Successful breeding of Pets?

Whelp, I finally at least got my cat to mate with another cat! Buuuut it took me having to create a female and place her in the household/family for it to work. Which makes no sense, because they had not interacted with each other before that point, and it still worked on the first try......Literally both of the other cats listed (strays) had denied my male cat 20+ times, so the only reason that I can think of is that it has something to do with my Sim being decent friends with the family's new cat?
Now fingers crossed for a kitten or two!