they said their goodbyes, this is a story that displays just how strong, how healing, and how important the love that is shared in a cat-hooman relationship is. This is the story of cat commitment, this is the story that all cat lovers will remember and hold on to in the toughest of times.
 

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  • 01
    My soul cats name was Ansel. When I was 13, my mom and her boyfriend at the time got a new dog that our current cats did not like at all. So my mom
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  • 02
    wanted to get him a friend and she saw that someone was giving away black kittens. She was set on getting one until she found another dog, a
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    smaller one, that she really and wanted thought would make a great friend for our new dog. She almost brushed off the idea of getting the cat but just felt like
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    she needed to get one of them. She brought home this tiny black kitten, just barely old enough to be away from his mom, on my 14th birthday. I
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  • 05
    wanted to name him Augustus (Gus for short) after the character in TFIOS (it was 2015 okay) and I wanted to name our new dog Hazel. But my
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  • Well, isn’t this a sweet way to begin our tale, the meeting of two souls who would go on to be there for each other through the tough times, through the good times and everything in between. It is truly heartwarming to know that such sweet moments amongst families both hooman and animal, exist.

  • 06
    mom refused to name the dog Hazel so I named the cat Ansel, after the actor who plays Augustus. I fell in love with him and he fell in love with me. We
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  • 07
    were best friend: from day one, he never left my room except to eat and use his litter box. I was his person. Then my mom and I were evicted and had
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    Cheezburger Image 10554108416
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  • 09
    to move in with my grandparents. They already hac two cats and we had three so Ansel and our other cat Abbott had to go live with a friend of my grandmas fo a few months
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  • 10
    while we found our own place. Our own place never came so I begged my grandma to let me bring Ansel to live with us and she agreed.
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  • 11
    He recognized me immediately and my best friend was back. For the rest of high school we were inseparable. Then when I moved to
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  • Wow, what a wonderfully kind and caring grandmother to take on even more felines when her house was already lousy with cats to the point where there would be barely any space to add more to the madness. That is what true catto devotion looks like.

  • 12
    college we were both heartbroken. He used to meow at my bedroom door when I was away at college and my grandma would have to open the door to show that I wasn't there. I
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    vowed that I would live off campus my second year so I could bring my baby Ansel with me, and I did.
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  • 14
    The week before I moved into my off-campus house he got a mysterious infection and had to have major surgery. | thought I was going to lose him, but he pulled through
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  • 15
    and we were closer than ever. Another time I thought he got out for three days and I plastered the city with fliers looking for him. was distraught.
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  • 16
    Turns out he found a hole in the wall under the stairs that nobody knew about and when he encountered my roommates new cat for the first time
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    (without us knowing) he hit in that hole for three days. We found him just sitting in the hallway after getting back for searching for him in the woods. We used
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    to joke he was like jesus because he rose again after three days. We lived in that house together for three and a half years.
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  • 19
    Everyone who ever met him loved him, he was the perfect cat. Even people who hated cats loved him. He hated being helc but he loved laying on me. He
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  • 20
    was very picky on what type of food he liked. He was a chunky guy with a meat head and no neck. And he gave me the cold shoulder if I left for a few days without him.
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  • 21
    In December 2023 I found out he had stage 4 kidney disease. I was heartbroken I knew he had to go to the vet for a few months because he kept vomiting, but I was between jobs and
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    couldn't afford it and by the time could afford to make an appointment for him (in November) the vet was booked out until Christmas. I felt
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    like it was my fault. He was only 9 years old so the vet said he was probably born with bad kidneys, but I still can't shake off the guilt.
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  • 24
    I did everything possibly could for him. I gave him fluid injections every 3 days, tried to give him pills that he refused, bought insanely expensive food, etc. It worked for three months.
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    Then on March 23rd I noticed that he hadn't been eating, he was sleeping a lot, he wasn't meowing, and he even started to refuse his treats that he usually went
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    crazy for. I took him to the emergency vet that night and they said his kidney levels were through the roof. I could either put him through intense hospitalization
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    with no promise of it working (and costing 8k+) or I could put him down. It was the hardest decision I've ever made. It was around 5 am so I took him
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    home for a few hours until my family could wake up and be with me at the vet. He didn't even want to leave his carrier so I opened up the side and pet
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    him through the zippers until I eventually fell asleep for a few hours. My roommates all said goodbye to him when my family (and my best friend who
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  • 31
    lives in DC but was randomly in state visiting her mom that weekend) got there. We joke that he waited to go until his Auntie (my best friend) could be there.
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  • 32
    He left this worlc surrounded by people who loved him and in his mommas arms.
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    He chose me as his momma and I will always be his momma. His ashes sit on my dresser and I turned his collar into a necklace. I
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  • 34
    don't know if I'll get another cat again. I miss my baby Ansel every day. He will always be my soul cat.
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cat mom soul emotional kitten reddit story momma cat story health eviction story survive Cat distribution system sick delivery
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