My mother really didn't want a pet even though my brother and I very much wanted a cat. However, when a sweet cat wandered up to our back porch and wouldn't go away, she let us keep her. (And we were so happy.) That said, my mother just doesn't like animals, so Sam was mostly an outdoor cat. She was indoor/outdoor in that she came in a lot, but she was usually put out for the night, and she didn't have a cat door. She only stayed inside and got a litterbox if it was close to or below freezing outside. She had a cat bed and in the garage, which IIRC she used most of the time during her outside cat sleeping time. She had a smallish cat hotel/scratching post combo and another inside cat bed for winter. My mother was always trying to get my dad to build a heated insulated cat house for her so that we wouldn't have to bring her in in the winter, but the rest of us wanted her inside.
She got common brand but not absolute bottom-shelf dry food (Purina or something similar) and one can of wet food a day (I believe it was Friskies).
We took her to the vet right after we decided to keep her but found she was already spayed, but got her vaccinations again just in case. Other than that I don't recall ever taking her to the vet again, but she never had any illnesses or injuries. And she wore flea collars. I'm not sure if alternative flea-control methods were available at the time (in the 80s-early 90s). She lived to be 17.
She got common brand but not absolute bottom-shelf dry food (Purina or something similar) and one can of wet food a day (I believe it was Friskies).
We took her to the vet right after we decided to keep her but found she was already spayed, but got her vaccinations again just in case. Other than that I don't recall ever taking her to the vet again, but she never had any illnesses or injuries. And she wore flea collars. I'm not sure if alternative flea-control methods were available at the time (in the 80s-early 90s). She lived to be 17.