Bringing a brand new shiny kitten home is a pretty great day. It ranks up there with when a dog gets into your school and when your find money you’d forgotten about in your jeans pocket. However, there are some things you need to consider before bringing your kitten home or all hell is going to break loose.

Here are a few invaluable pointers…

Find yourself a vet

You’re going to have to take your cat to the vet at some point. They may be in fine health but they’ll need jabs and so on, so you’ll need to undertake the ever so exciting task of finding a decent vet. Phone a few up, go and visit, invite them round for dinner – all this (apart from the last point. Maybe) can help you decide which vet you’re happy with.

Invest in pet insurance

Cats, like any pets, can be expensive. Reading this dog crate review must tell you how expensive cats can be. But how can that one little ball of fluff be expensive, I hear you ask! Well, should something go wrong and your cat get ill or injured then unless you have pet insurance you might have to remortgage your house, and maybe your neighbour’s house, in order to pay for it. It will then go away on the back of a truck and come back with all new parts. Oh wait, that’s cars, not cats. Check out Money Saving Expert for more advice on pet insurance as it can be a minefield at times.

Kitten-proof your home

When you have a baby, you baby-proof your home, and as kittens are essentially just small, furry babies, you’ll need to kitten-proof your home too. Try using a child gate to keep them in one room to start with, although this might be difficult given they’re like little ninjas. Remove anything that they could knock off, particularly if it’s valuable, and be careful of wires and cables they can get tangled up in. Also be careful with anything small they may choke on. This stress in cats info from Vet Medic is interesting too, and explains some ways of keeping stress levels in your cat down at home as this can be a very stressful time for your kitten.

Don’t take it home too early

Your kitten will learn much of its good behaviour from its mother (don’t we all?) so resist the urge to take them home too early, no matter how adorably tiny they may be. 10 to 12 weeks is probably the best time.

Introduce it slowly to the other pets

If you already have other pets then don’t just suddenly throw a new kitten into the mix, particularly if you have something like a Great Dane that could step on it and squish it. Always be present with the kitten and the other pets so you can keep an eye on what’s going on and slowly increase the amount of time they spend around each other.