What is the best advice for getting a new cat?

>>18315471
don't let it outside.

>>18315471
Live in a house, with a garden in a quiet neighboorhood where people don't drive like crazy assholes.
t. someone who had two cats killed crushed by cars

Cats are unhappy in flats. It's in their instincts to have a large territory.

>>18315484
Ignore this faggot. Cats are not like dogs, they crave adventure. If you keep it indoors you are denying the animal a good life. If you bitch about cats killing birds then don't pretend to like them, it's what they do, stop being a little whiney faggot

>>18315471
Get some street mixed race. They are the most healthy. Spay male, maybe spay female, buy anti worms pills like each 6 months, and act around cat like you would like it to act towards you aka
>pet it heavy if you want your cat to seek constant attention
>if you dont want it to bite / scratch you, hit it MILDLY back each time it attacks you
>if you dont want it do something, throw it away / slap when you see doing it

And this
>>18315499
cats venture a lot.

>>18315499
This. If you cannot avoid having an inside cat, adopt one that is already used to living inside only. They have different personalities obviously, and while one cat can be completely okay inside, another one can go pretty much insane.

Don't buy a bunch of expensive toys beforehand. Cats are fickle and tend to only care for specific things (eg toys with catnip, but nothing else). They are also notorious for preferring the bocks/bags toys came in than the toys themselves.

Invest in good quality (dry) food. Much more important than cutesy stuff.

Discipline your cat if you get a kitten. You can spray with water but it is already quite effective to just get up and leave instantly if they get too rough while playing. Cats aren't dogs but it's a myth that they can't be trained at all.

If you want to be 100% sure that your cat has a certain personality (eg, loves being cuddled), adopt an older cat. Cats aren't that domesticated compared to dogs and they can be both really sweet and affectionate, or extremely skittish and avoidant.

Please don't buy a fancy breed. They generally live less long than other cats, are expensive, they can actually get stolen, and imo it's kind of perverse to spend hundreds of dollars on a trophy kitten when countless cats are wasting away as we speak.

dont get one.

>Let them settle in first, let them explore your place before you interact with it too much
>If their tails are up with the tip slightly curled that means the want to interact/be petted also if they brush up against you

Also if the cat is young, expect it to tear shit apart and scratch furniture.

>>18315506
This is how you get a cat ran over by a car, mauled by a dog, covered in fleas and other parasites along with other feline specific diseases.

When adopting a cat they will ask you specifically if you are going to let it outside. If you say yes they WILL NOT FUCKING GIVE IT TO YOU.

>>18315471
get a baby cat

>>18315506
seriously, fuck this asshole.

If you let your cat out you're endangering it's safety. Unless you live a rural area, you should never let your cat out. The odds of it getting sick, attacked, SHOT, stolen, diseased, or roadkilled are extremely high.

You have never owned a pet before, have you?

If you don't want to let it out, build some kind of balcony outside where it can just chill and make sure it has lots of toys and scratching posts and stuff. They do get fat and lethargic if kept indoors with no activities. You need to compensate for keeping it inside with giving it extra attention. It is also likely to dart if it gets out, and it's very difficult to retrieve runaway cats, dogs just wander around out in the open but cats hide and will travel very far. An outdoor cat will come back when you call it, if it wants to.

>>18315670
Oh also make sure to check the phosphorus levels of their food. Most bottom shelf brands have too much. Keep them well hydrated, they won't drink when you want them to but they do need clean water and food with simple ingredients. No grains.

>>18315629
>>18315649
Not the quoted anon but this is not a universal thing. I'm a Eurofag and keeping a cat inside is commonly considered animal abuse here.

Yes the risk of something happening is higher (though because of the toll that not going outside takes on the immune system of an inside cat, this can also give risks especially carrying bacteria etc with you from outside) but who the fuck generally follows these priorities? Would YOU never do drugs or travel far away or have sex with a stranger because you decrease risk by not doing those things? And these are some specific "pleasures of life" for people. For a cat it is most of their natural behavior (bathing in direct sunlight and rolling in sand, marking territory, interacting with other cats - yeah they can make friends, even apart from fucking - roaming, smelling all kinds of different things, hunting and stalking prey) that becomes impossible.

>>18315649
Consider this: If you lived your entire life in a prison cell, shitting in a box and eating the same processed food every single day, you would be "safer" too. But would life be worth living?

I guess it would all be worth it if your captor occasionally rubs your back and scratches your ears, right?

>>18315688
>Consider this: If you lived your entire life in a prison cell,
Consider this:
IM NOT A FUCKING CAT YOU FUCKING TARD

>>18315687
>m a Eurofag and keeping a cat inside is commonly considered animal abuse here.
uhhhhhh no. Just no.

You don't have a cat do you? You have never adopted a cat, have you?

Absolutely NO city wants animals outdoors for so many fucking reasons. This is why they WILL NOT FUCKING GIVE YOU ONE IF YOU TELL THEM YOU WILL LET IT OUTSIDE.

>>18315727
I meant, in my country (NL). Yes, I have owned three cats, two of them adopted.

>>18315736
and how did you get your cats? From a shelter or from friends?

In a rural area, it's fine, whatever.

In any kind of populated area there a million reasons why you shouldn't let your cat roam freely outdoors. Number one reason being breeding. For some retarded ass reason, people do not get their pets fixed either.

>>18315745
From the shelter. They did ask if I was going to let them outside, but just to advise me on whether or not to get them treated for flees preemptively. One of them was actually a feral cat who was not allowed to be kept inside to begin with.

Sure they aren't endlessly happy with cats roaming outdoors. They kill too many birds and other small prey, shit in people's gardens, scare people by passing quickly in front of their car. But it is a rare exception if people keep their cats inside. It's actually legally decided here that a cat owner cannot be held accountable for damage a cat does in someone's garden, because they cannot be expected to be controlled or kept inside. (Though they are also legally required to be fixed if you get it from a shelter. And in part of Belgium it's already required by law to have cats fixed in general.) Stalking their territory is pretty much activity #1 and cats have been domesticated for much less long than dogs, as well.
I see disadvantages and of course I sometimes worry. But honestly after growing up seeing the cats in my parental household and my own overjoyed at the first spring day, wanting to be outside 24/7, coming home happy and exhausted... I would rather not own a cat than keep it like a bird in a cage. No disrespect intended, I know people who keep their cats inside -also- do so because they feel it's best for them.

>>18315721
The point I'm making is that it's actually kind of fucked-up to have a cat as a pet if you're not gonna give it any freedom at all. I understand that YOU'RE not a cat, but hopefully you understand that they do have thoughts and feelings. Think about what you're doing, for a second.

You keep an animal locked up in your house for no practical reason at all, feed it meat-flavored cardboard every single day, castrate it so it has no chance of reproduction and no purpose for existing at all, and make it shit in a box inside of its own living space. That is a miserable, miserable existence. And why? Because you think it looks cute and cuddly? Because you like to touch its fur? That's a living, sentient being that basically serves the same purpose to you as a plush toy.

Cats don't bond with their owners in the same way that dogs do, they don't get any sense of fulfillment from living with you. Cat ownership makes sense if you've got a pest problem and they're actually allowed to hunt. They're predators, they can't be happy if they're not killing anything.

You can have a happy cat if you allow it to go out of the house and have some independence. But if you keep it cooped up all the time, they literally go insane and get depressed, just like you would if you lived a similar existence

>>18315629
atleast the cat died enjoying his life instead of being a prisoner you fucking mongoloid. cats beat dogs 80% of the time in a fight. parasites and diseases are not a concern due to medical preventatives.

>>18315762
I'm not them and I'm not saying any of these points you make are incorrect, that's just the way it is with pets. But the pests eat trash and antifreeze and dying of kidney failure isn't something I'd want to happen either and you can substitute the killing with giving them adequate play time. It doesn't just have to be feed it kibble and some meat paste twice a day and let it just do nothing else but sleep and shit.

I don't think dogs or cats are right for anyone who lives in an apartment complex, urban area, etc. They do need room and they do need to be outside in the sun, even in a contained area.