- Joined
- Sep 16, 2022
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Hello!
I had done some reading about cat introductions before we decided to get a second cat, we wanted to get it right and it feel natural. We have one current cat, her name is Ellie, she's 2 years old. We adopted her in March of this year (2022), so we've had her for about 6 months. She is a more aggressive cat, likes to swipe and nip us but I think most of it is because she is very active and loves to play and will cuddle us on the couch or the bed once she's done playing. She is a dominant cat for sure, very confident and sassy and likes her space when she is cleaning herself. We thought Ellie may be good with cats since she had a litter of kittens at one point in her life. My fiancé and I both work full time, and she misses us when we aren't there. I noticed she only eats her food when we are home and she follows us so much she's under our feet. She loves to talk! Meows and purrs and chirps often. We do spoil her, but she knows her boundaries (no jumping on counter or dinner table) etc.
We assumed since we haven't had her for a year, it would be a good idea to get her a playmate now instead of later. We just adopted her a friend that is also 2 years old and female. We made sure that this cat has attributes that match up with Ellie -- active, loves to play, likes car rides etc. We learned Gabby (new addition to the fam) likes other cats, is non aggressive and she's a bit shy, but we thought their love of activity and playing would be a great bonding experience or companionship for the two cats.
We brought her home yesterday and kept the cats in separate rooms, door open and had Gabby in her crate so Ellie could smell her and see her. We gave both of them treats too so they had a snack to ease the intro. Ellie was NOT happy. Complete fear -- dilated eyes, low long growls and hissing. We felt like we had messed up their introduction! Gabby is so shy she didn't react to Ellie at all. Just sat quietly. About 10 minutes after we closed the door, she had a very light hiss towards my fiancé since he was on the other side of the door with Ellie. The behavior from both cats made sense, we were just concerned we could have somehow eased things a bit more where Ellie didn't act so strongly. (but maybe any way we did it wouldn't have mattered).
Its now day two and even the smell of Gabby on a brush, on my hand or hearing gabby in the other room makes Ellie hiss or growl. I found this forum today and was hoping I could get some feedback on the situation. I know it's still early but any feedback on stories would help. We do have a lot of hope for the two of them to get acclimated and will end up playing together even if they aren't the biggest fans of the other. We are going to try to have them both eat wet food on either side of the door tonight (no view of the other) and see if they have a bonding or any type of progress at all.
Thank you for reading/listening!
I had done some reading about cat introductions before we decided to get a second cat, we wanted to get it right and it feel natural. We have one current cat, her name is Ellie, she's 2 years old. We adopted her in March of this year (2022), so we've had her for about 6 months. She is a more aggressive cat, likes to swipe and nip us but I think most of it is because she is very active and loves to play and will cuddle us on the couch or the bed once she's done playing. She is a dominant cat for sure, very confident and sassy and likes her space when she is cleaning herself. We thought Ellie may be good with cats since she had a litter of kittens at one point in her life. My fiancé and I both work full time, and she misses us when we aren't there. I noticed she only eats her food when we are home and she follows us so much she's under our feet. She loves to talk! Meows and purrs and chirps often. We do spoil her, but she knows her boundaries (no jumping on counter or dinner table) etc.
We assumed since we haven't had her for a year, it would be a good idea to get her a playmate now instead of later. We just adopted her a friend that is also 2 years old and female. We made sure that this cat has attributes that match up with Ellie -- active, loves to play, likes car rides etc. We learned Gabby (new addition to the fam) likes other cats, is non aggressive and she's a bit shy, but we thought their love of activity and playing would be a great bonding experience or companionship for the two cats.
We brought her home yesterday and kept the cats in separate rooms, door open and had Gabby in her crate so Ellie could smell her and see her. We gave both of them treats too so they had a snack to ease the intro. Ellie was NOT happy. Complete fear -- dilated eyes, low long growls and hissing. We felt like we had messed up their introduction! Gabby is so shy she didn't react to Ellie at all. Just sat quietly. About 10 minutes after we closed the door, she had a very light hiss towards my fiancé since he was on the other side of the door with Ellie. The behavior from both cats made sense, we were just concerned we could have somehow eased things a bit more where Ellie didn't act so strongly. (but maybe any way we did it wouldn't have mattered).
Its now day two and even the smell of Gabby on a brush, on my hand or hearing gabby in the other room makes Ellie hiss or growl. I found this forum today and was hoping I could get some feedback on the situation. I know it's still early but any feedback on stories would help. We do have a lot of hope for the two of them to get acclimated and will end up playing together even if they aren't the biggest fans of the other. We are going to try to have them both eat wet food on either side of the door tonight (no view of the other) and see if they have a bonding or any type of progress at all.
Thank you for reading/listening!