Hi, All - and my apologies for such a long First Post!
I've had literally dozens of cats during my (long) life but I've not yet come across quite the same problem as I'm currently facing.
Several years ago my wife and I adopted two feral cats, a male and a female, who turned up on our doorstep together. We have had them both neutered and blood tests showed that they are both FIV+; this isn't an issue for us, as we are happy to make sure that their lives are as long and pleasant as they can be. They're now indoor cats, to ensure that they don't infect any of our neighbour's cats and because their immune systems are depressed, so injuries/infections could be serious for them.
A few weeks ago a gorgeous (really
) new boy turned up on the doorstep - he's less than a year old and had probably been dumped in the forest which is around our house some time last year when he stopped being a tiny kitten. He was matted solid and was full of ticks and fleas under it all, so we had to have him almost completely shaved when we adopted him and had him neutered. He's incredibly affectionate and absolutely loves people but he doesn't get on at all with our other, older, cats - I can't begin to imagine what kind of life he might have had before he found us.
We've had several, very serious, fights in the house when we tried to introduce the "new boy on the block", resulting in the "oldies" being traumatised and quite badly hurt, needing vet treatment; the older, and bigger, boy's leg was in shreds on one occasion. He doesn't hiss, or growl, or try to stare them down - he just goes straight in for the kill. The new boy is clear of FIV etc and we're worried that he is likely to get infected with it by the others when they fight and that he may never get on with them. Our older female is VERY timid: it took well over a year before she would sit on my lap, she won't let anyone pick her up and still cringes when we try to stroke her; as you can imagine, the current situation has completely freaked her out.
One problem is that where I live vets "castrate" male cats by doing a vasectomy rather than removing the testicles, which I assume means that there's no prospect of him calming down much - one possible course of action would be for him to go back for removal, if I can find one who will do it. Cat behaviourists also don't seem to exist here and the vet laughed when I asked where I could find one.
Currently he's "isolated", which means that he lives in my office with me; I feel guilty about that, as the other two are now no longer allowed in there to sit on my lap or sleep on the bed, and I know it's only a matter of time before he slips past me when I'm going in or out and the others will get injured again.
So basically, I need to find a way of socialising the little guy so that these fights are completely a thing of the past. My wife has never had cats before and in the country where I live, and where she's from, cats and dogs live outside, even when it's -30 Centigrade (-22F) in the winter! She's fine with the two "oldies" (the female's maybe 7 or 8 and the male around 4 or 5, I'd say) living in the house but the fights and injuries (and the blood) has traumatised her and I know she won't know how to cope if anything happens when I'm not there to separate them, and her job is very stressful anyway.
I've tried to see if some of the few Rescue Charities here would try to re-home the young one in a one-cat home but they're not really being too helpful, which is understandable: resources are always very low and they're usually overwhelmed with strays needing homes or animals that have been dumped on the street. I've told them that I'm happy to keep him here until they've found a home for him, and deliver him wherever needed, so there's no financial input needed from them and no need to take up space by having one cat in a space needed for several. They're always overstretched because most people here don't believe in neutering their dogs or cats, so street-dogs and -cats are common, as kittens and puppies are just dumped - and people being killed by packs of street-dogs is not unheard-of either! At the same time there are singers and actresses in the newspapers who like to be photographed carrying little pooches around in their handbags, so things are very slowly changing.
In all honesty, I'd MUCH prefer to keep the Little Guy since I know he'd have a good life with us if we can get past this but the situation's proving to be something of a nightmare and keeping us both awake at night...
I've had literally dozens of cats during my (long) life but I've not yet come across quite the same problem as I'm currently facing.
Several years ago my wife and I adopted two feral cats, a male and a female, who turned up on our doorstep together. We have had them both neutered and blood tests showed that they are both FIV+; this isn't an issue for us, as we are happy to make sure that their lives are as long and pleasant as they can be. They're now indoor cats, to ensure that they don't infect any of our neighbour's cats and because their immune systems are depressed, so injuries/infections could be serious for them.
A few weeks ago a gorgeous (really
) new boy turned up on the doorstep - he's less than a year old and had probably been dumped in the forest which is around our house some time last year when he stopped being a tiny kitten. He was matted solid and was full of ticks and fleas under it all, so we had to have him almost completely shaved when we adopted him and had him neutered. He's incredibly affectionate and absolutely loves people but he doesn't get on at all with our other, older, cats - I can't begin to imagine what kind of life he might have had before he found us. We've had several, very serious, fights in the house when we tried to introduce the "new boy on the block", resulting in the "oldies" being traumatised and quite badly hurt, needing vet treatment; the older, and bigger, boy's leg was in shreds on one occasion. He doesn't hiss, or growl, or try to stare them down - he just goes straight in for the kill. The new boy is clear of FIV etc and we're worried that he is likely to get infected with it by the others when they fight and that he may never get on with them. Our older female is VERY timid: it took well over a year before she would sit on my lap, she won't let anyone pick her up and still cringes when we try to stroke her; as you can imagine, the current situation has completely freaked her out.
One problem is that where I live vets "castrate" male cats by doing a vasectomy rather than removing the testicles, which I assume means that there's no prospect of him calming down much - one possible course of action would be for him to go back for removal, if I can find one who will do it. Cat behaviourists also don't seem to exist here and the vet laughed when I asked where I could find one.
Currently he's "isolated", which means that he lives in my office with me; I feel guilty about that, as the other two are now no longer allowed in there to sit on my lap or sleep on the bed, and I know it's only a matter of time before he slips past me when I'm going in or out and the others will get injured again.
So basically, I need to find a way of socialising the little guy so that these fights are completely a thing of the past. My wife has never had cats before and in the country where I live, and where she's from, cats and dogs live outside, even when it's -30 Centigrade (-22F) in the winter! She's fine with the two "oldies" (the female's maybe 7 or 8 and the male around 4 or 5, I'd say) living in the house but the fights and injuries (and the blood) has traumatised her and I know she won't know how to cope if anything happens when I'm not there to separate them, and her job is very stressful anyway.
I've tried to see if some of the few Rescue Charities here would try to re-home the young one in a one-cat home but they're not really being too helpful, which is understandable: resources are always very low and they're usually overwhelmed with strays needing homes or animals that have been dumped on the street. I've told them that I'm happy to keep him here until they've found a home for him, and deliver him wherever needed, so there's no financial input needed from them and no need to take up space by having one cat in a space needed for several. They're always overstretched because most people here don't believe in neutering their dogs or cats, so street-dogs and -cats are common, as kittens and puppies are just dumped - and people being killed by packs of street-dogs is not unheard-of either! At the same time there are singers and actresses in the newspapers who like to be photographed carrying little pooches around in their handbags, so things are very slowly changing.
In all honesty, I'd MUCH prefer to keep the Little Guy since I know he'd have a good life with us if we can get past this but the situation's proving to be something of a nightmare and keeping us both awake at night...
