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- Jun 16, 2013
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Hi everyone!
Last summer i posted here to ask you if there are alternatives to slow introduction since I wanted to give my then-4-months-old Fletcher a kitten companion. You were so kind and useful that I now want to ask for your advice again, since in a month we'll be adopting our second cat.
We wanted to do that earlier, but my boyfriend was between jobs for longer than expected and, not being financially stable, we thought better to postpone the decision. Now everything fell into place and we feel like we cannot delay any longer, so i need need need your experience to guide me!
Some information on our family setting:
I'm heartbroken for the poor guy, I hope he'll find a good caring home.
Last summer i posted here to ask you if there are alternatives to slow introduction since I wanted to give my then-4-months-old Fletcher a kitten companion. You were so kind and useful that I now want to ask for your advice again, since in a month we'll be adopting our second cat.
We wanted to do that earlier, but my boyfriend was between jobs for longer than expected and, not being financially stable, we thought better to postpone the decision. Now everything fell into place and we feel like we cannot delay any longer, so i need need need your experience to guide me!
Some information on our family setting:
- When I say "we" I am referring to me and the boyfriend. We are 27 years old, we live in a small apartment (about 650 square feet) in Milan (Italy) and we both work 8 to 12 hours a day. My boyfriend, however, works from home often.
- Fletcher is a black longhair male cat just out of kittenhood. He is now 8 months old and will be 9 at the time of the introduction, he is neutered and has a very laid-back, sweet disposition. He's also, as you may guess, spoiled rotten
- Our home is divided in tree rooms, plus a very tiny bathroom (really tiny, we can barely move in there). When you enter the apartment you are in the kitchen, then you walk in the living room and from there you can reach the bedroom. You access the bathroom from the kitchen. The doors are very old and weak, Fletcher was able to open them without much effort when he was barely 2 months old.
- The reason why we want to wait till after Christmas is that we'll both have about a week of vacation from work to spend at home with the two cats.
- What age should the new kitten be? We are aiming for a kitten that will be between 5 and 8 months old at the time of introduction, should we aim for a more precise or entirely different age span?
- Which gender is better? For us is quite the same. We would like a female cat just because she should be more tiny and I love the sweeter facial features of girl kitties but it's really the same. Right now I feel like Fletcher was for us, but the new kitten will be for him. Obviously we will fall immediatly in love, but we are not looking for the pretty kitten, we want the right temperament. Last time some of you suggested that a male kitten would be better, but I'd like to ask you again just to have some new opinion and stories...
- What is personality match? I read somewhere, but for the life of me I cannot remember where, that cats can have three different types of personality and that personality A goes along well with other As, B with Bs and so on. Is there any truth to this? Where can I find reliable informations on the subject? And most of all... How can I understand what is Fletcher's personality and the one of the kittens I am considering for adoption? What question should I ask to the volunteers?
- What are the most important precaution we shoud have before and during the introduction? We are already planning to confine the new kitten in the bathroom for 24 hours and to use a Feliway diffuser beginning with two days before the new arrival.
- And now... on a lighter note... What colour and pattern would, in your opinion, complement better a black cat? I know black goes with everything, but I cannot help imagine the effect of the two of them curled up together...
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