How do you adopt a stray cat/dog that appears on your lot? I know you can interact with them and allow them inside your house, but I'm not sure how to make them part of the family.

You have to build up the relationship with the animal and then the option will come up.

Greet the stray, then Stroke/Feed Treat/Play, repeat. Substitute Rub Belly (dogs) or Hug (cats) for Stroke when the option comes up. Another interaction that works well is to Command/Do Trick, if the stray knows any tricks.

The main thing is to alternate between at least three different interactions, because doing the same one or two interactions over and over isn't as effective at building the relationship quickly.

As long as the stray's needs are reasonably high, it will almost always stay on the lot long enough for a sim to make friends with it. Once that happens, the Adopt option will come up. At that point, x out all other actions so you can choose Adopt immediately. Sucks to have it show up, then have the stray decide it can't stay a moment longer before you click it.

A few tips that I find useful, I adopt a lot of strays. Love the idea of taking pets in...

1) Keep a bowl of food and a chewing bone outside. Keeps needs up, and strays stay longer.

2) You need to make friends with the animal before "Adopt" comes up as an option, this is usually around 50 points (like with other Sims). Persistence is key.

Good luck with your adoption ^__^

you could wait or use boolprop + spawn + tombstone of L&D then select "add to family" where the stray's name shows up.

My experience is that it takes a lot of patiens to adop a stray. In some cases it's very easy but sometimes it can take a lot of time interacting whit the stray before the "adopt pet" option shows up. What I also have experienced (and this is no rocket science) is that there is that the friendship could not get high enough the first time a sim meets a stray. Say a sim is about to adopt a dog and inteact whit it untill the friendship is about 30/20. The dog is going to leave the lot and won't return before the relation is back to 0/0. Then the sim can start over and make a "real" relation. I don't say this is a rule, I just say that it use to work so for me. I do not know if this was a answer to your question but maybe it help.

I've only had one Sim adopt a stray, and that was Bigfoot, who seems to have an affinity for dogs.

I just make the dog/cat selectable, drag the relationship score up, make the pet unselectable again, and adopt.

Oh right the easy way.

I used to always try to have my Sims adopt strays using the method of putting out food for them along with some toys to keep them on the lot. I didn't realize that once they were out of the adoption pool the game would just generate a new stray to replace them.

It was just a never ending battle I couldn't just ignore the strays either as I felt guilty doing so. When I built my new hood I added a mod that keeps them from generating in the first place which in turn allowed me to get rid of the mods to keep them from digging and destroying plants.

It's pretty easy to build up the relationship points with them though as long as you don't shoo them off stuff or scold them. I tried to praise them every chance I could and would usually have them almost trained by the time I would adopt them.