I got Nala and Gaz from a breeder; I chose to look at lionheads first because they're so unique and within five seconds of arriving at their cage, I was pointing to Nala - something about her just stood out. In retrospect, having realized she's capable of issuing telepathic commands, I suspect she put the idea in my head to pick her. I went to look at the Hollands next, not even sure if I was going to get two bunnies, and Gaz really stood out right away (I think Nala may have had a hand in that, too).
A couple nights before attending an orientation class for the HSPCA's foster program, I was browsing their website and checked out the animals. The bunns were cute, but something about "Thumper's" picture really stood out to me... something about his aura and airplane ears. I had no intention of getting a third rabbit, but I wanted to meet him anyway. Yeah, Norman (formerly known as Thumper) lives with us now. When I met him, he seemed like he wanted to go home with me. As soon as I got him home and he'd had a couple hours to settle in, he acted like "Why haven't I been here all along?" Even Nala and Gaz seem to like him enough that I think I'll be able to bond them into a trio - Normie simply belongs here!
I also impulse-purchased a kitten once. I had no intention of getting a cat, and really wasn't in a position to as I was living at my mom's house and we already had a cat... but I knew I'd be moving to my own apartment in about a month (she did have to stay in my bedroom for that month, though). I went to Petsmart for something or other... normally, I have no problem loving on the shelter kitties and then putting them back and walking off. I picked up lots of cute kittens - they were all adorable as could be, but I put them all back without a problem. Then I picked up this tiny 3 month old gray ball of fluff. All the other kittens had acted like kittens - squirmy and wriggly and hyper - but as soon as I pulled this one up to my chest, she snuggled between my breasts/curled into a ball, closed her eyes and started purring her butt off. I HAD to take her home. Forked over the $50 adoption fee and walked away with the best cat I've ever owned - we were like soul-mates for the rest of her 7 year life.
The cat we already had when I got her was purchased in a similar way. My mom was NOT one to impulse-adopt an animal during a routine trip to Petsmart any more than I am - she could look at all the cats and then go home without one, no problem. Suffice it to say, I was shocked when she came home one day, knocked on my door and proceeded to plop a huge orange and white cat down on my bed. His tail was very scruffy on the end from him swishing it back and forth against the cage bars for so long - he was an adult, at least a few years old, and had been waiting quite a while for someone to finally adopt him. He was very unhappy about being a shelter cat and wasn't exactly outgoing and friendly at the shelter display in the Petsmart. Mom saw something in him, though, and felt like she *needed* to bring him home. Once he was out of the cage and in a real home, he turned into an amazing cat. He slept on my bed every single night that summer. It broke my heart when I went away to college about 3 months after we got him and would no longer sleep with me when I came home for winter break - he never did fully forgive me for leaving for so long
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Our psychotic kitten, "Dusty" was also a Petco or Petsmart cat (Jay says Petco, but I think he's got them mixed up because I've been in both a lot and have only ever seen shelter animals at Petsmart). Jay was actually there to get a kitten, so it wasn't an impulse thing. He was looking around at all of them when he saw the little girl standing right beside him pick up a teeny, tiny kitten by the NECK. Didn't pick it up properly, didn't even pick it up by the scruff... picked it up by the NECK, like that was a perfectly acceptable thing to do!
He glanced around and saw that no one was even paying attention/monitoring the kid... his hand was right beside her head already, so he smacked her in the face - not hard enough to actually hurt, but hard enough to startle her into dropping the kitten and running to her parents, screaming/crying because she didn't even know what had just happened to her.
Normally, pretty much anyone (even Jay) would consider it wildly inappropriate to pop some stranger's kid in the face... but it's utterly ridiculous for a 5-6 year old girl to see nothing wrong with grabbing a kitten by the neck. He (mostly) jokingly commented that she was lucky he didn't pick HER up by the neck so she'd know what it felt like; I said he should've done that to her parents
. I mean, really, how do you not teach your kid not to pick an animal up by the neck AND leave them unattended around live animals??
After rescuing the kitten from that little girl's clutches, Jay decided that she was "the one" and promptly adopted her. She's psychotic and obnoxious, but we wouldn't trade her for anything.
I've never gone wrong with picking a pet through intuition, which is as much about being open to which pet wants to choose you as it is about making a choice yourself. Sometimes you just KNOW - you can't explain it, but something about a certain animal just "clicks" for you.
