The money audit: price the whole second cat
A second cat costs more than twice the food. Write down a full year for one imaginary extra cat: food and litter at the rates your current cat actually consumes, routine veterinary care and vaccinations, parasite prevention, insurance if you use it, and the small consumables — trays, scratchers, carriers — that wear out per cat, not per household. Then add the line most people skip: a contingency for the year both cats need treatment at once, because illness does not take turns politely. If that total only fits by assuming nothing ever goes wrong, you are not ready yet, and there is no shame in the answer — a cat adopted six months later into a secure budget gets a better life than one adopted now into quiet financial stress.
The space audit: think in resources, not rooms
Floor area matters less than how the space divides into resources. Walk your home and mark where a second litter tray could go in a genuinely separate spot from the first, where a second cat could eat undisturbed, and where each cat could retreat completely out of the other's sight — the top of a wardrobe, a spare-room corner, a cat tree in a different room. Flats pass this audit more often than people expect, because cats live vertically as much as horizontally, and shelves and perches add territory without adding rooms. The audit fails when every warm spot, tray and bowl would sit within a metre of the existing cat's, because that layout forces competition from day one no matter how friendly both cats are.
The time audit: your day, not your intentions
Time is the audit people fudge most, so run it as an experiment. For two weeks, add the second cat's workload to your day as if he existed: an extra few minutes of litter duty morning and evening, a separate ten-minute play session, grooming if the cat you imagine is long-haired, and one-to-one attention that is not just the same sofa cuddle shared thinner. Notice whether the additions slot in comfortably or keep sliding to tomorrow. Remember also that the first month of a second cat — staged introductions, separate feeding, doubled mess — is the most time-hungry period of all, so schedule adoption for a stretch of life with slack in it, not the busiest month of your year.
The first cat gets a vote
Readiness includes your resident cat's likely experience, not just your capacity. A cat who has lived happily with other cats, or who is young, playful and visibly under-stimulated, is a promising candidate for a companion. A senior cat with health issues, a cat who has only just settled after a difficult start, or one who showed real distress around other cats in a previous home is telling you the timing is wrong even if your budget is right. Ask your vet at the next routine visit how your cat is placed physically for the stress of an introduction, and let their answer weigh alongside the three audits — a postponed second cat is a kindness, not a failure of ambition.
When all three audits pass
If the money fits with a buffer, the home divides into real resources, and your two-week time experiment ran comfortably, you are ready — and you can adopt deliberately rather than impulsively. Choose timing, choose a cat whose energy suits your resident, and set the home up before arrival day using the layout you mapped in the space audit. The relatives you choose can open the profiles of both cats in KinsLe Family Sharing, so the newcomer is a named individual in the household from arrival day rather than 'the second cat'.