How To Anticipate Getting A New Cat

You might have heard your friends or family talk about baby proofing their home when their child began to be mobile, if you plan on getting a kitten you will find yourself doing the same thing. A kitten is in essence a baby, but of the feline persuasion, as such they are just as curious as any other type of baby. You need to take the time and look at your home from a kitten's perspective, find possible hazardous items, and remove them accordingly.

You aren't going to be able to anticipate everything, but it is quite advantageous to the health and well being of your kitten to take some precautions.

• Kittens can be quite clumsy, make sure that all of your windows are secured and keep your kitten off of anything high such as a second story house walk out.

• Move all cleaners and anything else harmful in an area that your kitten can not access. This goes for any harmful plants as well, just as with a baby, kittens will chew on whatever is handy such as a plant.

• After you use the restroom, close the toilet lid. This is a handy piece of advice if you have kittens or small children in the home.

• Don't leave plastic materials such as trash bags or plastic storage bags lying around, again helpful for kittens and children.

• After you have finished your six pack of beer or soda, cut up the plastic ring containers so that your cat doesn't get caught up in them. This is also an environmentally kind thing to do so other animals don't share a bad fate.

• Anything electric, sharp, or pointy needs to be responsibly stores so your kitten doesn't decide to make a dangerous object its next chew toy.

If you have children or other animals in the house you will need to make sure that your kitten is introduced to them slowly and properly. Older children are not as much of a concern as small children are. You need to make sure that they understand the proper way to treat their new kitten. You need to teach them how to hold it properly and not to pull on its legs, face, tail, or ears. Young children must learn that the kitten is a living thing that they need to treat with love, care, and respect. You can help you kitten feel a little safer by getting down to his or her level when it comes to play time. This will make you not seem quite so huge and scary to the kitten.

You also need to pay close attention how other pets in the house treat the new kitten. It is not a good idea to simply leave a new kitten with an older cat or dog. Take the time to introduce them to one another while being attentive to their reactions to each other. Normally older cats will be tolerant of the new kitten and even tend to it after they are comfortable with one another.

Dogs may take a little longer to get used to the situation of a new kitten in the house. Just remember to be patient and to make sure your other animals in the house gets the love and attention that they need, make them feel just as special as the new kitten. Below are a few tips that might help you with this process.

• Don't rush your animals to get along, take it slow and easy.

• It might be wise to keep the kitten in its carrier for the first little bit while the others animals can sniff around it without making direct contact with the kitten.

• Get a new toy and put the kittens scent on it, and vice versa with the older cats or dogs, then give it to the opposite parties so they can become accustomed to the scent.

After doing some of these steps for a while, everyone should begin to get along with little disturbance in the house.