One of the simple joys ofThe Sims 4is recreating yourself and your family as little virtual replicas. But something has always been missing… Ah, yes. What would a replica of your life be if there weren’t any stinky litter boxes, shredded chair legs, and a tiny, furry boss to dictate your every move? Well, we say a house just isn’t a home without a cat.

With the addition of The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs expansion pack, you’re able to finally add your beloved pets to your household, complete with unique personalities and appearances. We’ve rounded up all the info you’ll need to add a new member to your virtual family!

How To Add A Cat To Your Household

Adding a cat to your Sim’s household is actually very easy. First, you’ll want to navigate to theCreate a Sim menu. In the lower-left corner, click the"Add A Sim"button. A pop-up menu will appear above the button, offering all sorts of options for adding family members to your household.

Select the paw-shaped button labeled"Add Pet,“and then select the"Add Cat"icon, which is shaped like a cat (easy enough, right?).

If you have pre-existing cats in your household, you can click the"Make A Mix Breed"button to breed two pets in your house and produce a kitten.

Your brand-new furry friend will appear in the center of the Create A Sim menu or, in this case, the Create A Pet menu. You’re now free to customize your kitty as you see fit, from whiskers to tail.

How To Customize Your Cat’s Appearance In Create A Sim

Once you’ve added the new kitty to your household,click anywhere on its bodyto produce customization options. A plethora of buttons will appear around your cat, allowing you to control everything from fur density to eye shape.

Use the posesabove your cat to see how it will look lying down, standing, and sitting (this is especially helpful when in Paint Mode).

If you feel overwhelmed by so many options, you can always hit the “Randomize” button to generate a random cat. But if you’re more particular about your cat’s appearance, we’ve broken down how to change your cat’s features.

Breed

The best place to start editingyour cat’s appearance is the “Breeds” panel, which can be found by selecting the paw-shaped symbol in the right-hand detail menu. The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs expansion packincludes 48 cat breeds, along with one special breed: raccoon.

The breed of your cat will impact every facet of its appearance. Instead of toying around in Create A Sim for hours, try selecting the breed most appealing to you and then tweaking your cat’s details.

You can alsomix breeds using the Breed Mixer toolat the bottom of the Breeds panel.

Facial Features

You can tweak everything about your cat’s face byclicking anywhere on its head. This will generate the following pop-up menus to the right of your cat:

Each menu will present you with an array of options for the selected feature’s shape, size, or color. To get even more detailed,gently pull at highlighted featuresof your cat’s face using your cursor.

Fur And Coat Color

Will your cat be long-haired, short-haired, or hairless? Tochange the texture and length of your cat’s fur, select the “Fur” button in the right-hand detail menu, represented by a scissor-shaped icon.

If you want your cat to go nude, make it a Sphynx in the Breeds panel; you can’t opt out of hair in the Fur panel.

Then, navigate to the “Coat Color & Pattern” panel by clicking the icon that resembles a spotted hide. This tab offersdozens of options for coat patterns, from leopard spots to tabby stripes.

You can customize the pattern’s colors at the top of the tab or press the palette icon to be directed to Paint Mode. Paint Mode is a handy tool that lets playersuse stamps, stencils, and brushes to create a completely unique pet.

If you’re interested in replicating your own real-life pet, Paint Mode is the best way to include all those little details that make your pet special.

Body Shape & Composition

You’re likely familiar with the two sliding scales to the left of your cat; these work just like they do when customizing a human Sim. The slider under the dumbbell icon controls your cat’s muscle mass, while the other controls your cat’s fat.

You canchange your cat’s body shapeusing the “Body” panel to the right of your cat, which is found under the cat-shaped icon. If you’d like your cat to have a bobbed tail, you can modify this in the “Tails” panel.

How To Customize Your Cat’s Personality In Create A Sim

If you’ve created human Sims in Create A Sim, changing the personal details of a cat will be a breeze. The customization panel for your cat isalmost identical to what you’d find if you were modifying a Sim.

To change your cat’s personality in Create A Sim,click the plumbob in the upper-left cornerto generate your options.

Name

To give your furry friend a moniker, simply type the name you want into the “First Name” text box next to the plumbob in the upper-left corner.

Unlike human Sims,pets do not need to be given a last namebefore being saved and added to your world.

You can also change your cat’s pronouns. Click the drop-down menu to the right of your cat’s name to select the pronouns you think suit it best.

Age

While human Sims are offered six age groups or “life stages” in Create A Sim, Create A Pet only has three.

When creating your pet, you may make your cat aKitten, Adult, or Elder.

Keep in mind that pets don’t typically live as long as their owners, meaning they’ll age faster than your Sims.

Sochoose their life stage wisely.This will also be impacted by how long you’ve set lifespans in your game settings. Below, we’ve listed thenumber of in-game days you can expect your cat to spend in each life stage.

1

2

8

15

30

120

6

12

45

Gender

Change your cat’s gender by clicking one of the gendered icons. If you aren’t familiar with these symbols, hover over each one to make a label appear. Underneath, you’ll notice a three-dot icon. Click this icon to controlwhether or not your cat is able to reproduce.

If you have cats of the opposite gender in your house and you don’t fix them, you’re very likely to end up with more kittens than you’ll be able to handle.

If you aren’t sure whether you’d like your cat to have a litter of mini-me’s, you can choose toget your cat spayed or neuteredlater on bytaking it to a veterinary clinicin Live Mode.

Voice

If you’re a cat person, you know that all cats have a distinct meow resembling anything from a songbird to a garbage disposal. While you may not be able to replicate your cat’s exact voice, you can get pretty close by using the tools in Create A Pet.

In The Sims 4, you’re able to choose between three voice types:Clear, Scratchy, or Raccoon(yes, Raccoon). Then,use the slider to change the pitchof your cat’s voice.

Traits

In total, there are17 individual traitsthat you have to choose from. These traits will significantly impact how your cat interacts with your Sims and the world around them.

Before adding a new cat to your world,three traits must be assigned to it.You’re limited to just three, so be sure to read through all of your options and select whichever you like best.

One of these traits will be pre-selected based on the breed you chose for your cat.

For example, Bengal cats are a notoriously high-maintenance breed that requires lots of hands-on playtime. Naturally, the Sims 4 developers pre-selected the Spoiled trait for them.

If you don’t resonate with the first trait assigned to your cat, don’t worry — you can remove this trait and replace it with another.

You always have the option ofrandomizing your cat’s traitsby clicking the dice icon to the right of the Traits panel.

Relationships

Marked by an icon of two figures, the pop-up Household Relationships menu can be used to modify the relationships between pets in your household.

The following relationships can be selected between cats:

All Sims in the household are labeled as owners, which can’t be changed in the base game.