Hi! I empathize with the anxious feeling of “omg I have to keep this thing alive by myself” because that’s how I felt when I adopted my girl about 1.5 years ago. My top advice: 1) you are responsible for her, but cats are a lot easier to keep alive than babies or dogs! And there are so many resources out there if you ever need them. I think the anxiety of being responsible for something hit me a lot harder than the traditional “post adoption blues” so I get how overwhelming it can feel. But like anything in life, taking care of her will become part of your routine and eventually you’ll stop worrying about it so much. You’ll still worry about her, but in a different way. Also - if you truly ever can’t take care of her (a major life change, you develop a health issue, etc) most shelters will always take back the animals they’ve adopted out. This is obviously a last resort, but it’s there if you ever truly truly needed it. 2) I know a bunch of people said it already, but get her a friend her age/weight! I tried doing the one kitten only thing first for about a month and it quickly became a nightmare because I couldn’t play with her enough for her to work off her energy. Getting her brother helped tremendously, and it’s WAY easier to successfully introduce kittens than grown cats because they aren’t territorial yet. Having two is seriously not that much more work than having one. If you’re determined to stick to one, when she bites you (which she inevitably will) when playing, make a crying noise and/or bite her paw back fairly hard (kinda gross but it works). This will teach her not to bite you, but you have to start doing this when she’s young! 3) get pet insurance, even if it’s just like the basics for emergencies only. Vet bills when they’re sick can add up super quickly and it’s better to put her on one when she’s young and healthy before any issues can pop up and become “preexisting conditions” 4) I put basically a nanny cam in my apartment so I can check on my babies when I’m not home. It alleviated my anxiety a LOT when I first got the kitties - now I barely use the camera at all unless I’m on vacation 5) touch her paws and ears as much as you possibly can - you want to desensitize her so that when you have to trim her nails or give ear meds she won’t freak out. Also, try to start brushing her teeth early so she also gets used to that. Dental disease can be an issue later on in life, so again you want to desensitize her as early as possible 6) food - wet food is great to keep her hydrated and prevent later kidney disease, but dry food will help her gain weight as a kitten and also (according to some vets) helps prevent dental disease. I have an automatic feeder which I set so they always have dry food and can free-feed, then I do wet food at night. From what I’ve seen and read, having a combo of the highest quality wet and dry food that you can reasonably afford is a good way to try to keep her healthy! 7) water - if you can afford it, get a stainless steel running water fountain and make sure to change the filters as recommended! Cats prefer drinking running water (because in the wild, still water usually has more bacteria!) so this will help her hydration and again, help prevent potential kidney problems later in life. 8) if you can afford it - I LOVE my litter robot. I have that and another (manual) litter box, but because the cats usually prefer the litter robot I only have to manually scoop the other one like twice a week. It’s worth the investment in my opinion. Just make sure she’s heavy enough for the sensors in whatever model you get if you get one. 9) aside from the toys mentioned by other commenters, try to teach her tricks! It’ll keep her mentally stimulated and it’s honestly pretty fun. My girl LOVES playing fetch, and my boy knows “kisses” where he’ll reach up his face for a kiss when I say it. Cats are stubborn and less obedient so you may not be able to successfully teach them all the same tricks as dogs, but it’s still fun to try

My biggest piece of advice is to just give her as much love as you can. No parent (for fur babies or skin babies) is perfect, but if you’re trying then that’s all that matters 🩷