Should You Adopt That Stray?     While stray cats can make wonderful pets, not all strays adjust well to the domestic lifestyle. Before you start befriending that homeless feline meowing at your doorstep, it’s important to weigh the pluses and minuses. Here are five questions you should ask yourself, to help you decide whether or not a stray cat would make a good addition to your household: Is the cat really lacking an owner? Before you let yourself get attached to the cat, try to ascertain whether or not it belongs to someone. Look for an identification tag on the collar. If the cat isn’t wearing a collar, it may still be identified with a microchip under its skin. You can take the cat to a veterinarian and have it scanned to find out whether there’s a microchip. Talk to others in your neighborhood to see if they might know to whom the cat belongs. Call your local police department or animal shelter to see if someone has reported a lost cat.   Does the cat have health problems? If you have other pets, isolate the cat until you can have it checked over by a veterinarian so that you don’t expose your healthy animals to what this cat may have. Talk to your vet about what it would take to bring this cat’s health up to par. Ask for an estimate of healthcare costs. Know what your financial obligations would be if you decide to adopt this cat. At a minimum, the cat will probably need to be vaccinated and spayed or neutered. Is it a “people cat?” Think about how much effort you’re willing to put in to rehabilitate an unsociable cat. It may be months or even years to before the cat warms up to you, if then. The cat may never settle comfortably in your home and spend its life hiding under a bed. If you’ve got the time to devote to the cat, and you won’t be disappointed if it never comes out of its shell, it may still be OK for you. If not, you’d be better off with another cat. What impact would this cat have on my other pets? Your other pets may see the stray as an intruder, especially if the new cat gets a lot of extra attention and your other animals get the idea that their place has been usurped. If your dog or cat is elderly or in poor health, taking in a stray may cause it stress and hasten or worsen its health problems. Can I commit 100% to this cat? If you can’t commit 100 percent to the cat, it’s best to take it to a “no-kill” animal shelter. At least it will have a chance of being adopted, which is a better fate than continuing to live on the streets.   Tips on Helping an Adopted Cat Adjust Get to know the cat If you know the previous owner, try to learn as much as possible about the cat’s background. Ask a lot of questions: Was the cat allowed to go outdoors, or did it stay inside? Are there behavior problems that were not resolved in the past? What brand of litter does the cat prefer? Does it like to be held or is it a hands-off cat? Did the cat live with other pets? Are there certain experiences that have always frightened the cat? The more you know about the cat’s history, the easier it will be to help it adjust to your home. You can also learn a lot about the cat just by being a good observer. “Open yourself up to observing the cat rather than making it what you think it should be, and you’ll learn a lot,” Wright says. The cat will let you know when it wants to be left alone, when it wants to eat, where it would be comfortable having its litter box or scratching post-if you are paying attention to its signals. Don’t push too fast Let your new cat initiate interactions for the first week or two. “You will need to go especially slow if the cat is fearful or skittish. If you try to force the cat to be friends before it is ready, that may cost you its trust,” says Nicholas Dodman, B.V.M.S., director of the Behavior Clinic at the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. Don’t attempt to pick up or touch the cat if it is not comfortable with your doing so. Accept whatever amount of contact the cat is willing to offer and gradually work from there. You can try to coax the cat out of its shell by offering it food treats. Sit down in the same room as your cat, toss a food treat in its direction and wait for the cat to grab it. Next, toss a treat a little closer to you, then closer and closer until finally you are simply placing the treat on your lap or hand. But take your time doing this: Depending on how timid the cat is, it may take several weeks until the cat is comfortable taking food treats from your hand. Gradually allow the cat access to your home When you bring home a new cat, first put it in a small room by itself-then gradually allow it greater access. “The cat will not feel secure about its new environment until it has had a chance to explore every inch of your house,” says John Ciribassi, D.V.M., a veterinarian in private practice in Carol Stream, Illinois. “By introducing the cat to one part of your home at time, you’re making that task a lot less daunting; the cat will have a smaller area that it feels it has to explore, as opposed to giving it a huge area to investigate all at once.” Establish routines Have regular routines from the first day you bring home your new cat. Some of the most important routines are how often and when you play with the cat, regular mealtimes, the normal activity level in your household, and morning and evening rituals for your family and for the cat. “If you’re constantly changing how things are done at home, you’re going to have a very confused animal,” Ciribassi says. Established routines and attitudes help pets learn to trust their owners because they know what to expect.   Tips on Introducing Your Adopted Cat to Your Other Pets Introducing the Adoptee to Your Other Pets When you first bring home a new cat, introduce it to your other pets slowly and gradually. Even under the best of circumstances, this will be a tense situation for your new cat. But it the cat has never lived with other animals before, being around your other dogs and cats may be especially stressful. Your best bet is to introduce the new cat to your other pets in stages. “When you first bring the new cat home, put it in a room by itself, shut the door, and let your resident cat or dog have the run of the rest of the house,” Dodman says. Arrange to feed the animals at set times during the day on either sides of the door, so that they can have a pleasurable experience in each other’s company. Allow the animals to smell each other under the door. After a day or two give them limited contact through a screen or crack the door an inch. Or put the new cat inside a pet carrier and bring it out into the same room with your other pets. Give the animals a chance to get used to the idea that there’s another pet in the house before they actually have to meet each other face to face. Provide plenty of litter boxes Your new cat is going to have no idea where the litter boxes are located in your home. “If the cat can’t find the litter box, it may just go on the floor, and you can start to have problems with inappropriate elimination,” Dodman cautions. Make sure you have two or three litter boxes available in strategic locations throughout your house, so that the cat always has reasonable access to at least one. Be patient Don’t give up on the cat if you notice behaviors in it that you don’t like. If you don’t know how to solve a behavior problem, get professional help from your veterinarian or an animal behaviorist. Make a commitment to do whatever it takes to make the cat comfortable in your home and to resolve problems. “Don’t allow a second-hand cat to be bounced around to a third or fourth home,” Sinclair says. “With patience, understanding and commitment, chances are that in time, your cat will become a wonderful companion to you and your family."