When your cat lives solely outdoors, it must be provided with some form of shelter, such as a barn. What you should not do is to keep a cat inside a cage. This will drive your cat crazy. Cats treasure the freedom to move freely. When it comes to the food of your cat, you may give free-choice feedings or scheduled feedings. Make the introduction, slowly, bit by bit, it is a good idea to let your existing cat sniff your new kitten's blanket a few times before they actually meet. Make the initial periods of contact short. Gradually increase the time that they spend together as they get used to one another. It is not unusual for there to be a few spats in these first meetings, so do not leave them alone together until they get on. Although your cat is not likely to be pouncing on their dinner anymore, they still instinctively need to sharpen their claws and that is exactly what they are doing on your furniture. The scratching that they do is a way of trimming their nails and it removes the old outer part of the claws. Another reason they are ruining your home is because they know it to be their territory. Affectionate Breeds are great for children: Snowshoe, Maine Coon, Ragdoll, Abyssinian, Tonkinese, Himalayan Persian Reserved Breeds: Nebelung, Russian Shorthair, Norwegian Forest Cat Lastly, choose if you would like to go with a kitten or an abandoned older cat. Remember that kittens need to be trained but that adult cats can already be set in their ways. A kitten should be fed throughout the day 4 times with a small amount of food each meal, reducing to 3 times a day at 3 months old, then at 6-8 months 2 meals per day. Older cats (over 12 months) should only be fed twice in the day (usually morning and early evening). Cats groom themselves, but using a soft brush on the cat, especially the long haired variety, will help to cut down the number of hairballs in the cat s stomach, which are caused by them licking / grooming themselves. Look for raised spots on him. If you find one or more, check it closely to see if it has little legs. If so the cat has ticks. You ll need to ask your vet about having the tick removed as you can not do this yourself without risking the tick s head staying behind in your pet s skin. In order to get them under control, you ll need to use one of the liquid flea and tick treatments.