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- Nov 25, 2020
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hello again sweet cat site friends, I have posted a few times here and have received great advice, and am back once more for some more help.
a little background on our situation:
my girlfriend and I moved in together in September in a large communal house that I was already living at with my cat, Legs (3 y/o, F, indoor/outdoor), and my girlfriend brought her kitty into the picture, Coca (9y/o, F, indoor). We have been following cat intro guidelines and spending lots of quality time, feeding together, etc on either side of a gated door. Note: Legs has cohabited with cats prior and been fine, however Coca had never lived with another cat (and it shows) however had been indoor/outdoor in a previous living situation. Unfortunately, they had a bit of a marking battle and it seemed to escalate when we would swap their spaces between the bedroom/rest of the house, so with moving on the horizon, we kept Coca in the room and Legs to roam the rest of the house. then, come mid-January, we have moved to our own 1 bedroom apartment.
the situation now:
Legs is staying indoors for the time being (and maybe forever as she seems to be doing well). we have a gated doorway that we keep open when we are home with the cats and can supervise (we close the door when away and sleeping). We swap the cats every few hours between the bedroom and the rest of the apartment, and they share litter boxes, food and water as those stay in their respective spaces, with no issue or hesitation. When we switch them, I hold Legs and let Coca walk into or out of the room, and she doesn't have an issue at all it seems while I'm holding Legs.
We have feliway multicat diffusers in both spaces. We do nightly feeding and quality time on either side of the gate, and they spend a lot of time throughout their days staring at each other through the gate, hiding behind things and trying to get a glimpse at the other-they seem nervous. We play music for cats by David Teie a LOT (highly recommend as sleeping music too!). We always have someone sleeping with each cat, one on the couch and one in the bedroom. We had two marking incidents from Legs in the bathroom right when we moved in, but it seems to have resolved itself and we haven't had a relapse in two weeks.
their behavior:
Legs seems curious but scared- calm demeanor with an anxious tail thwap and anxious breathing. Coca huffs with a low, sustained growly meow often and will rush the gate and hiss/growl when Legs gets too close, and Legs will bolt in the opposite direction to hide. Often Coca will aggressively bite the closest thing to her in her stress, more often then not one of us to our dismay. Once, there was a breech through the gate (it has been secured since) where Legs escaped and walked into the bathroom and Coca chased her from the living room and they were both screaming and it was a bad fight.
no injuries but both were shooken up and it sounded very very aggressive on both their parts, both in pursuit of the other.
our goals:
we just want them to be able to coexist without hurting each other. please help! we know this takes patience and are prepared to keep being patient, we are just hoping for any sort of tips or advice we haven't heard or thought of yet. Thank you!
a little background on our situation:
my girlfriend and I moved in together in September in a large communal house that I was already living at with my cat, Legs (3 y/o, F, indoor/outdoor), and my girlfriend brought her kitty into the picture, Coca (9y/o, F, indoor). We have been following cat intro guidelines and spending lots of quality time, feeding together, etc on either side of a gated door. Note: Legs has cohabited with cats prior and been fine, however Coca had never lived with another cat (and it shows) however had been indoor/outdoor in a previous living situation. Unfortunately, they had a bit of a marking battle and it seemed to escalate when we would swap their spaces between the bedroom/rest of the house, so with moving on the horizon, we kept Coca in the room and Legs to roam the rest of the house. then, come mid-January, we have moved to our own 1 bedroom apartment.
the situation now:
Legs is staying indoors for the time being (and maybe forever as she seems to be doing well). we have a gated doorway that we keep open when we are home with the cats and can supervise (we close the door when away and sleeping). We swap the cats every few hours between the bedroom and the rest of the apartment, and they share litter boxes, food and water as those stay in their respective spaces, with no issue or hesitation. When we switch them, I hold Legs and let Coca walk into or out of the room, and she doesn't have an issue at all it seems while I'm holding Legs.
We have feliway multicat diffusers in both spaces. We do nightly feeding and quality time on either side of the gate, and they spend a lot of time throughout their days staring at each other through the gate, hiding behind things and trying to get a glimpse at the other-they seem nervous. We play music for cats by David Teie a LOT (highly recommend as sleeping music too!). We always have someone sleeping with each cat, one on the couch and one in the bedroom. We had two marking incidents from Legs in the bathroom right when we moved in, but it seems to have resolved itself and we haven't had a relapse in two weeks.
their behavior:
Legs seems curious but scared- calm demeanor with an anxious tail thwap and anxious breathing. Coca huffs with a low, sustained growly meow often and will rush the gate and hiss/growl when Legs gets too close, and Legs will bolt in the opposite direction to hide. Often Coca will aggressively bite the closest thing to her in her stress, more often then not one of us to our dismay. Once, there was a breech through the gate (it has been secured since) where Legs escaped and walked into the bathroom and Coca chased her from the living room and they were both screaming and it was a bad fight.
no injuries but both were shooken up and it sounded very very aggressive on both their parts, both in pursuit of the other.our goals:
we just want them to be able to coexist without hurting each other. please help! we know this takes patience and are prepared to keep being patient, we are just hoping for any sort of tips or advice we haven't heard or thought of yet. Thank you!
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