Prepare For Your Cat

What do I have to buy for the cat before I take her home?

Before you bring your cat home, you need to dash to your local pet supply store, and be prepared to fill your little shopping cart with the following. A litter box, preferibly two. The math is one litter box per cat, plus one. So you probably need to add two. Litter, obviously. There are many types to consider. You need to get a scooper. You need to get a collar and an ID. You need to get food. And work with your veterinarian to make sure that you've got good quality food that meets your kitten or cat's need. You need to get toys. Come on, spoil the little cat or kitten. They need to know that they're part of this family. Also important, save your furniture. I call it the SOS, Save Our Sofa: Scratching post. Make sure they're sturdy and have a little bit of angle to them, because cats have many different ways that they like to have their little pedicures done, and you don't want your couch to be the target of that need. Water and food bowls. And even a leash, believe it or not. It's always nice. Bedding. Cats are into comfort. They sleep seventeen hours a day. They need to have good places to perch and nap. So those are some of the things that are going to make "ka ching" when you out the checkout line, but they're very essential for your cat.

What is the best type of litter box for my cat?

I have to talk to you a little bit about cat bathroom needs, and we're talking about litterboxes. Litterboxes come in many shapes and sizes these days, I think that people in the designer world have gone gaga over litterboxes. You can have litterboxes open, the traditional rectangle size, you can have litterboxes with the hood, which lets the cat climb in it. There are dome-shaped litterboxes, there are litterboxes that blend into your furniture, and they look like a coffee end table but they're actually a litterbox. There are litterboxes that are actually two tiered, there are automatic litter boxes that supposedly self-scoop but there's always a hiccup. As you can see there's lots of choices of litterbox, but I prefer the open litterboxes or the ones with a hood if your cat is going to use it and if you will scoop that litter every day, because if you don't the danger of the hooded litterboxes is that all that odour just gets harboured inside the litterbox, and it stinks, and you know our cats can smell like ten thousand times better than we can, so be polite to them. Keep their bathrooms clean.

Should I cuddle the new cat if she cries during the first night?

If you have a new cat and they're in this strange new environment and they don't know where they are, it's probably likely that that cat might be crying out during the night. They're scared; they don't know where they are. This is your opportunity that you may end up cuddling a little bit with the cat, and it's OK. Some people actually put an alarm clock near the cat's bed. It mimics the momma cat's heartbeat, if you will. Just expect for the first few nights when you bring a cat or a kitten home, they may need a little time to adjust. You may not be getting that full eight hours of sleep, but sacrificing a little bit of sleep might go a long way in making that cat feel more at home quicker.