What should I plan to have ready when I bring my new cat home?

Bridget Speiser: Hi, my name is Bridget, I am with the Washington Humane Society in Washington DC and today I am talking to you about how to select the perfect cat for your home and family and right now we are going to discuss actually bringing kitty home and getting him settled.

Host: What should I plan to have ready, when I bring my new cat home?

Bridget Speiser: Before you bring kitty home, first of all congratulations on picking a cat and you going through the adoption process, you have now have selected your friend for life and you are getting ready to bring him home. So you will want to have a few things ready, right after that. You will want to have to setup a feeding spot for him, which includes a bowl for food and a bowl for water. You will want to probably have a designated area setup for scratching because scratching behavior is very normal for cats, they do want to have a space where they can stretch out their backs and get their claws taken care of, so a nice scratching post, both vertical and horizontal, because some cats scratch along the ground and some cats scratch in an incline. You also may want to have a bed setup, some corner that's going to be quiet, dedicated corner just for him and certainly at least a litter box, perhaps two. Many experts do recommend having one extra box as opposed to a number of cats. So if you are adopting one cat, you may want to look to having two boxes in the house.