The Burbs recently made friends with a stray dog, but I can't see an option to adopt the cute fella into the family. Is it even possible without cheats?

Once a family member has become friends with an animal (the friends icon should display in the relationship panel), the option to adopt should appear in that Sim's interaction with the stray UNLESS the stray is the Leader of the Pack (<- glowy-eyed wolf).

Oh, I see. So they have to really build up the relationship first? Thanks.

I tried that a couple of times when I was fairly new to the game, especially for when I had Maxi's student Tiffany Sampson graduate and I put her in her first house alone. Along comes this rather posh looking dog called "Tiffany" too so I thought - awww, they're made for each other. I tried to get Tiffany to befriend Tiffany the dog but the mutt just ate the treats and sauntered off.

I remember once as a newbie I got my sim to ask her golden retriever Lola if it fancied having pups with the stray Max who is always sniffing around my lots. Lola turned her nose up in complete disgust!

My Sims have adopted tons of strays, they usually go this route prior to the pet shop. The "adopt" option is based on how much the animal likes you not how much you like them. So you could become friends with them and see the icon on your side but they still might not like you enough.

You have to be diligent about it and watch for them to come around. You can also use the "teach command" option to keep them on the lot longer and for relationship building. Best thing is once you've adopted them they retain all that useful info. This is just like any relationship it takes a while to develop so don't expect to just give them a few treats and keep them.

I once sort of played two Sims against each other over adopting a particular cat. I think it was "Kobe" in the original Pleasantview, anyway they both wanted to adopt him. By the time one of them had built up enough of a relationship the cat was fully trained. I kind of felt sorry for the loser, they were friends though so he still got to see the cat when he would visit.

I don't know if the strays are really random though. Every dog, big or small, that my Sims adopeted had the same personality they were all dumb, hyper, aggressive, independent and sloppy.

That's why I tend not to adopt the animals from the adoption centre - very rarely do you get a "normal" one - a lot of them are "doofuses" too. Yes I'm a bit lazy and don't have much time for working on the animals' personalities, even though I do like them in my game for certain families.

Actually, so's I didn't have to go about getting my own CAS-created cats to breed in order to obtain clever kittens, I just altered the existing ones at the Adoption Centre in SimPE to make them geniuses but then "middling" on the other traits.