If I do get a cat, would the following cat toy be a good idea? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94ZkpdXeZFY&feature=related
I used to play with my dog Buster using a laser pointer, but at some point he figured out that it was just a dot of light that came from the thing in my hand. When he saw the dot, he’d just look at me as if to say “I’m on to you now.”
Why use an auto-laser when there is so much more fun to be had pointing the laser yourself? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFztjgfDWDA
There are a lot of jokes about how cats are untrainable, but they are trainable. Two things I did when my cats were very young (adopted around 6 months, a little younger).
Trimmed their nails regularly and gave a treat afterward. They are perfectly calm while I press on their pads and trip the tips of their nails.
Trained them to scratch their post on command. They never scratch furniture and only occasionally go nuts and try to scratch the carpet (rare). I got some bonito flakes from the pet store (which my cats love more than anything). I say “show me what a good kitty does” and they run over and scratch their posts for a treat. I do it in the morning before work and once at night and it seems to fulfill their scratching needs.
True enough. Remember the Crocodile Dundee trick when he made the bull lie down simply by pointing two fingers at him and making a moaning noise? I can do the same thing with my cat. She flops on her side and makes that eh-eh-eh-eh sound when I do it.
We’ve taught our cat to roll over in exchange for a treat. I should try to get it on video one of these days.
Get a professional to shampoo a cat. Trust me on this. Cats do not like to be shampooed, and if you have to do it because they’ve been outside and come back with a nice healthy crop of fleas… well, a vet is worth it.
Speaking of which, if you’re walking around the carpeted house and you notice that your ankles are covered with itchy red welts, it’s not the poison ivy you thought you might have stepped in a few days ago… it’s fleas in the carpet. You will have to shampoo the whole carpet while keeping the cat away from it.
Ideally the cat will be at the vet being de-fleaed while you clean the carpet. Then you put a flea collar on the cat. Cats can wiggle their way out of collars though.
re: fleas - I personally am a fan of the once-a-month topical treatments like Frontline and Advantage. Easy, effective, no need for stinky collars or shampoos. The only draw back is that they are expensive ( and never use the cheap substitutes ).
If you have an indoor cat, you may not even have to worry about it every single month. Though even then I would go through a three or four month treatment phase at least once a year - you will bring in fleas from the environment eventually.
We’ve never used a flea treatment and there haven’t been any problems. I’m sure the vet would have mentioned it if he did have any. But it’s probably good general advice to do so anyway.
Some cats are really picky about their litter box. Some aren’t. My mom and I each have cats on the opposite end of that spectrum – she has to scoop daily (which is really the best thing anyway) or her cat will use the floor next to it as a Statement, while mine doesn’t seem to care if I forget or something and let it slide a day or so.
Personally I strongly dislike scented litter and get plain unscented store brand. I’ve never gotten into the scoopable, but have heard good things. I don’t feel like trying a big switch at the moment, though.
Basic cat care is really, really easy. You do what they tell you and everything will be fine. 
Oh, and if you are getting kittens? Kittens are insane. Little insane bundles of energy. They are also insanely cute, though. Two will be easier than one as they can entertain each other.
My cat rolls over for the neighbour’s dog, and the neighbour’s neighbour’s dog. It’s one of his ways of saying “I like you!”
The cheaper the toy, the better a cat is likely to enjoy it. For instance, I’ve never met a cat that didn’t enjoy paper bags and cardboard boxes, which are either free or very cheap. I get practice golf balls for an incredibly low price, they’re the hollow plastic kind.
Don’t use flea collars. Use Frontline or Advantage drops, don’t use the cheap brands. The cheap brands can be dangerous, and usually aren’t nearly as effective.
Others have covered the litter and box issues.
Many humans who are owned by cats have experienced the Midnight Crazies. It seems that the majority of cats are possessed by minor demons late in the evening, which causes them to rush around madly in an effort to exorcise said demons. Humans need to help with the exorcism by beating the cats on the butt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_M5BOPorYI , and then chasing the cats around the house. Cats enjoy this, the demons don’t. Then both cats and humans can go to sleep.
Have each member of the family wear an old tshirt for a day, and don’t wash these shirts. Take them to the shelter, and have the shirts put in the cats’ enclosure. This way, the cats can get used to your scents. Incidentally, it was a VERY good decision to get two cats who are used to each other. Cats usually enjoy having other cats around the house. And shelter kitties are the best!
Cats vomit for a variety of reasons and it’s up to you to determine if it’s just from overeating, a hairball, or that rubber band he looked so cute playing with last night.
Lots of great advice on this thread.
Paranoid cat owner alert:
String looks like a fun cat toy but it’s not so fun to remove from their intestines. If your kittehs like string-type toys (evidenced by batting at cords and such), try thick shoelaces, drapery cords, etc., as non-swallowable alternatives. Ditto for any other toy - wadded up aluminum foil makes a good shiny ball to chase, but it needs to be too big to swallow.
Here’s a site written by a vet to help people choose pet insurance: Pet Insurance University.
To expand on the training thing a little bit, if you start when they’re young and handle their paws and open their mouths briefly each day, then give them a treat, it will be much easier to clip their nails (I do my cat’s every week or two) and give them pills if they should need it (my cat came with the donottouchmymouthfucker button installed, and she gets aggressive if I try to pill her). Scissor-style kitteh nail clippers can be had at the pet store for not very much money.
It’s not a bad idea to get your kittehs microchipped. You will soon become attached to them and will want them back if they escape, wander off, or get found and taken to a vet’s office or animal shelter, and your odds are increased with a microchip. The microchip is the size of a grain of rice and is injected under the skin (only takes a minute) by the vet. You send your paperwork in to one of the national registries, and if your kitteh should go astray, the shelter will most likely scan kitteh and be able to track you down.
Regarding the two litter box bit, if you think there are any territory/dominance issues, put one of them in an entirely different room. Think of it this way - if some big bully is standing in the doorway of the restroom giving you the evil eye, it doesn’t matter how many urinals are in the room behind him: you’re still going to be crossing your legs in the hallway. This may not be an issue but it is a place to start if somebody is thinking outside the box or they are grumping at each other.
Most of all, though, have fun and enjoy your new feline overlords!
Apparently, they also vomit just because they’re bored, or because they find it just so much FUN.
Oh yeah, keep the damned rubber bands and twist ties out of their reach. The little furballs enjoy playing with them, and then eating them, and then, hopefully, they throw them back up. When they DON’T throw them back up this can cause problems of the immediate and expensive kind.
Thanks guys this helps a lot.
I know I am over thinking a lot of this but I really can’t help it. Now I am off to look into pet insurance.
They also vomit if they have thyroid issues like ours does. This doesn’t usually develop until they’re much older, though.
Just got a cat for the first time last month. He is a male. This post explains some things. Our new cat, for instance, LOVES to drink out of softly-running faucets. So not only is it entertaining … it’s purposeful 
Ask the shelter what they’ve been feeding them. Start off feeding them the same thing. If you want to change their food, do it gradually- mix a little of the new food into the old food, and gradually up the amount of new food. If you change their food abruptly, it can lead to digestive issues like vomiting or diarrhea. These are usually temporary, but that doesn’t mean they’re not unpleasant while they’re happening. As a cat owner, I’d rather not deal with feline diarrhea and vomit. They don’t try to make it to the litter box when they feel it coming.
If you don’t want the cats to bug you in the morning, the secret is to not feed them immediately after you get up. Feed them in the evening, if you can. If you need to feed them in the morning, at least don’t feed them until you’ve gone through some of your morning routine (maybe after you take a shower).
Some cats can free-feed (ie, you leave a bowl of dry food out and they eat from it when they feel like it) and not get overweight, some can’t.
Once you’ve found a litter box and litter that the cats will use, stick with it. Don’t just buy whatever’s on sale this week. Cats are not big fans of change (except the kind they can bat off the dresser). They tend to express their unhappiness with their litter box arrangements by going elsewhere.
Check the amount of… er, output that you’re seeing in the litter box every week. If you’re suddenly seeing a lot less than usual, it means one of two things. Either the cats are producing less (which means a trip to the vet is probably in order), or they’re going somewhere else. You should try to find out where they are going, if it’s not in their litter box, since pet messes get harder to clean up the longer they sit.
Don’t leave string or thread around where the cats can get it. If they swallow it, it can literally saw through their intestines. This can result in a huge (thousands of dollars) vet bill, a dead cat, or both. Be especially careful with butcher’s twine that might be flavored with something tasty.
The rule in Casa Neville regarding lighted candles: If a candle is lit, an adult must be in the room with it, and must have it in their line of sight, at all times. Unattended lighted candles in a house where there are cats is just asking for trouble, and potentially very bad trouble (fire generally qualifies as “very bad trouble” in my book).
Onions, garlic, chocolate, grapes and raisins, and some other human foods are toxic to cats. If you’re going to give your cat people food, make sure it’s safe for them first. They don’t know what’s safe and what’s not. They might beg for or eat something that isn’t safe.
There are a lot of houseplants and cut flowers that are toxic to cats. Here’s a list from the ASPCA. I’d recommend not having any plants that are toxic to cats in the house. Give them away or plant them outside. This is crucial while they are kittens. Lilies are a notable example. If you’ve got any Easter lilies, they need to go before the cats show up.
Close your toilet lids. A kitten can drown in a toilet, and it’s kind of gross if adult cats drink from a toilet (at least I think so- my cats disagree). It’s downright dangerous if you use those toilet bowl cleaners that sit in the tank (2000 Flushes and similar). Stop using those if you use them. Even if you try to keep the toilet lids down, eventually someone will forget and leave it up, and you don’t want your cats to get poisoned if that does happen.
Stuff is going to get batted off of surfaces, especially while they’re kittens. Put away the fragile and expensive stuff in a safer place before the cats come home. Once they’ve been with you a while, you’ll get a feeling for where is safe and where is not. Cats can jump very high.
Get a tall cat tower for the dining room or kitchen, to give them somewhere to be high up in those rooms without being on the table. You’ll have much better luck keeping them off the table if they have a good alternative.
Decide now what furniture they’re allowed on, and enforce those rules as consistently as you can. It’s not good if one person thinks the cats are allowed on the table and another thinks they aren’t. That just confuses the cats.
And even then, sometimes two adults at the dining room table still can not stop Merlin from igniting his tail on one of the candelabras, twice in the same evening. :smack: