Editing 40d:Stray

{{quality|Exceptional|21:09, 26 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}} 
A '''stray''' is a [[tame]] animal which neither has a master (i.e., is not a [[pet]] or a [[dog|work dog]]) and also is not assigned to a cage /rope / chain.  All tame animals can be made "available" as pets via the Animals submenu of the [[Overall Status]] screen ({{key|z}}).  If a dwarf likes a particular type of animal and a stray one is available, the dwarf may adopt the creature.  This is limited by the dwarf's account if the [[dwarven economy]] is active.  [[Cat]]s and kittens will "adopt" a dwarf instead of the other way around; they are the only [[creatures]] in the game that behave this way.

A large number of wild creatures can be tamed (turning them into strays) via the [[Animal training]] [[labor]] if they are first captured in a [[cage trap]].  Certain exotic animals can be tamed after the [[Dungeon master]] shows up at your fortress.

Stray young animals will follow around one of their parents, if alive.  Young stray animals without parents and adult strays will tend to cluster around [[meeting hall]]s or [[statue garden]]s, if there are any.  Animals which arrive with new [[immigrant]]s will start out as pets of one of the migrants.

When an animal becomes a [[pet]], it is given a name if it doesn't already have one.  Stray animals with names have either killed another [[creature]] or had their owner die.

Named animals will be buried in [[coffin]]s or placed in a [[graveyard]].  Unnamed strays which die will be treated as ordinary [[refuse]], and their corpses ''cannot'' be [[butcher]]ed, so it is best to [[slaughter]] them before they die of old age.

{{Category|Animals}}