Choosing your Kitten

Choose a lively, happy kitten. It is best if you can see the mother to check that she is healthy and does not have and    health problems that her kittens could have caught. Your ideal kitten should have clean ears, eyes and fur. Her fur should be 'well groomed', healthy cats would not let themselves be caught looking grubby!! Its nose should be damp and its eyes bright. She should be alert, have a good appetite and a moist nose. Do not choose a cat that sneezes she could have asthma or cat flu.
Kittens should stay with their mothers until they are 6 to 8 weeks old. You should take your kitten to the vet as soon as possible. He will check she is well and give you advice on worming her and having her injections.

Cat belongings

Your kitten will need a basket to sleep in, a litter tray, a saucer for her food and a dish for her water, possibly a collar

The Litter Tray: Cats are very clean creatures and may use the litter tray without any prompting. However if your cat is a bit daft, and uses the corner of the living room. you could try moving the litter tray to the corner of the living room or catching her 'at it' and putting her on the litter tray. They don't usually take long to get the message (thankfully). Once your cat is using the tray you can move it closer and closer to the door and eventually just outside, then into the garden, then forget it all together.
Collar: You can get your cat a flea collar or just a normal collar. You can attach your 'phone number to the tag. The collar should be elasticised, so that if it gets caught on something while your cat is out on her adventures, it will come off. Better a lost collar that a stuck cat.
Cat Flap: A cat flap allows your cat to come and go as and when she pleases. Sometimes next doors cat may pay a visit via the cat flap...but it can be nice to have a visitor. Some cat flaps lock, some don't and some have special tags which your cat wears on her collar, that make the cat flap open, so that the cat next door can't pop in.
Stitching Post: These can help you stop your cat from sharpening her nails on your furniture.

Food

Kittens can be very greedy...don't let them con you with that doleful look. Kittens should have 4 small meals a day if they are younger than 12 weeks, gradually becoming 2 meals each day if they are over 12 weeks. You can feed your cat tinned or dried food, dried is less smelly...
You should be sure that your cat has fresh water to drink all the time, milk is thought to give cats diarrhoea so its not a good idea to give it to them. Cats eat grass, it helps them digest their food and helps to prevent balls of fur getting caught in their throats (hairballs).

Grooming

Fur: Long haired cats need to be brushed daily or their coats become matted and untidy. This is a good chance to look for fleas. Short haired cats will look after their own coats but its still a good idea to check regularly for fleas, tics and bites. If you do find fleas you can get powders and sprays to get rid of them. You have to treat the cat, the carpet, the chairs and its bedding to get rid of them properly. You can get flea collars or drops which stop cats getting fleas. But you cannot use these on young kittens.

Teeth: You can clean your cats teeth with a soft cloth and salty water or you can get special cat toothpaste from pet shops. Dried food helps to keep their teeth clean too.

Poorly Cats

If your cat won't eat: Don't panic. she may just be fed up with the same old food. Try something else.
If your cat is sick: Again don't panic...its usually because she's eaten to much. You never can tell who else has been feeding her, or how many mice there are in the shed!!
If your cat is sneezing: This could be due to dust or hay fever, but if it continues take her to the vet, it could be cat flu and that can be dangerous.
Bald Patches: Our cat Grebe, is always fighting, so she often has bald patches. Bald patches can also be caused by your cats collar, ringworm or a vitamin deficiency. If the cause isn't obvious take her to the vet.

A poorly cat likes to curl up somewhere warm and quiet. They often like a warm hot water bottle. You could bring her cat litter tray in for her if she is very poorly. A poorly cat usually likes attention provided you are quiet, gentle and don't pick her up.

Giving your cat tablets: Our cats spits tablets out and looks at us as if we're mad. If you can get the tablet to the back of her tongue, you can hold her mouth shut until she swallows it. If you are worried about her scratching you, it is a good idea if you can wrap her in a towel.

Should she/he have a family?

If you do not want your cat to become a mother or father then you should take it to the vet before it is 6 months old. He will operate on your cat to stop it becoming a parent, this operation is called 'sterilization'.
"But my cats a male, so we don't have problems with unwanted kittens".....Well, apart from expecting someone else to take all the responsibility for the unwanted kittens, your male cat will probably spend a lot of his time fighting with other male cats.
An unspecialized cat will want to have kittens 3 times every year, and there will probably be a long queue of hopeful 'daddies' following her around.

A cats pregnancy lasts about 63 days. If your cat does have kittens, you should be very quiet when you are near them or she may move them out of your way. Your mother cat, will eat about 5 times as much as she usually does.
Kittens are born with their eyes closed and do not open them until they are about 9 days old. At about 12 days they begin to hear. When the kittens are about 2 weeks old, the mother cat will show them how to use a litter tray (providing you give them one). They can start eating kitten food at about 3 weeks old.

Ten Things you may not know about cats.

• Cats are found all over the world from Africa to icy Greenland.

• Cats have two coats. An under coat of soft fur and a top coat of stiff, longer hairs known as guard hairs. These guard hairs give the cat its colour and pattern.

• Whiskers and guard hairs have sensitive roots and so are organs of touch helping the cat feel objects in the dark and judge small spaces.

• Cats can see 6 times better than humans at night.

• All cats can swim. They just don't like to.

• In hot countries cats sleep up to 18 hours a day

• A cheetah can run as fast as 96 kph (60 mph) and can reach its top speed in under 3 seconds from a standing start. A lot quicker than most cars.

• A breed of cat known as The Sphinx has no hair. It's totally bald.

• Manx cats (Manx meaning from the Isle of Man off the Northwest coast of England) have no tails. Well sometimes just a stub.

• The fishing cat of India flips fish from the water with its paw and has been known to dive in and catch fish in its mouth.