Okay, tldr: would a second sighted cat help ease the tension between my lonely sighted cat and our loner blind cat? How would we go about that?
Now the full story:
A couple years ago I was living with a roommate and we had three cats between us. Two males belonged to her, and one female was mine. My cat grew up with the boys, since I got her as a kitten.
My roommate works at a vet clinic, and a family wanted to give up their diabetic cat after he entered a diabetic coma and woke up almost entirely blind. They originally wanted him put down, thinking no one would be able to handle him, but my roommate and I decided to foster him until we could find a home for him LMAO well no one wants an expensive blind cat, so he became ours.
It was not an EASY transition, but he refused to stay in a room alone, so we had to let them integrate. Ultimately, the other cats tolerated him (and our younger male wanted to play with him, but the blind cat Hated that, BUT our playful boy is not smart and never picked up on it)
When my roommate moved out to go to vet school, I kept the blind cat along my female cat, Phyllis. Oldster (blind cat ended up with this nickname because he used to grumble when he was mapping out our apartment) had attached to my partner, so we took him to try to keep him with his safe human.
We have lived in our one bedroom apartment for about 4 months, and Phyllis has problems with chasing Oldster. They're capable of coexisting, and I've seen her try to snuggle with him (once successfully) but he knows she chases him and tends to shy away from her - then she reacts by slapping him. Like, she senses his fear and rejects him before he can reject her. She's one of those fake-confident-but-actually-fragile-and-sensitive cats. I think... she really misses having a cat she can play with. She didn't chase him as much in the old apartment when we had more space and more cats.
Would getting a relaxed kitten/young cat (who might be able to learn how to behave around our blind cat, but also could play with Phyllis) be a viable solution in ANY way?
I know enough about cats to know how risky cat introductions can be, but I'm getting really stressed watching our blind cat get ambushed at random. A bell helped when she wasn't actively interested in wrestling him, but now he gets stressed hearing her bell and she reacts to that by chasing him.
It's hard to explain, but I know her behavior well enough to know there's something I'm not able to give her by playing her into tiredness. I think she's lonely without another cat who speaks her 'language', and it makes me so sad.
Now the full story:
A couple years ago I was living with a roommate and we had three cats between us. Two males belonged to her, and one female was mine. My cat grew up with the boys, since I got her as a kitten.
My roommate works at a vet clinic, and a family wanted to give up their diabetic cat after he entered a diabetic coma and woke up almost entirely blind. They originally wanted him put down, thinking no one would be able to handle him, but my roommate and I decided to foster him until we could find a home for him LMAO well no one wants an expensive blind cat, so he became ours.
It was not an EASY transition, but he refused to stay in a room alone, so we had to let them integrate. Ultimately, the other cats tolerated him (and our younger male wanted to play with him, but the blind cat Hated that, BUT our playful boy is not smart and never picked up on it)
When my roommate moved out to go to vet school, I kept the blind cat along my female cat, Phyllis. Oldster (blind cat ended up with this nickname because he used to grumble when he was mapping out our apartment) had attached to my partner, so we took him to try to keep him with his safe human.
We have lived in our one bedroom apartment for about 4 months, and Phyllis has problems with chasing Oldster. They're capable of coexisting, and I've seen her try to snuggle with him (once successfully) but he knows she chases him and tends to shy away from her - then she reacts by slapping him. Like, she senses his fear and rejects him before he can reject her. She's one of those fake-confident-but-actually-fragile-and-sensitive cats. I think... she really misses having a cat she can play with. She didn't chase him as much in the old apartment when we had more space and more cats.
Would getting a relaxed kitten/young cat (who might be able to learn how to behave around our blind cat, but also could play with Phyllis) be a viable solution in ANY way?
I know enough about cats to know how risky cat introductions can be, but I'm getting really stressed watching our blind cat get ambushed at random. A bell helped when she wasn't actively interested in wrestling him, but now he gets stressed hearing her bell and she reacts to that by chasing him.
It's hard to explain, but I know her behavior well enough to know there's something I'm not able to give her by playing her into tiredness. I think she's lonely without another cat who speaks her 'language', and it makes me so sad.
