Why can I imagine having this conversation?
First off, I love cats. There has always been at least one, usually more than one in my life in some form or another. Currently I only live with one, but there are eight in my immediate family. Each of them has their own personality, their own preferences, their own lives they live. Sometimes they come into our lives one at a time, sometimes it’s in pairs or trios.
When I was born into my family, my parents didn’t have any other children, but they did have one dog and two cats. The cats were a brother-sister pair who had been brought into their lives when a friend of the family found a pregnant cat. From what I was told my grandparents took in two of the kittens, but tragically one of them was scared to death by my grandparents dog who just wanted to play. After that, my parents took the remaining kitten and a third one from the family friend and these were the cats they had when I was born. I think they already had a puppy, but I guess his temperament better suited the kittens and they all got along by the time I remember anything about them.
Since then, we’ve had one more cat we got that way and five kittens we found from two different litters who had already been born and where in need of homes, among those two of them are the kitty I currently have and his sister who lives with my sister.
So I can definitely imagine someone coming up to me and telling me they adopted five cats. Not sure about the accidental part, but definitely the five cats.
I do wonder about the person saying this. Do they already have cats and so five is going to make it six, seven, eight, more? Have they ever even had pets before? Maybe this is a new experience for them. I had a friend whose older sister was allergic to cats. They did have a cat, but I can imagine most people in that situation don’t have the luxury of a way that they can have a cat and keep said cat away from the person with the allergy. Someone in that situation, who isn’t allergic themselves, but has a loved one who is, could have grown up wanting a cat and when they are an adult, maybe go to a shelter looking to adopt a single cat and come home with five. Lots of things could happen, but what do you think happened?
