What does “Katte imasu” and “motte imasu” mean..how are they different and when are they used?

Question

I am learning Japanese using the Rosetta Stone program, but since it does not provide any English translations, I am stumped with the following sentences:

Kare wa neko o katte imasu. 
Otokonoko wa pen wo motte imasu. 
Onnanokotachi wa uma wo katte imasu.

In the first sentence, there is a boy actually holding a cat in his arms. In the second sentence, there is a boy holding a pen in his hand. In the third sentence, there are two girls; one is on the horse, and the other is near the horse. 
My question is: What do "katte imasu" and "motte imasu" mean? How are they different, and when are they used? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Doumo arigatou.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

"Katte imasu" and "motte imasu" both mean "have."
But "Katte imasu" is used when you have living animals, not things.
To achaminadefriend, "katte imasu" also means buying, but the kanji is different.
Kau (買う）= to buy
Kau （飼う）= to have pets
In this case, it's the latter.

Anonymous · Answer

katte imasu means buying and motte imasu means having or possessing
so, like, buying this cat, the boy has a pen, the girls are buying a horse

Prof. Doug Homenick · Answer

i imagine the track and the video clips are beautiful. I get excitement from and appreciate each and every international locations human beings track, even in spite of the undeniable fact that this isn't organic human beings in this is essence. like you said this is an ethnic take with a cutting-edge sound. it is also fantastic to take a wreck from some Scandinavian dudes extreme pitched screeching. ? thanks for sharing! with the help of how, someone said Borat, this is humorous reason in the action picture the village that he's in seems more advantageous like a adverse Romanian community. Plus, they use a typical gypsy track in the starting up, obviously no longer from Kazakhstan. Very faulty portrayal of Kazakhstani human beings. yet i wager i will't take that action picture even an oz.. heavily.

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What does “Katte imasu” and “motte imasu” mean..how are they different and when are they used?

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