Guinevere
Here she is after climbing the pet stairs to get to the coolness of the shelves above. I will never be able to thank Neil of www.spoilmykitty.com enough for sending me this pet stairs unit. It was cute to see my kittens play on them, and nice to watch the older cats fall asleep on the stairs, but the real reason they are here is because God knew that Guinevere would arrive soon. These stairs offer her comfort she has never known.
June 30th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Hi. I just read your article on the Cat Site on introducing cats. I was hoping you could share your wisdom: my partner Brooke and I are trying to introduce a wonderful friendly new kitten Olly to the 8 year-old resident cat Maya. Maya is intensly antisocial and has lived as the only cat her whole life. She is hostile toward all other cats, growling and hissing if they come close. She is also very touchy about being petted, and is quick to hiss and yell at us. Her moods vary, and she can be (relatively) easygoing, but since we brought the new kitten home, she has been very bad. She is an indoor/outdoor cat, but incessantly cries to get in when outside (for hours), or just hides. Despite all this we love her very much; she is very intellegent and has a distinct personallity.
At first we tried the switching rooms trick, and Maya was disturbed and growly. They encountered a few times under the door when we forgot to block it, and Maya growled and hissed. Perhaps we were too hasty, but we tried introducing them after the third week, and Maya was totally hostile. Olly has been a good sport about it all, but I am afraid that Maya will never accept him.
I think we’ll try the blanket trick for a while before introducing them again. But do you think that we just need to give it more time? Or will the best we can do be to let Olly get big enough to defend himself and for Maya to just deal with it? Is it important that they interact (for Olly’s sake) while Olly is a kitten, or will he be okay with a later introduction? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
June 30th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Gary,
I think the humans need to back out of the equation. Hissing and growling is completely normal. What would cause worry would be an open attack from either kitten. Your home has been Maya’s territory for years. Now, you are introducing a new kitten (a new scent) into the home that Maya has dominated. When we are stressed out during this introduction period (as we often are because we project “what if” scenarios in our head). That anxiety, that worry transfers quickly to the cats who are very intuitive to our emotions.
I would do several things:
1. Invest in several comfort zone room diffusers and plug them in to the rooms where the cats will most likely hang out
2. Using Feliway spray as well spray both rooms the cats are in.
3. Keep a dark heavy blanket or towel nearby to toss over the cats “should” they start to fight.
4. Let the cats meet accidentally. By that, leave the door open just a crack (an accident) and let the two meet on their terms. Stay away from the meeting by sitting quietly in the corner, or stooping down on your knees if you feel you might need to react quickly.
5. Don’t yell and panic at the hisses and growls. This is the cat’s only intimidation factor. They use it to announce their place in the heirarchy. They can’t do it any other way then make noise to scare the other out of attacking them. It is their release valve.
Some warning signs to watch for- low crouching to the floor, circling the other cat slowly. Eyes narrowed to almost slits, ears flat and back, tail low to the ground twitching slowly in aggravation. Rolling over on their back is a prelude to battle as well as an act of submission. If the alpha cat rolls over on its back then war is near.
Use pure vanilla extract on both cats- dabs only under their chin and the base of their tails.
Remember to breathe and relax. If these cats were outside your home they would eventually meet up, chase each other then settle down and become buddies over time.
Good luck!