In the month since Rush passed, my cat Miss Jackie has probably gained about 5 pounds. I never realized how much they must have played and chased each other while I was away. She's also started to get a bit aggressive as I think she's bored out of her skull, she's started attacking our ankles, scratching, biting, etc. Just seems out of sorts lately, but very happy when we play with her with her favorite strings. So, I decided to get her a playmate. We picked up a kitten at the pound on Monday. Her previous owners (if you can call them that) tossed her out on the street when she began fighting with one of her female kittens the family had kept so I got a male kitty hoping that might work out better. He's a baby (7 weeks) so I'm hoping he'll respect her alpha position from the start. And I'm hoping he might bring out some maternal instincts in her and she'll accept him more readily.

Right now he's confined to a bathroom and we're attempting to keep them from interacting until we're sure he doesn't have any URI issues and gets his first round of shots next week. She has pulled the towels away from the bottom of the door and began hissing the minute she smelled him and realized what was in there. We're very inexperienced with cats as we just took in Miss Jackie because she adopted us and we couldn't stand seeing her thin and cold on our porch anymore. Any suggestions from the experienced cat owners on a successful meeting? It took our Rush and her 6 months to accept each other. We did a house sharing thing for that time when they had the run of the house at separate times and were only together when supervised and he was on a leash. I still have his big kennel to keep one of them in so they can safely see and smell each other, but beyond that, any help is greatly appreciated!

P.S. It is kind of fun to have a new life in the house, but I sure do miss having a dog. We had to get in and out of the pound as quickly as possible, before I brought them all home and the doggie faces were just heartbreaking!

I have never had a bad experience bring a Baby kitten into the house with my cats. Sure they will hiss at each other, and the baby will take a few swats, but nothing major should happen. I once had a breeder tell me to take a blanket or towel that your cat lies on all the time and rub it on the new member of the household. This will rub the scent of your cat onto the kitty, and it will be a familar scent. Cats go on scent! When I have to take one of my cats out of the household to the vet, the scent from the vets office wears off on the cat, and when they get home they squabble amongst themselves for a few hours and these guys have been together years! It is because they have a unfamilar scent when they come home.

Things will be out of balance for a week or so, but it will work it's self out......

Congrats on your new baby!

Kim

Congratulations on the new pet, it was a very sweet thing to do. I haven't had the courage to go anywhere near the SPCA yet.
I have had a lot of experience with cats and usually it is just a matter of time. It depends of course a lot on the personality of the dominant kitty. There will likely be a lot of hissing and spitting at first and a few swats (just make sure claws are trimmed to prevent injury).
The crate is a great idea, this way she can gain some visual and get over that shock before the actual physical confrontation. Also the little guy will learn with all the hissing and spitting that he needs to respect her. Has he got a name yet?
Best of luck, please let us know how it goes. It may take a little longer than you think if she is expecially hostile at first.
She's no doubt missing Rush too and may reject him at first.

Thanks for the advice. For now, we have to keep them separated for a little longer than originally anticipated as Mr. Sawyer is chock full of worms and intestinal parasites. We returned to the vet today and now he's on daily meds for a while 'til he's all clear. I have left the towel he slept on out for her to smell and taken a towel from her and rubbed it on him to introduce the scents to each other. She's not too happy with us apparently either, I tried to pet her after spending some time in the room with him and she hissed at me. I'm sure because his scent was all over me even though we're very careful about hand washing right now. I feel more relieved now that I spoke with the vet (who's a cat lady) about the likelyhood of death or maiming and she assured me they usually just avoid each other if they can't get along and I have a pretty big house that they can do that in. Being a dog person, I was worried about attacks and things like that, which is sometimes possible with dogs. Of course, we won't be leaving them alone together for a long time, so that's less likely. I just hope they do get along, because Miss Jackie sure does need the exercise.

We named him Sawyer because we're big "Lost" fans, but he's not really fitting that name in my opinion. I'm trying to convince my daughter to change it to Milo. He seems more like a Milo to me. But we'll see. Mostly, he's "Little Squirt" to me, he's barely a pound and just the cutest thing you've ever laid eyes on!

Hi there,

congratulations on the new pet! When I got my new kitty, the lady told me that the first time they meet face to face, to dab the juice from a can of tuna below both cats' ears, neck, etc. around the face area. So they're a bit more curious than mad.
I think that it's good that I got a kitten because they are smaller and probably less intimidating to the others.

Just make sure to remember to play with the little kitty; my older ones are still pretty much acting like stick in the muds and the little cat gets bored sometimes.

-Tammy

OH, He's SO adorable, he looks like a friend of mine's cat Heathcliffe.
I bet in time Miss Jackie will accept him. I like Sawyer too...err I mean the name
Best of luck, let us know how it goes.

Congrats on the new addition! All I can say for advice is to keep them separated until they get used to the idea that there is another animal in the home. Whenever we had a new foster cat, I would keep them separate from my boys for at least a month. They always knew when there was someone new. Afterwards they would have limited contact with them under our supervision. Usually they can tell right off the bat who was in charge and respected their positions in the home. The crate is a good idea though.

Best of Luck!
Cynthia