Choosing The Right Cat For You
Adopting or buying a pet cat is certainly an exciting time, however to ensure that you and your pet are happy together you need to consider what type of cat suits your likes, home, budget and family.
Whilst choosing the individual cat you take home with you will ultimately be an emotional decision, you can easily narrow down your choices by addressing a few key areas of cat ownership.
These include:
- Long or short hair cat?
- Indoor or outdoor?
- One or more cats?
- Buy or Adopt?
Coat Type
Choosing between a long or short haired cat comes down to aesthetics (looks) as well as whether or not you have allergies or are planning to keep the cat inside where an abundance of hair may bother you. Most long haired breeds like Persians require personal grooming, whilst a semi-longhair or shorthair breed will not require much or any grooming by the owner. Keep this in mind when choosing a cat!
The Maine Coon is a large, semi-longhaired cat.
Indoors vs Outdoors
Whilst it is always wise to lock your cat inside at night, will you be keeping him outside or inside during the day? Or a combination of both? Some cat breeds love the freedom of outdoors, whilst others prefer being quietly inside. Choose a cat which suits your lifestyle.
How many cats?
If you are adopting kittens, sometimes it’s a good idea to take two together. This gives the kittens company and allows them to not have to adjust to a single life. On the other hand, it will of course cost you more in food and vet bills so make sure you weigh up both sides.
Buy or Adopt?
If you are after a pedigree (purebred) cat, then you'll almost always have to buy from a breeder. Prices can vary from a couple of hundred for some breeds up to nearly $1000 for rare or exotic breeds. If you are not into cat showing and just want a friendly pet, or perhaps want to save a life, visit your local cat shelter and you can pick one up there for just the price of desexing and worming (usually around $100 or less).
Good luck with your cat search!
