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- Mar 14, 2016
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"I got a little preoccupied this past week with our granddaughter being born." - Congratulations!!Hi! I got a little preoccupied this past week with our granddaughter being born. We went away one night to go see her. We figured we could go away without a cat sitter if it was only one night and we would be with them in the morning Friday and dinner Saturday. It worked really well. We have cameras all over our house and left a key for the neighbors if we needed them. My husband did put up a screen door and how amazing it is to have such easy access to our new guy's room. We kept the pegboard to put across the bottom during the day when no feeding going on and at night. For a week or so, this has been how things have been going. Since I have been working from home (that seems to be over though), the resident cats follow me around so were only coming up by the new guy if I went up. So I started leaving the pegboard off the door. When we came home from meeting our grandbaby, I ran right up to the new guy's room to check on him, feed him his wet food and start to scoop. My resident boy followed me up and relaxed in front of the screen door and my new guy went over and relaxed on his side. The two of them looked like old friends. This has continued to happen several more times and everyone seems very chill about being around each other. Unless we go out, we are now just leaving the pegboard off. I am going to attach some photos of the resident boy and resident girl near the new guy. My girl is food motivated, so she waits for whatever she thinks she can get. But since we have been back, she has waited with no hissing. We are very encouraged by this progress. We are less than three weeks away from our vacation, and plan for our new guy to continue to be safe in his room during that, but what steps do you think we should be taking over these three weeks. We sure do not want to rush anything, but also wonder when we will know if we should begin some one on one visits. I know my girl will hiss because that is her language when she is stressed by either cat. And my boy will seek a height advantage. We are okay with waiting until it is right. The black cat is our boy (our first cat).
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Thank you, again, for all your advice. I appreciate all your expertise!!
" We went away one night to go see her. We figured we could go away without a cat sitter if it was only one night and we would be with them in the morning Friday and dinner Saturday. It worked really well." - AWESOME!!! ALl your hard work is really coming to fruition. Keep up the great work.
"My husband did put up a screen door and how amazing it is to have such easy access to our new guy's room." - That is great. Yes, it does make it a lot easier.
" We kept the pegboard to put across the bottom during the day when no feeding going on and at night." - That is an excellent decision. Just to make sure it stays as positive as possible.
"For a week or so, this has been how things have been going." - Excellent.
"Since I have been working from home (that seems to be over though), the resident cats follow me around so were only coming up by the new guy if I went up." - That is really good. As long as it is a positive encounter that is the main thing. And the resident knows the new guy is there and nothing negative happens so that builds trust and confidence.
"So I started leaving the pegboard off the door." - Ok. As long as you think everything will stay as positive as possible that is great.
"When we came home from meeting our grandbaby, I ran right up to the new guy's room to check on him, feed him his wet food and start to scoop. My resident boy followed me up and relaxed in front of the screen door and my new guy went over and relaxed on his side. The two of them looked like old friends. This has continued to happen several more times and everyone seems very chill about being around each other." - This is fantastic!!! Keep reinforcing this and keeping it as positive as possible. Positive encounter, distracting and reassuring as needed. But anytime a cat shows their underside or side it is really a sign of trust and very positive. We just need to keep reinforcing that.
"Unless we go out, we are now just leaving the pegboard off." - That is fine. Just keep making sure their encounters are as positive as possible.
"My girl is food motivated, so she waits for whatever she thinks she can get. But since we have been back, she has waited with no hissing." - Food motivated is great as we can use that to make positive associations. Keep using food with her to build that trust. When she looks at the food and takes her eyes of the new boy and nothing negative happens it is trust building and confidence building. Really good.
"We are very encouraged by this progress." - Yes!!! Me too!!! It is not a question of "IF" they we be intro'd just "WHEN". I am highly, highly confident of that.
"We are less than three weeks away from our vacation, and plan for our new guy to continue to be safe in his room during that, but what steps do you think we should be taking over these three weeks." - Keep reinforcing what you are doing. Also, we may want to try having the door open next weekend and do some feeding and distracting as needed. We would either have your husband sit on the floor between them feeding treats with you distracting probably the resident cats. And we'll see how they do at that. We'll start just a short time and try to lengthen the time.
"We sure do not want to rush anything, but also wonder when we will know if we should begin some one on one visits." - Agreed, no need to rush. The great news is, I think the risk now is very low. I do think we should do some non-barrier (only human) with distraction probably next weekend as I mentioned earlier. And let's see how they do. And we'll go from there.
"I know my girl will hiss because that is her language when she is stressed by either cat." - Hissing is just communication. If it is listened to and respected it is VERY helpful in intros. So I am more interested in what happens after the hiss. If nothing negative it is a positive. Let's see how she does. Use food.treats to distract her as well.
"And my boy will seek a height advantage." - That is actually very positive. AND if the other cat doesn't go after him then again it is a positive as a negative is avoided. If you sense tension use distraction - words, a toy, etc to get them focused away from each other. If they look away from each other it is a huge positive sign.
Yes, the black cat is your first boy. He is gorgeous. As they all are.
Pics look great. When they are like that reassure them, talk lovingly to them, get them to look away from each other, keep it calm and confident. Just reassure them that everything is ok. That is a phrase I use all the time - "It's ok".
Keep up the great work. Next weekend let's try some open door time with a lot of distraction and see how they do. We'll want to get them focused on other things other than each other. If you sense tension and it can;t be distracted then we'll just end it. It is all about positive associations (food) and positive encounters (regardless of length) and minimizing or avoiding negative encounters.
Really great job. I am really proud of you, your husband and the cats. Really great job. Keep up the great work. There will be ups and downs but I don;t think it is a question of "if" they will be intro'd anymore. Just "when".