Forum Discussion

Hero

Re: Do I need to create a pet before I can adopt one?

@Branwen84 In a word, Nope. A created pet is just a part of that household.

I adopt almost all of my pets but I don't adopt via the computer as I've had a few bugs with it.

There are a lot of randomly generated strays in the game, too many for my liking. A quick way to adopt is to go to the beach area in Brindleton Bay, Salty Paws Saloon or the area around the vet's office (although those last two choices are mostly for cats). You'll find a multitude of strays in need of a good home. Sometimes they aren't friendly but mostly, by using "Offer Friendship" then "Give Treat" you can befriend them pretty quickly. When the social level is about half green, you'll see "Adopt" pop up on the social interactions. Click that to add them to your household. I usually take them straight to a vet for checkup or if they have "Take to Vet Clinic" on the social interactions that means they need medical attention. The vet gives them a shot and they recover immediately. Once you have access to a mirror, drawers or closet you can select "Change Sim" to enter CAS and edit the pet's appearance, clothing, almost anything about them except personality. You can even purchase treats at the vending machine in the vet's office to age them down to puppy or kitten or to heal sickness. You can "Fix" them via their CAS identity panel or get the vet to do it.

Adopting via the computer involves a visit from a social worker and a large pet carrier which often gets stuck in my house and can't be removed. Plus they often say no I've found. But that may just be me. I do adopt children that way and ironically find it much easier.

My Sims just take a jog along the beach where the largest number of strays are and they choose a pet. If you have Jungle Adventure that also has stray pets. This horrifies me so I rescue as many as I can.

I turn the large build next to the beach into a dog rescue too and add a cat rescue near the vet's. There are lot traits you can add to attract stray cats or dogs to your lot. So with that you can create shelters for them.

Now I'm going to go hug my cat and repeat the words "the Sims is not real" a few times!😿🐶 Ugh, so many strays!

2 Replies

Branwen84
Rising Traveler
3 years ago
... Seems the expansions had simply not installed themselves fully yet, even though the game was already acknowledging that I have them. I now get an option to adopt a cat or dog, in addition to the option to simply adopt(which presumably is still for adopting children). Since you mentioned taking in *lots* of strays, can I assume that cats and dogs get along with each other fine in the game? I can adopt both without having them fight constantly?
simsplayer818
Hero
3 years ago
@Branwen84 I was just about to open my game and look at the computer Adoption to get an image for you but if it's working for you now that's great. One word of warning though about the computer Adoption, I'd save your game before starting the process just incase the pet carrier gets stuck in your home. It's huge and I had one blocking an apartment door once that couldn't be deleted. Luckily I'd just saved so I could exit without saving and try again.
The pets may have a little scrap at feeding time whether it's mixed or 2 cats and 2 dogs. It helps to space out the bowls. I don't find they fight excessively and I often have more than one. But if a pet has the Aggressive or Territorial personality trait I often keep them solo and train them well before mixing, they do often go for Sims ankles too if they have those traits but you can train it out of them. My pet rescues have max household pets and also have many visiting strays to the feeding, toys and sleeping areas and they don't fight much amongst each other or with household pets. They just don't like to eat close together in my game.
When they do fight, you'll see a cloud of dust around them. Click on it to stop the fight, then click the animals and choose "Lecture about attacking". After several lectures they should stop and you should get a notification saying for example "Fluffy has learned not to attack". Lecturing can impact your relationship a little so if you make a fuss of them afterwards it stops the relationship suffering.