Bringing A Senior Cat Home To Adult Cats

Do I bring home Senior Kitty or focus on my own?

  • Bring her home!

    Votes: 4 100.0%
  • Focus on your current kitties!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4

ljtluvskitties

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Hi guys! I work at a shelter and recently a very old Siamese kitty has come through and she is waiting for her forever home. I took her home for the weekend to see how she would be in my place/around my cats. Of course, 2 days is very limited for time but if I wasn’t sure, I couldn’t keep her in case she missed out on another potential adopter. My existing resident cats are 5, and 6. They were completely distraught all weekend even just knowing she was in my spare room! They kept fighting with each other and lashing out at my boyfriend and I. I guess I am feeling guilty I didn’t just keep senior kitty off the bat. She is very old and thin and likely has some underlying health issues needing addressing.


Do you feel as though all cats can learn to live together eventually? Or was it the right decision to hold off on adding another based on my existing cats reactions.
 

kittyluv387

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2 days is a very short time for assesment i think. Your cats are probably mature enough to handle a senior addition I think. Did you try feliway plugins? They might provide some calming effect. If you have the funds and willingness to do a proper introduction I think bringing home a senior kitty is wonderful. I had 2 adult boys aged 3 and 5 when we brought a 5.5 year old girl into our home. It took her a yearto get 100% comfortable but she was able to be with the other cats fairly quickly after her quarantine period.
 

ArtNJ

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Sometimes there is a lot of stress that can last a fairly long time, maybe bad enough that the older cat would do better to wait for somewhere else. But you won't get a good sense of how it will go until you try supervised interaction.
 

tarasgirl06

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Hello @Ijtluvskitties and family and welcome to TCS! Most "experts" suggest bringing a new cat (of any age) into his/her own room with all of the necessities (food, water, litterbox, comfortable sleeping place, toys, scratching posts/pads, and cat furniture) for two weeks before integrating him or her into the larger family gradually. Jackson Galaxy, cat behaviorist and host of "MY CAT FROM HELL" on Animal Planet as well as co-author of several books and poster of many videos on YouTube, has a lot of suggestions about successful additions of cats into a family. Two days is nowhere near enough time, and bringing a cat, especially a traumatized senior cat, into a home "cold" and expecting all to be well is unrealistic. To put it in perspective: most people take more than two days to adapt to a new person living with them.
Though you say you were only bringing her home for the weekend, the same would apply.
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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... I took her home for the weekend to see how she would be in my place/around my cats. ... My existing resident cats ... were completely distraught all weekend even just knowing she was in my spare room! They kept fighting with each other and lashing out at my boyfriend and I. I guess I am feeling guilty I didn’t just keep senior kitty off the bat. She is very old and thin and likely has some underlying health issues needing addressing. ...
Thank you for wanting to help with an older kitty!

You mentioned how your current cats responded during the weekend, but how did the elderly kitty respond? What were her behaviorial reactions and how well did she eat and sleep? We're all aware of the 2-day test being too short to tell, but I'm curious how she did, since that may have been part of why you did this test in the first place -- to see her response?

If she's old, thin and likely with some health issues, and if she responded in too stressful a way, that might indicate that a house with already-existing cats would be too stressful for her. High stress can worsen chronic health issues.
 

lavishsqualor

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When I brought home a kitten about a month old, my two two-year old cats both flipped out, especially my female. It took a good two to three weeks before the fur stopped flying. I just sorta left it up to them, though, to figure out the feline hierarchy. They are all fine today, lots of grooming on each other and playing. But it took a while.

I think you're awesome to want to give the senior cat a home. If you can't, I'm sure you'll see that she finds the perfect one. She's very lucky to have you in her corner. Thank you for all you do!
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. I vote for you take this old girl in - but, I am sucker for this kind of thing. And, I want to commend you for caring so much!! I would be very cautious/protective with her during the introduction process. Below are TCS links on how to handle the introduction process should you choose to 'adopt' her.

How To Successfully Introduce Cats: The Ultimate Guide

Bringing Home A New Cat - The Complete Guide

Let us know what you decide to do, and if you take her in please keep us posted!!
 

danteshuman

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I hope you take her in and that your cats come to like her...... after a long introduction process.

About her being very thin. I had to leave my senior cat with my mom. He was very thin (the vet said probably thyroid but I lacked the funds to test his blood and treat it.) Anyhow because of the kittens that stayed (and bug him) I found out that he gained weight eating kitten dry food (which he will continue eating until he dies.) ..... on a side note I tried taking him but he was so stressed out about moving I returned him. He is happy, a healthy weight again & I see him once or twice a week.
* I know senior cats hate change and that siamese cats bond very strongly with their humans. I hope your story has a happy ending.
 

tarasgirl06

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I hope you take her in and that your cats come to like her...... after a long introduction process.

About her being very thin. I had to leave my senior cat with my mom. He was very thin (the vet said probably thyroid but I lacked the funds to test his blood and treat it.) Anyhow because of the kittens that stayed (and bug him) I found out that he gained weight eating kitten dry food (which he will continue eating until he dies.) ..... on a side note I tried taking him but he was so stressed out about moving I returned him. He is happy, a healthy weight again & I see him once or twice a week.
* I know senior cats hate change and that siamese cats bond very strongly with their humans. I hope your story has a happy ending.
The kitten food is a great idea!
 

di and bob

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It will take weeks if not months for everyone to adjust. A large dog crate to put the senior in, and then your other cats to exchange scents would help later in the process. It allows them to have full visual contact which seems to help. You could also keep looking for a good home for her while she is with you, I have found many elderly people who just lost their cat and are lonely, they are wonderful caregivers after a refresher course on new cats. The local paper works best for that, the elderly are not usually on facebook. Use your local radio station too, they have those swap/buy and sale segments that you could get on for free. It wILL all work out eventually, it just takes time and lots of it!
 

r-kins

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It will take weeks if not months for everyone to adjust. A large dog crate to put the senior in, and then your other cats to exchange scents would help later in the process.
You could also do a baby gate (I've stacked two on top of each other with great success. Then the cat can go hide if they want or have full visual contact with the ones that will undoubtedly be sitting right outside the room.
 
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