New member. Long time cat owner, many cats in 40 years.
Tough situation.
2 young male cats, 30 mos. old, siblings and moved to this house from foster at 6 weeks
. They had a 20 yr old female existing in the house when they moved in, got along OK, as the existing female was the queen of the house. The fact that they were small kittens meant she told them what was what. 20 year old Zoey passes away May 2022.
Fast forward to October 2023, we adopt a 10 year old female - Kas, our nephews cat who for a variety of reasons did not move with the family to Spain. We agreed to take her in, we had had her boarding with us when she was younger, knew and liked her.
She spent her 10 years as a solo cat in a very small NYC apartment, is now in a large multi story house, so lots of new territory to discover.
Except the existing young male siblings are not readily accepting her. As they grew up play fighting each other and chasing, that is a behavior they tried on with
Kas. As she has poorly developed (none) experiences with other cats, the running and chasing has been a problem. She has learned to jump onto counters to escape, only will carefully seek out the downstairs living room and very careful trips to the second floor. The male siblings sleep in different bedrooms on the second floor, so when Kas hears that things are settled down, she will explore. She has been sleeping in the first floor kitchenette area, usually on her favorite blanket. Will not sleep on the second floor or spend any real time there. She is an affectionate people cat and I feel like she would desire to sleep in proximity to her humans, that is not yet possible. We placed Feliway dispensers throught the first floor, doesn’t seem to have any affect.
If and when one of the male siblings encounters Kas out and about, they are likely to challenge and if she runs, she gets chased, with much screeching and hissing. If they calmly approach her, she will hiss and swat if they get too close.
It’s been 3 months. They are very, very slowly acclimating, but the chasing and challenging is still occurring. I like this girl and would desire to keep her, but wonder if she would be better off in a different living situation. We potentially have the option to move her to nephew 2’s new apartment. He has house sat for Kas, likes her and likes cats. On the other hand I hate the idea of her moving yet again. At her age I want her to have a good living situation. Not sure how much time to give it before she gets along with my two boys.
Tough situation.
2 young male cats, 30 mos. old, siblings and moved to this house from foster at 6 weeks
. They had a 20 yr old female existing in the house when they moved in, got along OK, as the existing female was the queen of the house. The fact that they were small kittens meant she told them what was what. 20 year old Zoey passes away May 2022.
Fast forward to October 2023, we adopt a 10 year old female - Kas, our nephews cat who for a variety of reasons did not move with the family to Spain. We agreed to take her in, we had had her boarding with us when she was younger, knew and liked her.
She spent her 10 years as a solo cat in a very small NYC apartment, is now in a large multi story house, so lots of new territory to discover.
Except the existing young male siblings are not readily accepting her. As they grew up play fighting each other and chasing, that is a behavior they tried on with
Kas. As she has poorly developed (none) experiences with other cats, the running and chasing has been a problem. She has learned to jump onto counters to escape, only will carefully seek out the downstairs living room and very careful trips to the second floor. The male siblings sleep in different bedrooms on the second floor, so when Kas hears that things are settled down, she will explore. She has been sleeping in the first floor kitchenette area, usually on her favorite blanket. Will not sleep on the second floor or spend any real time there. She is an affectionate people cat and I feel like she would desire to sleep in proximity to her humans, that is not yet possible. We placed Feliway dispensers throught the first floor, doesn’t seem to have any affect.
If and when one of the male siblings encounters Kas out and about, they are likely to challenge and if she runs, she gets chased, with much screeching and hissing. If they calmly approach her, she will hiss and swat if they get too close.
It’s been 3 months. They are very, very slowly acclimating, but the chasing and challenging is still occurring. I like this girl and would desire to keep her, but wonder if she would be better off in a different living situation. We potentially have the option to move her to nephew 2’s new apartment. He has house sat for Kas, likes her and likes cats. On the other hand I hate the idea of her moving yet again. At her age I want her to have a good living situation. Not sure how much time to give it before she gets along with my two boys.