Introductions - can anyone offer some more advice?

[caro]

I introduced a 9 year old neutered tomcat to my 2, 6 year old spayed females, 6 days ago and followed the procedure recommended, isolation/scent & territory switching etc. When the girls started to get curious I let them meet Stan the new boy. It went OK, first nose to nose, then they backed off and hissed at him. he does not retaliate. However one of my females, Polly is timid and she seems to be scared of him (though he is a very sweet, gentle boy) and he has started to stalk and corner her (more out of curiosity I feel) but Polly reacts terrified, with ears flat, lying down growling. Then I separated them and put him back in his room. The other cat Henrietta simpy seems to hate him. later, after the initial meeting she smacked him when he came too close but he seems to respect that and stays away. My friend says just leave them all toegether and let them sort it out but I'm worried for Polly. Any advice please. I am getting very stressed and it's only 2 days since they met!
Caro
 

 

[otto]

Keep on as you are doing. Except for Polly's fear it sounds like it is going extremely well. Keep them separate except for supervised meetings for a while longer, to give Polly time to get used to him. When he wants to approach Polly try distracting him with a game. Once he is distracted turn your attention to Polly and get her playing, so she forgets about her fear and realizes life will still be normal, even with this stranger in the house.

2 days is such a short time, it can take weeks or months for cats to adjust to a newbie. You and they are doing fine.

Installing some feliway plug in diffusers will help with Polly's stress.

Congratulations on your new family member, and hurray for you for adopting an older cat!

 

[caro]

Thank you so much. Your encouragement and support really helps and I know it's early days and it seems to be going well so far. No attacks or aggression from the male cat (he is really tolerant). Polly is skittish anyways so I can't expect her to be suddenly supercalm!

I plan to keep on doing the supervision for another 1-2 weeks (depending on relsults) and then let them mingle while I'm at work.

I went home at lunchtime to let them mingle for an hour and Polly was starting to follow him round the house so that was a nice surprise

caro