A childhood belief about cats and dogs

i used to believe that my pet cats actually had nine lives, because everytime one was lost or died, my mother would bring another back to me, exactly like the earlier one. Instead, when i got older, i found out that was a lie, because one day my mother brung one of the opposite sex, and then she finally told me the cats she'd bring me, were only different replacements she'd buy only to keep me from crying from the lost one.