We have gone through the laborious steps of introducing a new cat to an established cat in our house. All went well and both seemed to accept each other fairly quickly. After some posturing and getting used to, we had them freely roaming the house in about a week and leaving them alone within 2 weeks. There was some hissing and swatting, but no growling or fights. The two cats now seem to completely tolerate each other often walking by while the other completely ignores. However, when they start to play, it seems to get rough and there is still some hissing and yowling. Before my question, here is some background:
Established Cat (Katie): 1 year old female tortie; petite and slender; rescue cat
New Cat (Moose): 1 year old male siamese; large and somewhat fat; rescue cat
Personality-wise with humans, both are extremely sweet and affectionate, but will turn very standoffish when they've had enough attention; contact with humans is on their terms. Both will get aggressively playful with humans with whipping tail, benign biting (more like 'mouthing') and some clawing that can draw blood. Not so much from scratching, but from clutching.
Katie was abandoned and has been with us for a little under a year now. Moose was either abandoned or a run-away who became a 'neighborhood' pet frequently getting fed by various people. One of the neighbors finally turned him into the shelter.
On to the problem. A typical scene will be this: Katie strolls across the room. Moose sees her and stalks playfully (hunched on ground wiggling butt). Moose runs and pounces on Katie. Because of his weight advantage, Moose takes her down hard-usually upside-down. Katie yowls in anger, breaks loose, and hisses with puffy tail and ears back. Then they will stare each other down with whipping tails as if they're waiting for the other to start a real fight. Moose will do this a couple if times in a row and then finally stop and go about his business. If he's not pouncing like that, they both seems fine going near each other, touching noses, etc. I have even seen Katie playfully attack or chase Moose, but not near as frequently; a couple if times just moments after Moose attacked her.
Normally, I'd dismiss this as cats playing, but the vocalization of Katie concerns me. If her yowls were anymore prolonged, I would think they were actually fighting. It can escalate rapidly and I'm afraid it will turn into a real fight and one of them will get injured. I haven't heard any growling yet, but I worry it will get worse. So my question is, is this typical cat-play that should be left alone for them to sort out or should I take steps to quell it even reverting back to some introductions steps? We're coming up on six weeks with the new cat including the 2 week intro period.
BTW, if it matters, we also have a 5 year old female weiner-dog who's been with us all 5 years, but she really isn't a factor in any of this as the cats and dog are very tolerant of each other. They don't typically interact, notwithstanding the occasional swat by one of the cats and brief chase by the dog. The dog is very passive with the cats, but won't tolerate a face swat at all. That occurrence is rare.
Sorry for the long message. Please let me know if anymore info is needed. Do I do something about this or let them figure it out. Thanks all!!!
Edit: Both cats are neutered and have their claws.
Established Cat (Katie): 1 year old female tortie; petite and slender; rescue cat
New Cat (Moose): 1 year old male siamese; large and somewhat fat; rescue cat
Personality-wise with humans, both are extremely sweet and affectionate, but will turn very standoffish when they've had enough attention; contact with humans is on their terms. Both will get aggressively playful with humans with whipping tail, benign biting (more like 'mouthing') and some clawing that can draw blood. Not so much from scratching, but from clutching.
Katie was abandoned and has been with us for a little under a year now. Moose was either abandoned or a run-away who became a 'neighborhood' pet frequently getting fed by various people. One of the neighbors finally turned him into the shelter.
On to the problem. A typical scene will be this: Katie strolls across the room. Moose sees her and stalks playfully (hunched on ground wiggling butt). Moose runs and pounces on Katie. Because of his weight advantage, Moose takes her down hard-usually upside-down. Katie yowls in anger, breaks loose, and hisses with puffy tail and ears back. Then they will stare each other down with whipping tails as if they're waiting for the other to start a real fight. Moose will do this a couple if times in a row and then finally stop and go about his business. If he's not pouncing like that, they both seems fine going near each other, touching noses, etc. I have even seen Katie playfully attack or chase Moose, but not near as frequently; a couple if times just moments after Moose attacked her.
Normally, I'd dismiss this as cats playing, but the vocalization of Katie concerns me. If her yowls were anymore prolonged, I would think they were actually fighting. It can escalate rapidly and I'm afraid it will turn into a real fight and one of them will get injured. I haven't heard any growling yet, but I worry it will get worse. So my question is, is this typical cat-play that should be left alone for them to sort out or should I take steps to quell it even reverting back to some introductions steps? We're coming up on six weeks with the new cat including the 2 week intro period.
BTW, if it matters, we also have a 5 year old female weiner-dog who's been with us all 5 years, but she really isn't a factor in any of this as the cats and dog are very tolerant of each other. They don't typically interact, notwithstanding the occasional swat by one of the cats and brief chase by the dog. The dog is very passive with the cats, but won't tolerate a face swat at all. That occurrence is rare.
Sorry for the long message. Please let me know if anymore info is needed. Do I do something about this or let them figure it out. Thanks all!!!
Edit: Both cats are neutered and have their claws.
