Congrats on your soon-to-be new kitty.
To answer your questions:
Set up a room in the house that can belong to the cat (or at least be a sanctuary for the first few hours). Set it up with litterbox, food, water (the latter two as far across the room as possible from the litterbox), and a couple of toys such as the fur mice or balls with bells in them, and somewhere to hide (a box, under a bed, etc). We left the carrier in the sanctuary room with the kitties each time. When you bring Kitty home, leave him/her in that room and by him/herself until he/she is ready to interact -- this may take a few minutes, it may take all night, and it may even take a day or two or longer. Let the kitty set the pace.
Once the kitty is willing to interact (or at least not run), watch for signs for when the kitty is ready to leave the sanctuary room. Don't rush him/her. This is a big move for the kitty and usually they feel more comfortable in a smaller space to begin with. But if he/she is ready to run and explore immediately, let him/her.
Again, let the kitty set the pace. I do agree to confine him/her when you're not there to supervise at first, though.
Minimize physical contact as much as possible for the first 24 hours or so -- let him/her get used to the surroundings before he/she is subjected to pettings, hugs, "dress up", and so on.
Don't force physical contact -- if he/she wants to hide under the bed for a month, let him/her. Let the kitty set the pace. (See a trend here? LOL!)
Get a scratching post for just about every room in the house. You think I'm kidding? We have 3 in the bedroom, 1 in the living room, 1 in the foyer, 1 in the dining room (plus a scratch-mat), 2 in the game room, 1 in DH's office, and 1 in the "kitty/store room". And *every* one of them gets used. Most of those are cheap $10 or $20 things from
Walmart, but a few are the more expensive type and two are the floor-to-ceiling setup. If you can find one of those, I HIGHLY recommend them -- one of ours came from Walmart, was only $30, and the kitties *love* it and it holds up just fine with our two big cats.
But it was very hard to find. The next best source of floor-to-ceiling trees is Dr Foster Smith (I think it's
http://www.drsfostersmith.com ) Also, vary the type of surface. Most of ours are carpet because that's what our kitties prefer, but some of the ones from Walmart have a sisal (rope) cap and the one upstairs in the gameroom has 4 legs, 2 of which are sisal. And the scratch mat downstairs is cardboard. Offer a choice. Usually, if the kitty is given plenty of appropriate scratching surfaces in reasonable areas of the rooms, they'll select the appropriate surface to scratch on instead of the couch. This, of course, assumes you're not adopting a pre-declawed kitty. If you are, then you don't need any.
But if he/she isn't already declawed, please do your research very thouroughly before deciding to declaw if you're even considering it. (Okay, got my soapbox statement in.
)
For food -- I highly recommend staying away from the grocery-store kitty foods. Talk to your vet for the best recommendation, but really, look closely at the ingredients. Anywhere you see "meat products" or "egg product", "chicken product", etc rather than just the word "chicken" "egg" "turkey" etc, that means that they're using the parts of the animal that are not approved for human consumption. The ones that list "chicken" "turkey" "egg", etc instead of the word product or byproduct typically use better ingredients. I've done science diet, IVD (from the vet), Neutro Max, Natural Balance, Nature's Recipe, and another one I'm blanking on the name on but you have to get from specialty stores anyway. *Most* of those are available at either Petco or Petsmart. Right now we're on the Neutro Max gourmet for moist food (I personally vary the flavor every night since my kittys handle that well and they like the variety, but some kitties need to stick with one flavor constantly for their tummies -- check with the vet) and the new Science Diet Nature-something dry. I never can remember the name of the dry food other than that it's in beige bags, is shaped like little fishies and stuff, and has the word Nature on it and is by Science Diet.
Yes, these foods are more expensive. *BUT* you'll find that sticking with the better foods you'll have a healthier cat (meaning less vet visits meaning more savings), shinier coat, they actually eat less (better quality food means they need less of it to get the good stuff), their litterbox messes are less frequent, less messy, and less smelly, and you'll have happier cats. So in the long run, you'll save money by getting the more expensive food.
As for litterboxes -- have at least one, two would be better if you have a large house. We stick with the uncovered plain ol' boxes, but that's our personal preference. I find that by using a filter in the room with the box, there's much less smell with an open box than with a lidded one. The hooded one just traps the smell and makes it build up more. But others love them. We haven't tried the mechanical -- some people love them, some HATE them. With multiple cats, we've avoided it because of fear that it would start a cleaning cycle with a kitty inside. Unlikely, but it has been known to happen and they have sometimes caused kitties to be afraid of the litterbox. Others say they're a real pain to clean when it comes time to clean it and they usually end up going to the old method anyway. Yet others say they can't live without their littermaid boxes, so it really is a personal thing.
For vets -- ask around. Ask at work, at school, your neighbors... see who people recommend. In our case we just lucked out and ended up in a good clinic right away by going to the place closest to the apartment. We still go there even though they're now 35 minutes away.
Beyond that -- I recommend you get the book "Think Like a Cat" by Pam Johnson-Bennett (I think I spelled that right). It's an excellent guide to cats, their behavior, and the *reasoning* behind some of the most common behavior problems. It also has a good medical reference in the back. It's the best resource book I have on cats and I very highly recommend it to anyone who owns a cat.
Hope this helps, and if I can help any other way, let me know!
