‘I can't thank those sweet cats enough for teaching me how kind cats can really be.’: American dog person leaves home for Europe to unknowingly become pawrent to two cat children and fall in love with the species they once feared

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Dec 1, 2025 4:00 PM EST

Dog people, they just cannot seem to stop falling in love with cats. Honestly, to begin with we were happy to see them convert to the right side of things. But with time, we have begun to feel as though we might need to implement more screening processes or at least make them pass some sort of test before they become feline pawrents, because the sheer numbers of them that make the conversion from canine connoisseur to feline fanatic is getting out of hand.

Case in point, the story that we have lined up today, which tells the tale of an American dog person who developed a profound love of cats when she moved to Europe. Not that the continent has all too much to do with her feline conversion, but nonetheless it was there that she learned to love not one, but two cute cattos and finally understood the unquestionable superiority of cats over dogs. Another one bites the dust as they say…

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    I've always had dogs. I grew up around them, was lucky enough to have a wonderful best friend of a dog who loved me unconditionally until he passed away at 13 and 3/4. My
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    family got a Dalmatian puppy whom I absolutely adored, and missed her horribly the minute I moved away to mainland Europe to live with my husband. I see her every time I go home, and make
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    sure to make up for my absence with many cuddles! I spent the first couple of months living in my new country working on our new house and missing my doggo,
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    but his family's cats were so kind to me. At the time, I was suffering from undiagnosed, untreated eis, and I can't thank those sweet cats enough for teaching me how
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    kind cats can really be. They bullied me out of bed to get myself (and them!) fed, they cuddled and purred on me, and spent time with me whilst my husband was at work. It was nice, but
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  • See, what kind of doggo would care enough to make their hooman do the hard stuff as well as the easy stuff like pets and cuddles. Sometimes the person who loves you and cares for you the most is the person who makes you do the things that are good for you, no matter how much you might not want to do them.

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    NCE ATELY RS CALLS OPEN
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    not the same as my big silly Dalmatian girl. We moved in, sheltered some very special neighbourhood cats for a while, and they taught me that if
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    you earn a cat's trust, you get unbelievable rewards in return. I'm used to the instant devotion a dog shows, but the friendly neighbourhood cats taught me that
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    devotion comes in many forms. After the house was finally finished (and cat proof!), my husband and I decided it was time for a cat of our own. I'd wanted a dog, but my health wasn't good enough for one.
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    The first of our two boys was dumped in an animal shelter for being a problem child. Ziggy was apparently aggressive when playing, shouldn't be let anywhere near children, was a curtain and furniture
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    shredder, and generally an all- round delinquent. He walked right up to me in the shelter, tail up like he recognised me, and purred his little furry head off. He cuddled
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  • We are sorry to say, but that is exactly what a furniture shredder would do in order to be given access to more furniture to shred. Just typical clawminal cat behavior. But considering this is a dog person, it is easy to see how she was fooled by this clever catto.

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    up to my husband, was gentle when playing with another, tinier, kitten, and I fell in love instantly. My husband did too. When we brought Ziggy home, he
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    purred non-stop for four days. He followed me from room to room, yelling if he couldn't see me. He was actually very good in the house, no wrecking of my curtains or furniture,
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    and was surprisingly gentle whilst playing. I was angry with the previous owners for telling the shelter a pack of lies: my husband observes daily that Ziggy is incredibly gentle, using his paws to tap us if he
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    wants to see what's in our hands, claws firmly in and eyes staring up adoringly. Being half Norwegian Forest cat, he's grown rapidly, and there is fluffy hair EVERYWHERE... but I
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    don't care. I've lived through Labrador retriever shedding seasons, I've had worse! Ziggy is not just special because he is the exact opposite to his reputation,
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    but he's also a therapy cat by accident. He has alerted my husband twice now when I've fainted (low blood sugar, we don't know why I have it), he's cuddled me through panic
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    on
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    attacks, and when my endometriosis has been incredibly painful, he's been there to snuggle up and heat up all the sore bits. He also rescued his brother from strangling by alerting us that
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    something was wrong, and we got there in time to cut him loose. He's a special boy in every way. Teller, my other cat, came as a bolt from the blue. His story
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    starts off rather sad and upsetting, but don't worry, he has the happiest ending. My sister works abroad in Cyprus, and was having a nice evening stroll with her boyfriend. She saw a group of boys, roughly 9-13
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    ish years old, pushing a small toy stroller/pram around with them. She was absolutely sure she could see something in the pram, so she went over and saw that the boys had been pushing
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    around a tiny kitten. It was filthy, shaking, and clearly traumatised. My sister is a teacher, and was immediately suspicious of the boys' motives due to the shady way
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    they'd begun to act. She questioned them in her best teacher voice, and in broken English, they told her that there had been a box in the street that said "Free kittens please take", and the tiny
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    cat had been in that box. When she learnt that the boys didn't have any plans to take the kitten to a shelter or rescue organisation, my sister scooped him up and told the boys she'd take him home. She did.
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    My sister and her awesome boyfriend looked after the little bean beautifully. At first, he was starving, hissy, and full of fleas. When they took him to a trusted veterinarian that my sister's boyfriend uses for
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    the family dog, the vet explained that the kitten also had the beginnings of cat flu, and needed a course of antibiotics to get him on the road to recovery. Between them, my sister and her boyfriend worked all
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    hours of the day and night, so they knew that they couldn't keep the kitten. Teller, unfortunately, didn't get taken in by their friends, and both were worried as he wasn't getting enough social time with them. As a
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    result, he'd keep them up all night: not ideal when you both work in the entertainment industry and need a lot of sleep. My husband and I were helping them with their new tiny charge, and had
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    been providing advice for them. We'd both got very attached to Teller, so when my sister asked if we could adopt him... We said yes! I flew out to Cyprus, spent a lovely time with my sis and her
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    CE ELY
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    boyfriend, cuddled and played with the new kitten and made sure to enjoy the beaches. My sister, of course, was very sad to see him leave, but so happy that he was going to a good home with people she loves.
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    Teller is a fiesty, rambunctious little cat with attitude to spare, but a soft spot a mile wide. He's intelligent, bold, playful and very independent... That is, until you realise that he adores cuddles! He's
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    spent hours snuggling on my lap, loves to sleep on or in-between people on the bed (ours or the guest bed!), and is becoming a well- rounded and sweet little lad. He's kept his dinky stature (Cypriot cats are diminutive in
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    height), but his personality more than makes up for it! The two of them very much consider each other to be brothers, and they're absolutely bonded. They wrestle and play-fight like litter mates, they groom
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    P
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    and cuddle each other, and they entertain me and my husband non-stop.
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europe dog person kind teaching reddit story cat story pawrents Unknown american species cat person Cats sweet cats
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