Hello!
This is my first time trying to integrate a second cat into my household. From what I can tell, every experience is different largely based on the cats' personalities. And I'm attempting to do this all by myself, so I guess I'm just looking for a little reassurance that I'm on the right track or for some advice if I'm not. Here's the background:
I brought Shawnee (new cat) home last Sunday and, not realizing there was a step by step recommended approach to intros, I set her loose from her carrier in view of Coraline (resident cat). Coraline was initially wary, but overall curious. Shawnee immediately hid under the couch. Coraline kept peering at where she was and hissed and growled some, but nothing that seemed to verge on aggressive (i.e. no flattened ears or puffed fur), just a warning. I was smart enough to realize they were both uneasy and not to leave them alone so I have a free bedroom I set up as "base" for Shawnee. After googling cat introductions, I thought I may have messed things up, but figured I would just start over.
Thus began letting Coraline figure out there was another cat behind the closed door. I spent the week sleeping with Coraline and switching rooms early in the morning before work to get some sleep time with Shawnee in her room. This was exhausting for me, but I think helped overall. Still it is not something I can or want to do in the long term because I was not actually getting restful sleep. Anyway, I made sure to spend time every day playing with each of them as equally as possible. I even got Coraline to play by the closed door a couple times. I've also done scent swapping. Both are now largely comfortable with each other's scent. There's no hissing at all when I present them with blankets or other things with each other's scent.
Because of that and Shawnee becoming restless in her room, I moved on to site swapping. I was careful and didn't let them see each other. This went well and helped with the scent swapping. Day 5, I switched Shawnee to a bigger spare bedroom and continued previous steps. Day six, I was struggling to balance Shawnee's need for freedom and the need to keep Coraline comfortable, so I figured perhaps a screened separation would help and set up stacked baby gates in front of her door. It actually seemed to ease some of the tension they exhibited through closed doors, so I feel like it was a good choice. But it didn't reduce Shawnee's cries to be let out. Since I was home the whole weekend, I decided to try a supervised face to face. It went well initially with only some staring and hissing, so I continued to do so throughout the weekend in shorter bursts, always sure to praise the good behavior.
Generally Coraline will hiss and growl if Shawnee gets too close and tends to retreat higher up on windowsills and the cat trees as Shawnee doesn't jump if she doesn't have to. Shawnee doesn't seem to understand personal space, though, but I don't believe it's meant aggressively. There are moments that I can distract them and get them to play when they're in the same room. And for the most part they just watch each other (I've since tried to distract when the staring seems prolonged).
There's still no signs of aggression that I'm noticing apart from the hissing and growling, which my coworkers with cats tell me is normal and likely them just figuring out their relationship. But they have had a few "spats" with hissing and swatting when Coraline comes down to the floor and Shawnee gets "too" close. I've distracted and/or separated them when they've swatted during these "spats" and let Coraline calm down. It freaks me out a little, though, honestly. I'm not sure if they're just getting a feel for one another and I should keep bringing them together or if I'm moving too fast and the spats are a sign to slow down. Coraline doesn't really move from her perch when they're in the same room. So I still separate them for feeding and sleeping mainly for Coraline's comfort since Shawnee doesn't seem to care. I have also started letting Shawnee wander the house at night while I sleep with Coraline in my room just so I don't have to listen to her meow all night.
Today is the first day they've been on their own with screened separation as I'm at work. I checked on them midday and they seem fine. Coraline even came up the stairs and peeked at us while I was visiting Shawnee in her room, which is improvement over last night. But overall I've noticed Coraline spends much more time downstairs now.
Sometimes I feel like I'm stressing and working myself up over nothing and sometimes I feel like maybe I'm not careful enough. I know this takes time and it has only been a week, but does it seem like positive progress?
This is my first time trying to integrate a second cat into my household. From what I can tell, every experience is different largely based on the cats' personalities. And I'm attempting to do this all by myself, so I guess I'm just looking for a little reassurance that I'm on the right track or for some advice if I'm not. Here's the background:
I brought Shawnee (new cat) home last Sunday and, not realizing there was a step by step recommended approach to intros, I set her loose from her carrier in view of Coraline (resident cat). Coraline was initially wary, but overall curious. Shawnee immediately hid under the couch. Coraline kept peering at where she was and hissed and growled some, but nothing that seemed to verge on aggressive (i.e. no flattened ears or puffed fur), just a warning. I was smart enough to realize they were both uneasy and not to leave them alone so I have a free bedroom I set up as "base" for Shawnee. After googling cat introductions, I thought I may have messed things up, but figured I would just start over.
Thus began letting Coraline figure out there was another cat behind the closed door. I spent the week sleeping with Coraline and switching rooms early in the morning before work to get some sleep time with Shawnee in her room. This was exhausting for me, but I think helped overall. Still it is not something I can or want to do in the long term because I was not actually getting restful sleep. Anyway, I made sure to spend time every day playing with each of them as equally as possible. I even got Coraline to play by the closed door a couple times. I've also done scent swapping. Both are now largely comfortable with each other's scent. There's no hissing at all when I present them with blankets or other things with each other's scent.
Because of that and Shawnee becoming restless in her room, I moved on to site swapping. I was careful and didn't let them see each other. This went well and helped with the scent swapping. Day 5, I switched Shawnee to a bigger spare bedroom and continued previous steps. Day six, I was struggling to balance Shawnee's need for freedom and the need to keep Coraline comfortable, so I figured perhaps a screened separation would help and set up stacked baby gates in front of her door. It actually seemed to ease some of the tension they exhibited through closed doors, so I feel like it was a good choice. But it didn't reduce Shawnee's cries to be let out. Since I was home the whole weekend, I decided to try a supervised face to face. It went well initially with only some staring and hissing, so I continued to do so throughout the weekend in shorter bursts, always sure to praise the good behavior.
Generally Coraline will hiss and growl if Shawnee gets too close and tends to retreat higher up on windowsills and the cat trees as Shawnee doesn't jump if she doesn't have to. Shawnee doesn't seem to understand personal space, though, but I don't believe it's meant aggressively. There are moments that I can distract them and get them to play when they're in the same room. And for the most part they just watch each other (I've since tried to distract when the staring seems prolonged).
There's still no signs of aggression that I'm noticing apart from the hissing and growling, which my coworkers with cats tell me is normal and likely them just figuring out their relationship. But they have had a few "spats" with hissing and swatting when Coraline comes down to the floor and Shawnee gets "too" close. I've distracted and/or separated them when they've swatted during these "spats" and let Coraline calm down. It freaks me out a little, though, honestly. I'm not sure if they're just getting a feel for one another and I should keep bringing them together or if I'm moving too fast and the spats are a sign to slow down. Coraline doesn't really move from her perch when they're in the same room. So I still separate them for feeding and sleeping mainly for Coraline's comfort since Shawnee doesn't seem to care. I have also started letting Shawnee wander the house at night while I sleep with Coraline in my room just so I don't have to listen to her meow all night.
Today is the first day they've been on their own with screened separation as I'm at work. I checked on them midday and they seem fine. Coraline even came up the stairs and peeked at us while I was visiting Shawnee in her room, which is improvement over last night. But overall I've noticed Coraline spends much more time downstairs now.
Sometimes I feel like I'm stressing and working myself up over nothing and sometimes I feel like maybe I'm not careful enough. I know this takes time and it has only been a week, but does it seem like positive progress?