Hello, I have a bit of a long story and plea for guidance.. We've rescued a beautiful kitty who was once feral. He started showing up at our office and wouldn't let humans go near him. Then slowly, after feeding him a while, he started coming near but you couldn't touch him. He would purrrr and rub against the stair posts, and eventually my legs, but I couldn't touch him. Eventually he started rubbing against my hands that I'd place flatly to my sides.. I'd venture to pet him and he'd jump away. Eventually he let me pet him and couldn't get enough. Still always a purry, drooly love bug. It took about 6 or so months of slow progression.. but it worked. We started calling him Fluffy (we thought he was a girl.. he's such a beautiful kitty!).
He did have interactions with another kitty (Tommy) who frequents our office (he has a home, he's just a neighborhood roamer) and it was interesting to see. I could see Fluffy asserting himself with Tommy (who is much older), because from time to time I would see Fluffy kind of "jump at" Tommy. They seemed to be buddies, but I am not sure if they really were.. They would be together often and both come by for food at the same time, as well as lay around the building close to each other.
He was living in some dense bushes, and would come out whenever I'd call him. Even if I didn't have food he would come to me to get some pets. I decided I was going to get him to the vet to get checked and neutered. I did just that on Feb 28th, and he wasn't microchipped or neutered so he was a semi-feral/stray. He got all fixed up, chipped, vaccinated and treated for hookworm, so he was quarantined in the bedroom for nearly a month. The vet estimated he is about 1 year old.
We kept him at our house in a bedroom during all of this, and he became more and more lovable. We never used to be able to pick him up.. now we can. We can now even give him kisses on the head and hold him often. He is definitely a lover. So, we decided to try and give him a home because he was just too sweet to be an outside kitty with no home.
We read articles, watched videos, etc. We've integrated kittens but not adults. I got Feliway diffusers, calming spray and scratch deterrent spray. Lately he's been scratching under the door so I spray the deterrent, but we will likely have to replace carpet by the time we're done, too! Generally he has done fine as an outdoor-turned-indoor cat. We are just really struggling with integrating him with our resident three!
During the course of his hookworm treatment we kept him in the bedroom and didn't let him interact with our kitties at all. We decided once he was clear we would start introductions. We have 3.. Daisy is almost 13/female, Lilly is 10/female and then Milo is 6/male.
I will try and list out what we've done... we've done so much that I am probably going to forget something or miss the exact sequence.
We started with our youngest male, Milo, because he seemed the most interested and he is super easy going. Milo would go to the door often while Fluffy was in quarantine and sniff and just hang out there. We put Fluffy into a small dog cage and let Milo in. Of course there was hissing and stuff, it seemed to go as expected except Milo seemed to get a bit more growly and agitated as time progressed and left.
We did more research. Hubby watched Jackson Galaxy videos and decided to try the baby gate feedings. We don't have a good setup to feed kitties right on opposite sides of a door.
We put up the baby gate and covered it with a blanket and tried feeding them on opposite sides with the three being pretty far away. We slowly progressed them closer and covered less of the gate with the blanket, but in general our resident three never really seemed comfortable. It was like they would be briefly, but then regress.
Shortly into this, Fluffy jumped the gate and we decided to see what happens. It seemed ok at first.. our resident three went into our bedroom (their safe space) and Fluffy did go visit them. It got to a point where Fluffy and Milo locked eyes for what seemed like an eternity... and Fluffy jumped at him. We put him back in his room.
Unsure of what to really do, we kept on with the baby gate feedings and waited to let them interact further. Same thing with the feedings.. they seem relatively OK but then regress quickly. Once Fluffy is done eating, generally 2 of the 3 stop eating, either back away or go into our bedroom.
After many days, we started to let Fluffy out for face to face meetings, and played with them all with toys. Our three would stay higher up on a cat tower, counter, etc. The very first time we let him out, he saw Daisy on the bottom of the cat tower and went after her. She freaked out and ran into the dining room. Fluffy kept trying to get to her in the dining room and we played defense at the two room entrances. He wouldn't aggressively jump or run at her and obeyed when we told him no, sort of, because he'd keep trying but would stop when we said No.
Another time we let him out, things seemed to be going relatively well... Daisy and Milo were on the cat tower and Lilly was down on the floor. She and Fluffy made eye contact and we waited to see what happened (now we know that's BAD), and he went after Lilly, we made noises and ran him off into his room. He actually got scared because of the noises I think.
It was a total of about 4 times that we let him out to meet the others.
Since then, we haven't let him interact, but we've continued the baby gate feedings (uncovered). The resident three will eat just fine there, until he is done eating. Then Daisy and Lilly in general go off. They will stay in the area, just not near. Some days one won't really eat there in the morning, but is fine at night (until Fluffy is done eating), then they will all be fine (until Fluffy is done eating).
From time to time Daisy and Milo will go near the doorway where he is behind the closed door, at times Daisy will hiss.
We've started giving treats for positive association. If they're near the door we give them treats. Today after feeding, we gave them all treats near the baby gate. Daisy will come very close to get the treats but won't really hang out. No hissing although Fluffy is right there on the other side of the gate.
We have JUST stacked baby gates so there's basically a doorway to our hallway on the side of the house he is in. Now he can go between two bedrooms and a bathroom as desired.. but that means he is also visible to the resident three whenever he's near the gate or in one of the bedrooms. Not sure if that's good or bad.
In general, our resident three don't seem to want to have anything to do with him, they aren't super growly, do hiss sometimes.. Daisy had been hiding like she was scared but recently I *think* she's a little less scared... especially when it comes to getting the treats. But they just won't go near his area much and don't seem to make any progress with the feedings and then he has jumped at all three once each.. which I've seen him do with the other office kitty before we took Fluffy home. But they never really seemed to get aggressive or fight.. it was surely a dominance thing.
It is so back and forth and a giant mess. We are at a loss and don't know what to do. We really want it to work with Fluffy! Otherwise we'd have to try and find him a new home or bring him to a no-kill shelter and it would break my heart not knowing where he winds up I don't think it would be fair to put him back outside. He's too sweet and now he's kinda' domesticated
Thank you for reading this.. if you got this far!
Any advice is greatly appreciated. We are at a loss and are trying to stay calm but it's so disheartening and we feel defeated. He's been here since Feb 28th and we've been trying to integrate for about 3 weeks...
He did have interactions with another kitty (Tommy) who frequents our office (he has a home, he's just a neighborhood roamer) and it was interesting to see. I could see Fluffy asserting himself with Tommy (who is much older), because from time to time I would see Fluffy kind of "jump at" Tommy. They seemed to be buddies, but I am not sure if they really were.. They would be together often and both come by for food at the same time, as well as lay around the building close to each other.
He was living in some dense bushes, and would come out whenever I'd call him. Even if I didn't have food he would come to me to get some pets. I decided I was going to get him to the vet to get checked and neutered. I did just that on Feb 28th, and he wasn't microchipped or neutered so he was a semi-feral/stray. He got all fixed up, chipped, vaccinated and treated for hookworm, so he was quarantined in the bedroom for nearly a month. The vet estimated he is about 1 year old.
We kept him at our house in a bedroom during all of this, and he became more and more lovable. We never used to be able to pick him up.. now we can. We can now even give him kisses on the head and hold him often. He is definitely a lover. So, we decided to try and give him a home because he was just too sweet to be an outside kitty with no home.
We read articles, watched videos, etc. We've integrated kittens but not adults. I got Feliway diffusers, calming spray and scratch deterrent spray. Lately he's been scratching under the door so I spray the deterrent, but we will likely have to replace carpet by the time we're done, too! Generally he has done fine as an outdoor-turned-indoor cat. We are just really struggling with integrating him with our resident three!
During the course of his hookworm treatment we kept him in the bedroom and didn't let him interact with our kitties at all. We decided once he was clear we would start introductions. We have 3.. Daisy is almost 13/female, Lilly is 10/female and then Milo is 6/male.
I will try and list out what we've done... we've done so much that I am probably going to forget something or miss the exact sequence.
We started with our youngest male, Milo, because he seemed the most interested and he is super easy going. Milo would go to the door often while Fluffy was in quarantine and sniff and just hang out there. We put Fluffy into a small dog cage and let Milo in. Of course there was hissing and stuff, it seemed to go as expected except Milo seemed to get a bit more growly and agitated as time progressed and left.
We did more research. Hubby watched Jackson Galaxy videos and decided to try the baby gate feedings. We don't have a good setup to feed kitties right on opposite sides of a door.
We put up the baby gate and covered it with a blanket and tried feeding them on opposite sides with the three being pretty far away. We slowly progressed them closer and covered less of the gate with the blanket, but in general our resident three never really seemed comfortable. It was like they would be briefly, but then regress.
Shortly into this, Fluffy jumped the gate and we decided to see what happens. It seemed ok at first.. our resident three went into our bedroom (their safe space) and Fluffy did go visit them. It got to a point where Fluffy and Milo locked eyes for what seemed like an eternity... and Fluffy jumped at him. We put him back in his room.
Unsure of what to really do, we kept on with the baby gate feedings and waited to let them interact further. Same thing with the feedings.. they seem relatively OK but then regress quickly. Once Fluffy is done eating, generally 2 of the 3 stop eating, either back away or go into our bedroom.
After many days, we started to let Fluffy out for face to face meetings, and played with them all with toys. Our three would stay higher up on a cat tower, counter, etc. The very first time we let him out, he saw Daisy on the bottom of the cat tower and went after her. She freaked out and ran into the dining room. Fluffy kept trying to get to her in the dining room and we played defense at the two room entrances. He wouldn't aggressively jump or run at her and obeyed when we told him no, sort of, because he'd keep trying but would stop when we said No.
Another time we let him out, things seemed to be going relatively well... Daisy and Milo were on the cat tower and Lilly was down on the floor. She and Fluffy made eye contact and we waited to see what happened (now we know that's BAD), and he went after Lilly, we made noises and ran him off into his room. He actually got scared because of the noises I think.
It was a total of about 4 times that we let him out to meet the others.
Since then, we haven't let him interact, but we've continued the baby gate feedings (uncovered). The resident three will eat just fine there, until he is done eating. Then Daisy and Lilly in general go off. They will stay in the area, just not near. Some days one won't really eat there in the morning, but is fine at night (until Fluffy is done eating), then they will all be fine (until Fluffy is done eating).
From time to time Daisy and Milo will go near the doorway where he is behind the closed door, at times Daisy will hiss.
We've started giving treats for positive association. If they're near the door we give them treats. Today after feeding, we gave them all treats near the baby gate. Daisy will come very close to get the treats but won't really hang out. No hissing although Fluffy is right there on the other side of the gate.
We have JUST stacked baby gates so there's basically a doorway to our hallway on the side of the house he is in. Now he can go between two bedrooms and a bathroom as desired.. but that means he is also visible to the resident three whenever he's near the gate or in one of the bedrooms. Not sure if that's good or bad.
In general, our resident three don't seem to want to have anything to do with him, they aren't super growly, do hiss sometimes.. Daisy had been hiding like she was scared but recently I *think* she's a little less scared... especially when it comes to getting the treats. But they just won't go near his area much and don't seem to make any progress with the feedings and then he has jumped at all three once each.. which I've seen him do with the other office kitty before we took Fluffy home. But they never really seemed to get aggressive or fight.. it was surely a dominance thing.
It is so back and forth and a giant mess. We are at a loss and don't know what to do. We really want it to work with Fluffy! Otherwise we'd have to try and find him a new home or bring him to a no-kill shelter and it would break my heart not knowing where he winds up I don't think it would be fair to put him back outside. He's too sweet and now he's kinda' domesticated
Thank you for reading this.. if you got this far!
Any advice is greatly appreciated. We are at a loss and are trying to stay calm but it's so disheartening and we feel defeated. He's been here since Feb 28th and we've been trying to integrate for about 3 weeks...
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