- Joined
- Feb 9, 2015
- Messages
- 38
- Purraise
- 22
Hi all!
I completely forgot I even made this account after adopting our first 2 cats (referred to as "the residents" in my post) years ago. They are littermates, bonded pair, and we've had them since they were 10 weeks old. They're almost 8.5 years now.
We recently adopted a 7 month old kitten. We hadn't planned on it, but I met her while volunteering at the shelter I've been with for 2 years. She came to the shelter semi-feral but her foster family did an excellent job socializing her - she's quite affectionate, sits on our laps, head butts our hands and is loud and obnoxious when she wants something. Her 2 littermates were still quite shy when we adopted Aberdeen and weren't socialized as well, for whatever reason. I've attached some photos so you can see Rosie (snowshoe), Sammie (black cat) and Aberdeen (tabby, the newcomer).
It's been almost 4 weeks since we've had Aberdeen. She cannot STAND spending the whole day in her safe room anymore, which is my husband's office, so for the most part we let her out during the day since my "office" is on the main floor, where the cats mostly hang out during the day. She would meow nonstop if we even closed my husband's office door, so now we just keep it open. We've been doing this since Monday of this week. I mainly just want to check with the group that the residents' residual hissing and growling is normal, and whether you have any suggestions of how to make the transition better.
Disclaimer: The post is long, so I thank you in advance for reading it, and have split it into some sections for easier reading.
Rosie - Background
I would say the integration process has gone fairly well. Rosie has pretty much accepted and tolerates her - they have touched noses at least a dozen times and the hissing is becoming less frequent, although Aberdeen is now becoming bolder and stepping up her interactions with Rosie so we've been hearing it a little more. We worked to introduce Aberdeen to Rosie first because we know Rosie is much more chill. I have heard Rosie hiss maybe all of 3 times in the 8 years we've had her, before Aberdeen arrived.
Sammie - Background
Sammie, on the other hand, is a more standoffish cat. She's strongly bonded to Rosie so those get along very well, but she is definitely more hissy in general (even before Aberdeen). We knew she would take time and would've chosen to keep Aberdeen away for longer, but we also know that without the exposure she would likely never come around since we would just be delaying the inevitable adjustment period. For example - if we bathe Rosie, even if it's a quick splash with water, she will not recognize her for 2 weeks. Rosie will try to cuddle and Sammie would growl and hiss. Over time, she would still growl and hiss but tolerate the cuddling, until over time Rosie's smell goes back to normal. So we never separate them because it never became aggressive or violent.
Another time, we used this antibiotic wipe on Rosie as she had pulled out a bit of fur and cut herself. Sammie sounded like she was possessed by some otherworldly creature and would growl and hiss at the SIGHT of Rosie. We didn't know what was wrong until I remembered her sensitivity to Rosie's smell, carefully washed off the area where I used the wipe (without "contaminating" the rest of Rosie's fur and cause something worse!), kept them separate for a day and everything returned to normal.
Aberdeen + Rosie - The hissing
There was some hissing before with just sight and proximity but now Aberdeen can approach Rosie without any incident for the most part.
The only times I really hear Rosie hissing are if Aberdeen runs towards/past Rosie (when she's playing), if Aberdeen accidently smacks Rosie on the face (when she's playing) if Aberdeen spends TOO much time very close to Rosie, if Aberdeen tries butting Rosie's face too many times with her face.
Rosie's hiss will usually follow with a return to normal like she never hissed, or she would get up and walk away.
I read it as more of "that's enough!" or "quit it!" and think that's probably normal and iwll likely continue until Aberdeen learns some manners. Would you agree?
Aberdeen + Sammie - The hissing and growling
Sometimes Sammie's actions confuse me when she's hissing and growling. Some examples:
- Sammie appears to have NO ISSUES with Aberdeen's scent. I have swapped their bedding multiple times and Sammie also sleeps in the round bed I placed on the floor for Aberdeen so that she can be close to her sisters without being beside them (show in one of the photos below)
- Sometimes Aberdeen can walk past Sammie with no hissing or growling, other times Sammie will hiss and/or growl even though Aberdeen in more than a few feet away. If Aberdeen goes right next to Sammie when Sammie's not looking, she won't get hissed at.
- If my husband is holding Aberdeen and sits next to Sammie, there's usually no hissing or growling.
- I just witnessed an event where Aberdeen got to where the orange cushion is on our red couch (in photo below), Sammie is exactly where she is in the photo. Aberdeen's done this before without incident. This time, Sammie hissed at her, hopped onto the arm rest, sniffed Aberdeen, hissed softly, sniffed again, hissed, and hopped off the couch.
- I've had all 3 lined up or close together below - if there's something to distract them like a toy (which is challenging because Sammie is lazy and not very playful) or treats, they can stay pretty close together for a long time with only a few hisses.
We do have a baby gate separating the red couch room + kitchen from the rest of the house. If Aberdeen becomes too much for the residents, or if we need to separate them because Aberdeen won't leave after being hissed at by Sammie, we'll close the gate.
I'm not quite understanding Sammie's hisses and growls. We know she isn't as far along as Rosie - but do we need to dial back their interactions? Or just keep letting this controlled exposure continue? She has whapped Aberdeen a few times on the head in the past few days, but she's never had the arched back, bared teeth, fur sticking up, or any other sort of aggressive body language. Just hissing and growling.
We know we're still in early stages of integration and the goal is peaceful coexistence, but just want to see we're not moving things TOO fast (as they'll be difficult to dial back, Aberdeen not being able to tolerate staying in her safe room except overnight) or if there's anything else we can try to make things easier for Sammie.
Other things to note: Aberdeen is fixed. She seems to wants to become the residents' friends, she hasn't hid as a result of any of the hissing or growling from either cat (usually just carries on like nothing's happened, or does the body-pulled-slightly-back-and-eyes-squinting thing), she hasn't run away from either cat as a result of the hissing or growling, and altogether...she just seems too BOLD
We also have the Feliway Friends plugins but have only been using for ~2 weeks. All cats are eating normally, we feed them across the baby gate primarily because Aberdeen will steal the residents' food (all are fed commercially prepared raw food). Sammie we feed her a bit farther away - maybe 2-3 feet back from the gate but Rosie, we can pretty much feed her directly across the gate from Aberdeen.
The residents' retreat is the finished basement - they stay there overnight, and sometimes spends the day down there even if they have access to the rest of the house. Aberdeen has had access to their retreat but if both residents are down there, we close the door so Aberdeen doesn't disturb them in their safe space. Eventually, we hope to have the basement as Aberdeen's retreat as well, if the integration goes well. We'll likely get an extra post and extra litter box in there when and if that day comes.
I completely forgot I even made this account after adopting our first 2 cats (referred to as "the residents" in my post) years ago. They are littermates, bonded pair, and we've had them since they were 10 weeks old. They're almost 8.5 years now.
We recently adopted a 7 month old kitten. We hadn't planned on it, but I met her while volunteering at the shelter I've been with for 2 years. She came to the shelter semi-feral but her foster family did an excellent job socializing her - she's quite affectionate, sits on our laps, head butts our hands and is loud and obnoxious when she wants something. Her 2 littermates were still quite shy when we adopted Aberdeen and weren't socialized as well, for whatever reason. I've attached some photos so you can see Rosie (snowshoe), Sammie (black cat) and Aberdeen (tabby, the newcomer).
It's been almost 4 weeks since we've had Aberdeen. She cannot STAND spending the whole day in her safe room anymore, which is my husband's office, so for the most part we let her out during the day since my "office" is on the main floor, where the cats mostly hang out during the day. She would meow nonstop if we even closed my husband's office door, so now we just keep it open. We've been doing this since Monday of this week. I mainly just want to check with the group that the residents' residual hissing and growling is normal, and whether you have any suggestions of how to make the transition better.
Disclaimer: The post is long, so I thank you in advance for reading it, and have split it into some sections for easier reading.
Rosie - Background
I would say the integration process has gone fairly well. Rosie has pretty much accepted and tolerates her - they have touched noses at least a dozen times and the hissing is becoming less frequent, although Aberdeen is now becoming bolder and stepping up her interactions with Rosie so we've been hearing it a little more. We worked to introduce Aberdeen to Rosie first because we know Rosie is much more chill. I have heard Rosie hiss maybe all of 3 times in the 8 years we've had her, before Aberdeen arrived.
Sammie - Background
Sammie, on the other hand, is a more standoffish cat. She's strongly bonded to Rosie so those get along very well, but she is definitely more hissy in general (even before Aberdeen). We knew she would take time and would've chosen to keep Aberdeen away for longer, but we also know that without the exposure she would likely never come around since we would just be delaying the inevitable adjustment period. For example - if we bathe Rosie, even if it's a quick splash with water, she will not recognize her for 2 weeks. Rosie will try to cuddle and Sammie would growl and hiss. Over time, she would still growl and hiss but tolerate the cuddling, until over time Rosie's smell goes back to normal. So we never separate them because it never became aggressive or violent.
Another time, we used this antibiotic wipe on Rosie as she had pulled out a bit of fur and cut herself. Sammie sounded like she was possessed by some otherworldly creature and would growl and hiss at the SIGHT of Rosie. We didn't know what was wrong until I remembered her sensitivity to Rosie's smell, carefully washed off the area where I used the wipe (without "contaminating" the rest of Rosie's fur and cause something worse!), kept them separate for a day and everything returned to normal.
Aberdeen + Rosie - The hissing
There was some hissing before with just sight and proximity but now Aberdeen can approach Rosie without any incident for the most part.
The only times I really hear Rosie hissing are if Aberdeen runs towards/past Rosie (when she's playing), if Aberdeen accidently smacks Rosie on the face (when she's playing) if Aberdeen spends TOO much time very close to Rosie, if Aberdeen tries butting Rosie's face too many times with her face.
Rosie's hiss will usually follow with a return to normal like she never hissed, or she would get up and walk away.
I read it as more of "that's enough!" or "quit it!" and think that's probably normal and iwll likely continue until Aberdeen learns some manners. Would you agree?
Aberdeen + Sammie - The hissing and growling
Sometimes Sammie's actions confuse me when she's hissing and growling. Some examples:
- Sammie appears to have NO ISSUES with Aberdeen's scent. I have swapped their bedding multiple times and Sammie also sleeps in the round bed I placed on the floor for Aberdeen so that she can be close to her sisters without being beside them (show in one of the photos below)
- Sometimes Aberdeen can walk past Sammie with no hissing or growling, other times Sammie will hiss and/or growl even though Aberdeen in more than a few feet away. If Aberdeen goes right next to Sammie when Sammie's not looking, she won't get hissed at.
- If my husband is holding Aberdeen and sits next to Sammie, there's usually no hissing or growling.
- I just witnessed an event where Aberdeen got to where the orange cushion is on our red couch (in photo below), Sammie is exactly where she is in the photo. Aberdeen's done this before without incident. This time, Sammie hissed at her, hopped onto the arm rest, sniffed Aberdeen, hissed softly, sniffed again, hissed, and hopped off the couch.
- I've had all 3 lined up or close together below - if there's something to distract them like a toy (which is challenging because Sammie is lazy and not very playful) or treats, they can stay pretty close together for a long time with only a few hisses.
We do have a baby gate separating the red couch room + kitchen from the rest of the house. If Aberdeen becomes too much for the residents, or if we need to separate them because Aberdeen won't leave after being hissed at by Sammie, we'll close the gate.
I'm not quite understanding Sammie's hisses and growls. We know she isn't as far along as Rosie - but do we need to dial back their interactions? Or just keep letting this controlled exposure continue? She has whapped Aberdeen a few times on the head in the past few days, but she's never had the arched back, bared teeth, fur sticking up, or any other sort of aggressive body language. Just hissing and growling.
We know we're still in early stages of integration and the goal is peaceful coexistence, but just want to see we're not moving things TOO fast (as they'll be difficult to dial back, Aberdeen not being able to tolerate staying in her safe room except overnight) or if there's anything else we can try to make things easier for Sammie.
Other things to note: Aberdeen is fixed. She seems to wants to become the residents' friends, she hasn't hid as a result of any of the hissing or growling from either cat (usually just carries on like nothing's happened, or does the body-pulled-slightly-back-and-eyes-squinting thing), she hasn't run away from either cat as a result of the hissing or growling, and altogether...she just seems too BOLD
We also have the Feliway Friends plugins but have only been using for ~2 weeks. All cats are eating normally, we feed them across the baby gate primarily because Aberdeen will steal the residents' food (all are fed commercially prepared raw food). Sammie we feed her a bit farther away - maybe 2-3 feet back from the gate but Rosie, we can pretty much feed her directly across the gate from Aberdeen.
The residents' retreat is the finished basement - they stay there overnight, and sometimes spends the day down there even if they have access to the rest of the house. Aberdeen has had access to their retreat but if both residents are down there, we close the door so Aberdeen doesn't disturb them in their safe space. Eventually, we hope to have the basement as Aberdeen's retreat as well, if the integration goes well. We'll likely get an extra post and extra litter box in there when and if that day comes.
Attachments
-
1.4 MB Views: 60
-
1.8 MB Views: 66
-
1.7 MB Views: 59