Are you like millions of other people and have some

Are you like millions of other people and have some type of collection? Collecting is something that many people do; however have you ever thought about how a collection gets started. I have a collection of cat figurines. They range from quite small to over a foot tall. Some of the statues are made of expensive hand blown glass from Italy and others are made of rubber. Some are one of a kind hand carved and others were mass produced. Because each one has a story of some kind behind it they are all priceless to me. I have always been a cat lover. I grew up with having cats in the house. Out family cat picked my room to sleep in and I took care of the majority of its needs. My aunt gave me my first cat statue when I was a child. Through the years I started receiving more of them as gifts. Because I was accumulating the statues I started picking some up when I went traveling. I now have a curio cabinet that is full of cat statues. I never consciously thought about collecting them it just evolved as a result of that first gift from my aunt.

I do not think I am unique in how my collection began. My husband has a similar story for how his collection began, it is just that he was much older than I was and his started as a joke. He collects diecast toy cars. He received his first one when he graduated from high school. Two of his friends were getting cars as graduation presents. He mentioned this to his parents a least once a day for several months prior to graduation. On graduation day he also received a car; however his was a die-cast toy car. When he saw the small car he was amazed at the details in it. When he was older he wanted a certain make and model of a car, again he received one of the diecast toy cars instead. This peaked his interest and he began looking at the different makes and models that were available. Soon he began to pick up a few of the die cast toy cars when he would see makes and models that interested him. Once we were married and I learned of his collection I began buying him the die cast cars models that you put together and paint yourself. This has continued to be a hobby that he enjoys doing during the winter months.

I am glad that both of our collections can be contained in a relatively small area. My cat statues are located in the curio in the dining room and the toy die-cast cars are displayed in a cabinet in the den. We still add to our collections if we see an interesting piece when we are traveling, but the majority of our collections were given to us.