Did Get A New Pet, But Not A Dog Options

[rushie'smom]

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!