by Jennifer Brister

Created on: July 30, 2010

Pets are a wonderful and welcome addition to any family. They make our lives more meaningful and teach our little ones the responsibility of taking care of a loved one. When my daughter decided to take in a stray kitten, it was an ideal situation for me to teach my her exactly what she should do to care of and possibly adopt a stray animal.

First, we checked the cat for a standard pet collar or tag. She had neither. Then we decided to post some signs around the neighborhood where the school was located to see if anyone had lost her. We took a snapshot of the cat, copied it onto a flier and posted them at the street corners and at the local veterinary offices. We also placed a free ad in the found section of the paper. When we got no response from either of these outlets, we called our local vet to make sure that no one had mentioned losing a cat of this type. Every day, my daughter would sit by the phone, waiting for it to ring, but hoping it didn't. It looked like we had a new, wonderful addition to our family.

My daughter named the kitten Zoe and after waiting two weeks for someone to claim the cat, we took her to the vet to have her checked out. Since we had no medical history for the her, the vet decided we should treat her like she had had no shots and immediately started her on the regular kitten routine. After we found that she was healthy, we took her home, along with a pet care guide that the vet gave us. We continued to take Zoe to the vet every few weeks to get her shots finished and make sure that she was staying healthy.

We sat down as a family and discussed how to take care of a cat and make everyone in the family comfortable around her. We had no other pets at the time, so it was not necessary for us to acclimate Zoe into the household with other animals. If you do have other pets, it is advisable to make sure that each pet has his/her own space in which to sleep and call their own. Slowly introduce the pets to each other and keep a close eye on them for the first few weeks. I would advise anyone who is thinking of adopting a stray, to follow these same steps to make bringing home a new animal a whole lot easier!

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