NOVEMBER: TESTSIMS
You can make a living from testing imported furniture and activities for your neighbourhood. Do you have a web shop offering equipment, furniture or even clothing related to our next article? Please contact web master before October 20.

SimSit contributes with a new set of pet appliances to be released this October, the first item is this scary monster pet bed. Also look for the "Fluffy's Revenge" scratching post. Just in time for Halloween...

You will also find great pet supplies at Picklesims and Aroundthesims.

Click to proceed SimSit's section at STUFF.
Click to proceed Art for Art's Sake at STUFF.

Click to proceed to BB-design's section at STUFF.

The first cat I have ever bought was Apollo, my ginger Tom. He is ever so friendly and always begs for attention. We kept him the house for the irst couple of years but, due to many things, we built him a huge run in the garden. Some of the reasons we did this were: 
1. He kept trying to drink out of the toilet then falling in
2. He stopped us from getting out of the bath
3. He kept peeing on the bed and so on and so on.

The second cat I bought was Titania, my grey persian. She is very fussy. She hates children when they are not her own but, as we discovered as we bred her with Apollo, she never wants to leave her own children. She has never been very active but we were surprised when she wouldn't even walk across to the other side of the pen to eat some food. I love her very much but, I have to say, she is a slob! Her baby daughter is called Lilly. Lilly is going to be sold when she is 13 weeks old. 

The third and final cat we have bought, so far, is Willow, a black colorpoint. This means she is chocolate (brown) with the end of her tail, her paws and her ears black. I wanted to just keep her as a pet but she has already won 3 shows and my hubby thought it better if we bred her so that we could get some good kittens out of her. She had a baby three weeks aog, who we call Pierre.

If you want to start breeding cats this is what (I think) you need to do:
1. Buy a male cat
2. Train him and or get pet trainer to train him in the Old Town.
3. Let him win a few shows.
4. Get a female cat.
5. Trian her.
6. Let her win at least one show.
7. Breed your two cats.
8. Repeat steps 4-6
9. Breed the new female with your male.
10. Repeat process again. 

If you want to create pens/runs for your cats then here is what they will definately need:
1. Food bowl
2. Bed.
3. Litter tray
4. Scratch post 
5. Sheltered room where bed is 
6. Pet jungle jim

The things you need to do when your pets are in run's are (some apply in house, too):
1. Don't forget to clean litter tray, wash cats and feed them regularly
2. If in runs then make sure they can't get out once they are in. 

That is my advice about cat breeding over with now. I hope you start cat breeding as there are few of us out there but it is a wonderful and rewarding thing to do.  I advise that you plan before hand How much are prepared to spend on your cats and don't go buying 10 cats then find there isn't room on your land to put them anywhere. Careful planning and consideration needs to go into cat breeding but I do reccommend it to anyone, even with a busy lifestlye because it is one of the most rewarding thngs you can do.

Breeding cats and dogs is a popular home businesses or hobby to many sims. Learn how to start your own pet breeding business at home and how to succeed!

If you like animals and have access to Old Town you most likely have got a dog or a cat already. Some just want a dog or cat for the company or for their kids' amusement, others like to take advantage economically of the possibilities of breeding and selling pets.

Skills and equipment
You will not need any particular skills in order to breed pets. It's more important to have a suitable personality and lifestyle, but any sim can breed pets. Having a couple pets will keep you  busy as you will need to clean up whatever they leave on the floor or ground, and you must make sure their food bowls isn't empty. You must also expect them to beg you for attention quite often, especially if they are not too happy. On top of this the pets might walk in your way, blocking you in the bathroom or make it harder to navigate through your house, especially if you live in a small house. The more pets you have, the more traffic, and this can be a problem if you have a car pool waiting.

Getting your first pets is expensive, but most of the items will not break down so the cost is mainly a one time investment. The cat's scratching post will need to be replaced occasionally. Feeding the pets will cost §15 each time, and you should expect 1-2 feedings per day depending on how many and how active your pets are. In addition you might need to buy them toys and treats, so all in all you should expect a daily cost of at least §50 to have pets. If you get them to breed they will pay back a lot more than that.

A pet will costs §399 per cat or dog. In addition all you need is a feeding bowl, but to make your pet happy you should also get a bed and some appliances depending on whether you have a dog or a cat. Dogs will pee outdoor and do not need a litter box like the cats do. Dogs are trained to become housebroken, while a cat will instinctually use the litter box. You can keep your pet happy by giving it toys like a scratching post for cats, or a toy for the dog. If you have a dog you might even want a Dog Bath, because the dog will not manage to stay clean like the cat will. A dog can do even without regular baths, but it will show on its all over mood.

Many pet owners arrange it so their pets' base is in the backyard or in a room away from the main route through your house. Pets will spend most time outdoors and where you place their food, beds and toys.

How to make them breed
When they are ready to breed they will snuggle, this is a random thing that you can't tell them to do, and it's been said that the chances for the snuggling to give results is as low as 1/45. Cats or dogs might breed as soon as their relation is established and they won't need to be good friends. Relations less than 40/40 has been reported, and as soon as they start snuggling their relation will improve rapidly. Some pet owners manage to have the first breeding within 10 days while others are still trying. Breeding do not depend as much on how well you treat them, but more on their relation which again depend on their personalities. You can't force them to like each other, but if you help them staying happy the chances might increase.

You can do a few things to help their relation to grow. They need to spend time together to grow a friendship, so if one of them is asleep while the other is awake and in a good mood, wake up the first. If you want to breed dogs avoid having a outdoor dog shelter in the start, because you will not be able to wake up the dog sleeping inside it. Making sure the two pets are in the same room as often as possible might also increase the frequency of their interactions. Cats do like to watch tv, so turn off your tv if you rather want them to play together.

Pay attention to how their relation develops. If they don't go well together, you might try to remove or add pet appliances, or even buy a new pet if you think it's a personality problem.

It's been said that your pets will breed easier if they are not too comfortable, so removing one of their beds might be a good move. The reason is that they gain a lot of comfort from snuggling, so if they are low on comfort the chances they snuggle might improve slightly. This will not help if their relation is poor, though.

Training your pets
Your profit from selling the offspring will be based on the parents' skills and it is smart to start training them as soon as possible to increase the profit. Start with training obedience, it might take a lot of your patient in the start, but when the pet has earned a few points it becomes easier. The housebroken skills for dogs and the hunting skill for cats will come as a natural result of their everyday activities. Training both tricks and hunting will become easier if the pet has a high obedience score. It should be possible to achieve 10 obedience points within 10 days, but this might depend on the pet's personality, and you should also leave the 2 pets alone for some hours daily in order to get them acquainted or to snuggle.

Some pet owners prefer to get one pet at the time, training the first pet before a pet partner is brought into the house. If at least 2 pet interested sims live in the house you can train one pet each.

Note that you can't train a pet unless you have a good relation with it, so it can be time consuming to train 2 pets simultaneously. To build your relation with your pet, play a lot with it and give it treats and a collar or ribbon etc. Also note that hugging a pet is much more rewarding than just petting it. Also calling for it is good, but might give a negative result with some pets.

If money is not an issue, then you might like to pay the Pet Trainer to train your pets. He can be found in any Old Town Pet Store and is wearing a yellowish uniform.

The pay cheque
The parents' skills will decide how much you earn from selling their offspring. You can expect about §50 per skill, but this is not written in stone. Note that you can increase the income even after the kitty or puppy is born, because the price will be set when you sell it and nit when it was born. Be careful though to train the mother because she will need to stay happy to look for the offspring.

Although you can increase your profit by training the pets, you can not control how often they breed. Even if you can get a nice sum by selling a offspring, it might not be a lot if it happens very rarely. Each offspring will need 2 days of nursing until it can be sold. Quite often the parents will snuggle daily, so theoretically you can have 3 offspring per week, but don't count on it.

You will not be able to sell the adult pet, and having 3 of them might benefit your business - or not. You can try to breed more than just 2 pets, either you can have 4 dogs or 4 cats, or 2 of each. You might not be able to have more than one puppy or kitten at the time, but while one couple looks for their offspring, you can work on the other couple's relation making them ready to breed as soon as the first couple's offspring is sold. It is easier to keep the pets coupled if you have 2 cats and 2 dogs, but if you have i.e. 4 dogs they might all breed (male with female, of course). Keeping more than 2 pets will be a lot more time consuming, but two adult stay at home sims might succeed.

From the neighbourhoods
In the neighbourhood Arcadia, Sabrina and Brian Toomey have recently discovered the joy of breeding pets:
- We live on a farm on the outskirts of the Arcadia neighbourhood. We are both very active in the garden, as well as making preserves and selling gnomes. However, we have recently discovered the benefits of breeding. We have two dogs, Babydoll and Abe, both of the same breed. They are both fully housetrained and have been taught tricks at home. However, they are very lacking in obedience. On their own, with no coaxing from my family, Babydoll and Abe had puppies one day! We were all surprised by the blue maternity basket alongside the doghouse in our backyard, but Babydoll watched her child incessantly, requiring us to do nothing. After a few days, we received a notice that we could either keep the dog as a pet or sell it for about $750! We decided to sell it, and are hoping to breed the dogs further.

Simmerville Hood Council has a Pet Owner's representative, Angela Gobelin. She has 2 cats that she has been trying to breed for 50 days without success:
- Celtina and Celton actually did breed once before the hood was ruined by the upside-down plague 50 simdays ago. After the plague, the cats' relation never got right, Celtina likes Celton very much and I'm sure she is very eager to breed with him, but Celton is absolutely  not interested in Celtina. I have tried everything from avoiding to pet them to removing their beds, but nothing seems to help on their relation. It seems to be a personality thing and I'm starting to realize that they might never breed.

Over in the hood of Betterville, Mrs Jansson reports she has pretty much succeeded with her pets:
- I guess I was lucky when buying them, because they started to breed after only 5 days, and they still breed at least every 5th day. They are now pretty skilled, and each baby pet brings in about §2500 to my household budget. This is §500 per day, and it makes it possible for me to stay at home.

Photo #1: In the Pet Store in Old Town you can buy cats and dogs. The man wearing a yellowish uniform is the Pet Trainer.
Photo #2: If you have 2 pets you can train them both simultaneously. This will work best if they already have learned some obedience.
Photo #3: Giving your dog a bath might be needed if it has chased the pets in the garden. A clean dog will be a happy dog, and will be easier to handle. 
Photo #4: Happy pets might constantly snuggle, even while they have a puppy or kitty to look after. There will be just one offspring at the time though, but it is good to keep their relation high.