Sims 2 Pets is an expansion pack for The Sims 2 computer game, available for Macintosh and PC. It allows your Sim family to adopt a pet cat or pet dog. Smaller pets such as birds and the rodent Womrat are also available, but they do not become "active" members of the household with needs and actions.
Adoption
A cat or dog may be adopted using the telephone or computer. When you contact the Adoption Center, a selection of available pets will appear on the screen for you to choose. You may also create your own cat or dog on the Create a Family screen when you go to create a new Sim. With the Pets expansion pack installed, an icon for pet appears next to the icons for an adult or child Sim. Click the "Pet" icon, choose "Dog" or "Cat," its age and then design its appearance and temperament the way you design a new Sim.
Pet Needs
Pets have needs like human Sims. They suffer from hunger, exhaustion and the need to use the bathroom. Monitor their needs meters as you do your human Sim and keep them in the green. Pets that do not have their needs attended to will become unhappy and could run away. A good relationship with their owner is also important or may cause them to run away. Command your Sim to play with the pet and give it attention at least once a day to maintain a good relationship. Also, be sure to purchase the appropriate pet toys and furniture to keep your pet happy. Dogs need chew toys and cats need something to scratch. All these items are available in the Buy Mode in a new "Pet" category. Although the smaller pets (rodent, birds and fish) do not have needs meters, they still require care. You must click their cages at least once a day to add food and/or water.
Behavior Training
Training the pets to eat pet food, not to destroy furniture, to use a litter box and to learn other positive behaviors is important. If you do not train your dog to eat food from its bowl, for example, and let it eat from the garbage, it may refuse to eat pet food you put down for it even if it is starving. A starving dog will prompt a visit from Sim Animal Control, and it will take your pet away. Cats and dogs are easily trained by monitoring their activity, and then praising them when they do something they should or scolding them when they do something wrong. These two commands are available when you click the pet immediately after the event, but they are not available if too much time elapses. Therefore, it is important to praise or scold right away to affect the pet's behavior training.
Pet Careers
Sim pets can get jobs and contribute income to the family budget. Three job tracks are available for cats and dogs: Showbiz, Security and Service. Like human Sims, pets start at the bottom and must earn promotions. They do this by learning new tricks, such as rolling over and speaking. The human Sim must teach his pet these talents for his pet to succeed. If the Sim does not have enough time, he can hire an obedience trainer from the phone or computer to do the training for him. Keeping the pet happy by fulfilling needs is important for careers as well. An unhappy pet can refuse to go to work and will eventually lose his job.
Breeding
Sim pets may have litters of puppies and kittens. To do this, the pets must have a high relationship with each other and be of the opposite sex. Their relationship is not something you or the human Sim can control. As the pets live together in the household, they will interact and grow to like each other--or not. Some pets just are not destined to be together. If the pets seem friendly enough toward each other, purchase a doghouse and click one of the pets. Use the command "Try for Puppies or Kittens With..." and select the other pet's name. If the pets are successful, furry little bundles of joy will join your Sim household in a few days. If your two pets have an extremely high relationship and there is a doghouse available, they may breed on their own without the command and surprise you with new puppies or kittens. A message pops up on the screen when a new family member (or members) is on the way and gives you the opportunity to name the new arrival(s).
Tags: available they, each other, expansion pack, good relationship, have needs, high relationship, human Sims