I'm up to three cats now and there's no smell in the house whatsoever and we have two litterboxes to boot(there should be 4 ideally but we have no room for more).
Since you're a new cat owner please be sure to read up on how to communicate with your cat properly so you don't make the same mistakes many new cat owners do, you can't expect a cat to think like a human or a dog, this especially goes double when they do something wrong.
I refrained from mentioning this in my topic about Casper coming back home, but when we got him back he was a mess, I don't want to bad mouth the guy who had him, he clearly wasn't experienced and the thought to educate himself online didn't even cross his mind, if I had a say who Casper went to this would never have happened.
- Learn what your cats can and can't eat, certain human foods are poisonous to cats, onions for example are toxic to cats and can cause serious problem if ingested in large amounts.
- Learn how to communicate with the cat, don't yell at it, don't use physical punishment. The guy who got Casper apparently punished him by yelling at him and "gently" slapping his ears, he openly admitted this to me proud of his disciplinary techniques, I had a very very hard time containing my rage and explained to him why he was wrong to do that, he genuinely felt terrible and simply didn't know what he was doing apparently...right well it's the 21st century, son, you got the internet, read up.
- If you come back home and your cat knocked something over, did something they weren't supposed to yelling at them will accomplish NOTHING, they'll just get stressed and not know why you're being aggressive.
- Speaking of stress, cats are very fragile animals and quite a few things can negatively impact their state of mind, be sure to read up on this stuff too.
- Cats are very sensitive when it comes to their litterbox, I don't know if this is right to do or not but in my house when we bring a new cat in we first set them down next to an already prepared litterbox for them and let them explore the environment from there with as little stress as possible, so far this has worked for all our cats, they immediately learn where their litterbox is and feel comfortable using it.
- Be VERY CAREFUL of the type of plants you have in your home and bring in your home
carefully read which flowers and plants are poisonous to cats because things can go south real quick if a cat ingest even a little bit of a plant that isn't good for them and they will, trust me. We have a cat in the neighborhood who got accute and then crhonic renal failure form simply licking some flowers her owners brought home.
- If you live in a building, tho this isn't as common in the UK and US from what I understand, but if you happen to live in a building it would be a good idea to put screens on your windows, they not only protect you from insects and such but they also keep the cats from fallng out the window or wandering off outside. Many owners I know would stubbornly stand by the fact that their cats would NEVER jump or fall out the window, those same owners pretty much all came to me months or a couple years later with stories of their cats accidentally falling outside a window or the balcony, a friend of mine back in high school lost her persian kitten to this...it fell out the balcony and well it didn't end well...I told her sooo many times to not let a persian cat proof her house back then but people don't listen to me until it's too late
Fortuntely in most cases the cats are fine and don't end up hurt badly but they do end up outside one way or another
