I have a cat, Lucia, she's one year old and still very playful and energetic. She'd never really known other cats until recently.
My parents have two cats, Billy and Max. They're brothers and thirteen. We've had them since they were kittens. They're lazy and very set in their ways.
I moved back in with my parents a few weeks ago after living abroad for a while. Obviously I brought my cat, so now Lucia is getting to know other cats for the first time, and they couldn't be more different from her.
To start with, we kept Lucia locked in my room all the time, tried not to let the cats see each other, swapped objects with each others' sent on them, etc., then we started feeding them on opposite sides of the door...we did lots of research online, figured out a plan of exactly how we'd do it, and it worked well. Eventually, we started letting Lucia have the run of the house when we were in. She's been allowed to run around the whole house as long as people are around for about a week, and at first things were perfect.
Max could not care less about Lucia. He is the laziest, most relaxed, laid back, and confident cat you could meet. His attitude rubbed off on Lucia, and now they're even playing together - they've never hissed at each other, never fought, even sleep by each other. That is more than I ever expected or hoped for.
Billy on the other hand...well he's always been more nervous than his brother. He really doesn't like change, and luckily hasn't had to deal with much in his life. But he does not like Lucia, though he was beginning to accept her until last Sunday. I was out, and my parents were having roast beef for dinner. Lucia was hovering around the table, and being incredibly sweet and adorable, and my parents dropped some beef for her. At that moment, Billy walked in. Lucia took that to mean he was threatening her food and she launched herself at him, they got into a vicious cat fight and my mum ended up with a nasty cat bite herself.
Since then, there has been a lot of tension between Lucia and Billy, and it seems to be getting worse. They will sit next to each other on the sofa (Billy sits on my mum, Lucia sits on me), but after a period of sitting nicely, one of them will suddenly hiss at the other and we've been afraid there'll be another cat fight (there hasn't been, but only because we're around to distract them or grab them or whatever). Aside from in the evening, Billy just hides whilst Lucia walks around the house.
Yesterday, Billy spent the whole day hiding under my parents' bed. Today he's behind the sofa. Even though I've locked Lucia away in my room to try and help Billy relax and realize it's still his territory, he's too nervous to come out.
I'm really sad for Billy. He's not a dominant cat. Lucia doesn't mean him any harm, she's just curious about him (she likes going up to him to have a look or sniff then goes away, she even rolls onto her back in front of him), but she's always constantly running around and wants to see what's going on everywhere all the time - she's young and has only lived in small apartments before, she's never had all the space she has now in my parents' house.
So....any advice as to what we can do, to help Billy and Lucia to get on and to also help Billy relax and be less anxious?
Thanks.
My parents have two cats, Billy and Max. They're brothers and thirteen. We've had them since they were kittens. They're lazy and very set in their ways.
I moved back in with my parents a few weeks ago after living abroad for a while. Obviously I brought my cat, so now Lucia is getting to know other cats for the first time, and they couldn't be more different from her.
To start with, we kept Lucia locked in my room all the time, tried not to let the cats see each other, swapped objects with each others' sent on them, etc., then we started feeding them on opposite sides of the door...we did lots of research online, figured out a plan of exactly how we'd do it, and it worked well. Eventually, we started letting Lucia have the run of the house when we were in. She's been allowed to run around the whole house as long as people are around for about a week, and at first things were perfect.
Max could not care less about Lucia. He is the laziest, most relaxed, laid back, and confident cat you could meet. His attitude rubbed off on Lucia, and now they're even playing together - they've never hissed at each other, never fought, even sleep by each other. That is more than I ever expected or hoped for.
Billy on the other hand...well he's always been more nervous than his brother. He really doesn't like change, and luckily hasn't had to deal with much in his life. But he does not like Lucia, though he was beginning to accept her until last Sunday. I was out, and my parents were having roast beef for dinner. Lucia was hovering around the table, and being incredibly sweet and adorable, and my parents dropped some beef for her. At that moment, Billy walked in. Lucia took that to mean he was threatening her food and she launched herself at him, they got into a vicious cat fight and my mum ended up with a nasty cat bite herself.
Since then, there has been a lot of tension between Lucia and Billy, and it seems to be getting worse. They will sit next to each other on the sofa (Billy sits on my mum, Lucia sits on me), but after a period of sitting nicely, one of them will suddenly hiss at the other and we've been afraid there'll be another cat fight (there hasn't been, but only because we're around to distract them or grab them or whatever). Aside from in the evening, Billy just hides whilst Lucia walks around the house.
Yesterday, Billy spent the whole day hiding under my parents' bed. Today he's behind the sofa. Even though I've locked Lucia away in my room to try and help Billy relax and realize it's still his territory, he's too nervous to come out.
I'm really sad for Billy. He's not a dominant cat. Lucia doesn't mean him any harm, she's just curious about him (she likes going up to him to have a look or sniff then goes away, she even rolls onto her back in front of him), but she's always constantly running around and wants to see what's going on everywhere all the time - she's young and has only lived in small apartments before, she's never had all the space she has now in my parents' house.
So....any advice as to what we can do, to help Billy and Lucia to get on and to also help Billy relax and be less anxious?
Thanks.