How to pick a breed?

To pick which breed of cat we should get was not as easy as it might seem, at least not for us. There are many, very beautiful, interesting and social cats that would fit into our lives.

I think it is easy to pick a breed just because you like the look of it, but that is not a correct way of going about it.

Skadi and Styx

If you are planning to buy a cat I do recommend sitting down with your partner or family and really think about what you want from a cat. It is important to be honest about how much time and effort you want to put into your cat, on a daily basis and not only when they are fluffy, cute kittens. To get a really active breed, because you like the apperance when you do not have the time or interest to put a lot of energy into your cats everyday life, is not a good thing. All cats are equally special and if you want a friendly breeze and not a loving tornado it is better to pick a breed that suit your life, to get a good match and happy family. A good webpage to use if you are overwhelmed by the amount of different amazing breeds out there are and do not know where to start Animal Planet's Cat Breed Selector could be a good place to start. Answer the quiz and the selector will find a number of different breeds that will suit you, then you can do further reading into each breed to decide which one to pick. There are plenty of other breed selectors out there as well to use.

We did have a rather clear list of traits that we would like from the breed of choice:

• Active
• Social
• Confident
• Intelligent
• Low maintenance
• Good health
• A wide selection of breeders to chose from

We were choosing between a few breeds but we finally decided on Bengal. It is a very active breed and could be a handful, so it is important for us to catify our home to ensure happy cats.