There are dozens of expansion packs for The Sims 4, and although some of them are a bit more niche, others are nearly absolutely necessary for realistic gameplay. Without the Cats & Dogs expansion, Sims won't have any furry friends to keep them company throughout their lives, and there is a lot of heartwarming content that was added with this pack in particular.
One of the best things about The Sims 4's Cats & Dogs pack is that it allows Sims to adopt stray animals that appear in the world; this is an extremely wholesome feature that allows households to take in an animal in need and give them a better life.
How To Find Strays
Since strays are a feature exclusive to the Cats & Dogs expansion pack, they can only be found on residential and community lots in the Brindleton Bay world.
Although they spawn nearly everywhere in this world, Deadgrass Isle, where the museum is, and the Cavalier Cove neighborhood are the best locations to go looking for a lonely stray - they spawn nearly immediately there.
Players can get strays to appear in other worlds, but they will have to manually change the lot traits to include Cat or Dog Hangout.
How To Adopt A Stray
Once players have spotted a stray that's tugged at their heartstrings, they should go up to it as soon as possible and start interacting with it to become acquaintances.
It is not uncommon for Sims 4 players to experience bugs with this feature, so they'll definitely want to adopt the pet before it leaves and goes off-lot; otherwise, it might not work properly if they have to try again in the future.
In order to be able to adopt a stray, a Sim will first need to become friends with it. Friendly interactions are the way to go here. Players can quickly increase their friendship bar with a street animal by feeding it treats and playing with it using a laser pointer.
Eventually, a notification will appear and inform the player that their Sim is now friends with the stray - this means that it is now possible to adopt it. To adopt a stray, gamers have to click on it and select "Adopt" in the social menu wheel. A pop-up will appear asking the player if they're sure of their decision as owning a pet is a big responsibility, and if they accept it will be added to their household.
Alternatively, players that don't want to formally adopt the animal, can enable Sims 4 cheats by entering the code "testingcheats on" into the cheat console, and then selecting the animal while Shift-clicking (PC, Mac, or consoles using KBM), holding the Circle and pressing X (Playstation), or holding B and pressing A (Xbox) to get the option to "Add to Family."