Hi All,
Long post for details but the short of it is I have 2 senior cats and I inherited a beloved third senior cat who hates other cats. My home is large enough that my new cat lives happily away from my resident cats but I would obviously love it if she could happily live with the resident cats. To complicate things, each cat has their own senior specific needs and this makes introductions hard.
***
I have a 19 year old cat Silly (male) and an approximately 12 years young girl Ophelia (female).
Silly: 19 years old, completely blind, near deaf, very slow. On lots of meds, doing better. I’m just enjoying the time I have left with him. Always been good with other cats, but likes to keep to himself. He puts up with Ophelia who loves other cats. Since he is blind and near deaf he doesn’t have great cat manners, eg. walking right into another cat.
Ophelia: 12+ years old. Spry, very very fast and like a kitten compared to Silly, hard to believe she is considered senior. LOVES other cats.
Enter 18 year old Bailey I inherited ~a year ago. She is hard of hearing and I think going blind as well, but is fast, and large and in charge. Bailey has only ever lived with dogs. She isn’t getting along with my resident cats.
**I will never rehome Bailey as she is beloved by me and she is perfectly happy occupying her own half of my home which my resident cats never entered anyways…but I would like to get Bailey comfortable around the resident cats…so far, no dice.**
I have done months long slow introductions…scent swapping etc.
But Bailey never gets past the sniffing under the door/gate phase bc she hisses and growls A LOT.
After many months I got impatient and let Bailey into the other half of the house.
She was hissing and growling at the resident cats nonstop and would run back to her area of the house as soon as she saw them. She is SUPER slow to see the other cats bc her vision isn’t great, so she will get right up next to them before realizing it, and then begins the hissing and growling.
I separated Bailey from the residents again to begin scent swapping all over again but she occasionally manages to sneak into the resident cats half of the house.
I know having these halves of the house are part of the problem, but Silly has to be sectioned off to that half of the house for his safety, and Ophelia only ever likes to leave my bedroom to use her litter box.
When Bailey enters the resident area, if Ophelia is out of my room, Bailey will charge and chase Ophelia back into my room. Then, Bailey will walk away.
Since Silly is blind, he doesn’t have good manners. I witnessed Bailey hiss and growl, which Silly couldn’t hear or see, so he continued to walk right into Bailey. Once, Silly got close enough to Bailey that she slapped him before I could intervene.
My home is large enough that Bailey has staked out one half while Silly and Ophelia occupy the other half, and after all this time if Bailey encounters the resident cat area, she hisses, growls and charges.
I set things up now that Bailey can’t get into the resident area without my supervision.
Any advice for doing introductions when dealing with old ladies and old gentlemen kitties? Or should I just keep them separate and consider myself lucky that I can do so?
Long post for details but the short of it is I have 2 senior cats and I inherited a beloved third senior cat who hates other cats. My home is large enough that my new cat lives happily away from my resident cats but I would obviously love it if she could happily live with the resident cats. To complicate things, each cat has their own senior specific needs and this makes introductions hard.
***
I have a 19 year old cat Silly (male) and an approximately 12 years young girl Ophelia (female).
Silly: 19 years old, completely blind, near deaf, very slow. On lots of meds, doing better. I’m just enjoying the time I have left with him. Always been good with other cats, but likes to keep to himself. He puts up with Ophelia who loves other cats. Since he is blind and near deaf he doesn’t have great cat manners, eg. walking right into another cat.
Ophelia: 12+ years old. Spry, very very fast and like a kitten compared to Silly, hard to believe she is considered senior. LOVES other cats.
Enter 18 year old Bailey I inherited ~a year ago. She is hard of hearing and I think going blind as well, but is fast, and large and in charge. Bailey has only ever lived with dogs. She isn’t getting along with my resident cats.
**I will never rehome Bailey as she is beloved by me and she is perfectly happy occupying her own half of my home which my resident cats never entered anyways…but I would like to get Bailey comfortable around the resident cats…so far, no dice.**
I have done months long slow introductions…scent swapping etc.
But Bailey never gets past the sniffing under the door/gate phase bc she hisses and growls A LOT.
After many months I got impatient and let Bailey into the other half of the house.
She was hissing and growling at the resident cats nonstop and would run back to her area of the house as soon as she saw them. She is SUPER slow to see the other cats bc her vision isn’t great, so she will get right up next to them before realizing it, and then begins the hissing and growling.
I separated Bailey from the residents again to begin scent swapping all over again but she occasionally manages to sneak into the resident cats half of the house.
I know having these halves of the house are part of the problem, but Silly has to be sectioned off to that half of the house for his safety, and Ophelia only ever likes to leave my bedroom to use her litter box.
When Bailey enters the resident area, if Ophelia is out of my room, Bailey will charge and chase Ophelia back into my room. Then, Bailey will walk away.
Since Silly is blind, he doesn’t have good manners. I witnessed Bailey hiss and growl, which Silly couldn’t hear or see, so he continued to walk right into Bailey. Once, Silly got close enough to Bailey that she slapped him before I could intervene.
My home is large enough that Bailey has staked out one half while Silly and Ophelia occupy the other half, and after all this time if Bailey encounters the resident cat area, she hisses, growls and charges.
I set things up now that Bailey can’t get into the resident area without my supervision.
Any advice for doing introductions when dealing with old ladies and old gentlemen kitties? Or should I just keep them separate and consider myself lucky that I can do so?