I don’t think there are things which ‘qualify’ you to be a cat owner per se. But I definitely think there are important questions that you need to be able to answer positively but realistically before you think about adopting a cat. Lots have been covered, but a major one for me- which I didn’t take into account sufficiently- was about my personality and how it might mesh with my cat’s. I made some stupid mistakes- I’m pretty much an object lesson in what can go wrong if you don’t give the questions people have asked in this post so far- and I’d hate you to make the same mistakes, both for your own sake and your future cat’s.

I’m really quite an anxious person. I adopted quite an anxious cat, with FIV no less. I had never taken care of a cat full- time as an adult beyond cat- sitting for friends, and I was not prepared at all for how I would react when my cat was stressed and unhappy- which he was immediately, because he travelled a long way to get to me. I wasn’t prepared for the fear or frustration of him not eating the food that the adopter’s suggested, or drinking for 24 hours, knowing that barely eating or drinking could harm him very quickly indeed. I certainly wasn’t prepared for the vet’s bill- hundreds of pounds- when I had to get him checked out before he’d even been with me for a week. Don’t get a chronically ill cat! Get a cat with no serious prior conditions who you can insure. Adopt, don’t shop, but for your first cat I highly suggest looking for an older but well, mellow ex- housecat, with a stable routine that you can learn and adapt to.

Don’t get an adorable street urchin trash bag with food issues and separation anxiety, like I did. My cat is gorgeous- scruffy, dorky, the cuddliest little bug. But he’s also incredibly picky about food- I wanted to be a quinoa mom and feed him 100% wet and you know what? I could have had a nice holiday with all the money I’ve spent on immune- system supporting, high meat content, artisanal cat food I’ve thrown away so he can chow down on Purina and cheap biccies.

For a long time he would wake me up at between 2 and 4 every morning crying loudly, and it wasn’t until very recently that I realised he wanted water not food. He’d beg loudly, and would not be ignored, and I’d haul myself out of bed and then he wouldn’t eat. I have cried in my dressing gown in the kitchen at 3am more times over this cat than I ever have over a man. Eventually it became clear that he wanted fresh water all the time, I got him a drinking fountain and now I sleep through the night: best 20 quid I ever spent. I wish I’d thought to automate food and water right from the start- fifty pounds would have saved me a lot of heartache.

Oh, I lost my job last year, and then my house. This is the biggest thing. Some cats you can haul from new apartment to new apartment and they’ll roll with it. Mine has not rolled with two moves in four months- he is stressed and unhappy and I am stressed and unhappy (and barely leaving the house because he’s stressed and unhappy) and you know what? I don’t know when I’ll have a secure, long- term home again- I live in a city with a housing emergency, I don’t earn much, and I don’t have savings because, well, I have a cat. I don’t know if I can keep my boy for much longer; it feels like it will be better to rehome him, rather than stress him out every time I move. I genuinely thought that both my job and my apartment were secure, but it’s been awful knowing that my lovely boy has been made unhappy and disrupted because of my insecure living situation. I love him very much, but my anxiety feeds his anxiety, and sometimes my patience gets low, because even the best cats are absolute assholes sometimes. And we cuddle it out but those moments of frustration and anger have been awful- I think maybe he needs someone calmer and less anxious (and better paid, to be honest).

This is half me venting- please excuse me taking advantage of your thread to do so- but really, it’s just as much of a plea. I believe we’re all qualified to become cat owners/ guardians/ slaves. I don’t believe we’re all similarly qualified to look after every cat. I made assumptions about what being a Cat Ma would cost emotionally or financially and I didn’t know what questions to ask of my adopters, and so ended up as a beginner with, to be honest, a Hard Mode cat. He has been the light of my life, and I’ve done my best- he’s not living on the streets eating trash and rats and puddle water, so obviously that’s great, and he gets very many smooches on the daily. But if I’d known which questions to ask of Myself I would have saved us both a lot of angst, and I might not be looking at rehoming my Baby for his own sake. Please take time to answer the essential questions posed in the replies to your question- there’s no hurry, they’re not going to run out of cats!- think about the kind of person you are and what you can realistically offer. Don’t make the same mistakes I did.