Kitties like very clean litter boxes so scoop out poop and pee everyday. Also have a little box for every floor in the house plus one extra. Get a good cat tree as cats love to be high up.
When I got my cat at Petco they set me up with everything I needed. First they had me get a carrying crate to carry him in. A plastic crate with a handle and later I used it every time I took him to the vet. They will probably tell you this at the shelter but you need a litter box and litter. And you want to put it in a place to give your cat a little privacy.
You’ll need food. I fed my cat a combination of dry food and wet food. You will need a food bowl and a water bowl. It would be good to buy some toys for your cat to play with. You might also want to buy some treats to give him/her every now and then. A good way to entertain and exercise a cat is with a cheap laser. They’re about $4.00 or $5.00. My cat loved chasing the laser, he couldn’t get enough of it.
Some people say you shouldn’t put a collar on a cat because he could get it caught on a tree branch or something and hang itself. But Petco had me get a collar with his name on it and my phone number. Indoor cats live an average of ten years longer than outdoor cats. Cats can be perfectly happy living indoors. Outdoor cats face having to fight dogs or other cats, they can get hit by cars or poisoned, or pick up diseases from other cats. The shelter will tell you all this, I’m pretty sure.
My cat was 8 months old when I got him. The reason this was good was that at 8 months old, the lady who foster raised him could tell me what his personality was like and he was old enough so he was easier to take care of than a kitten and I knew what I was getting into when I got him. But he was still young enough so he was cute and playful. And luckily he was a mellow, social, affectionate cat.
The number one thing I hate in a cat is a cat who’s scared of people. I’ve seen too many cats at friends houses or even my families houses who the minute someone walks in the room the cat bolts and hides under a chair or the couch or something. My cat wasn’t like that at all. He wasn’t scared of me at all. And he wasn’t scared of most strangers. The handyman used to come in my studio all the time to fix things when I lived alone. Milo (my cat) would just calmly sit there watching him and he was that friendly with most people. You might need to get your cat a scratching post too. You’ll probably need one.
When you walk into an animal shelter, you will find animals licking their own ass, some of them eating, some of them sleeping, but one will always come to the front of the cage the minute you walk in the room. That’s your cat
Petco set me up with this lady who would come to my studio and trim his nails. It was pretty cheap, like $7.00-$10.00. It’s possible to do it yourself, but I never learned, you have to be careful when you trim them yourself. I rarely bathed him, he was an indoor cat and he just didn’t get that dirty.
