Resident cat accidentally saw new kitten..

[CurlyEmy]

Hello, so 3 days ago I got a new 13 week old kitten. My current cat is 4 years old and always had my dog as a buddy, but unfortunately my dog passed away a few months ago at 16 years old. He has been a bit under the weather ever since, especially because he’s very social and wants constant attention and loved hanging out with my dog. The new kitten I got has a beautiful personality, she didn’t even hide the first day and immediately slept with me and has been eating and playing and exploring. I’ve been keeping her in my room. I’ve made sure to assure my current cat of our love, and he’s known something is up because I’ve been keeping the room to my door closed. I’m sure he has had to heard her meow. The kitten has also heard my cat meow and responded.
Unfortunately I’m home alone right now so I had to leave my room to go get breakfast, and my resident cat was in my hallway when I opened the door to my room. Previously the kitten had hidden when we opened the door but not anymore, she’s been trying to get out. So of course my resident cat saw her and immediately widened his eyes and crawled towards the door but I closed it.
The kitten also saw him and she’s currently laying in front of the door where he is and trying to touch him with her paws underneath the door. My cat is outside and occasionally hissing. The kitten only hissed once but the rest of the time she had her tail up in a question mark and just wants to touch him through the crack under the door.

I wanted to wait longer to introduce them (Using a gate, etc). Should I be worried now that my resident cat saw her?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[ArtNJ]

Nothing sets back progress except a cat fight. Early visual with some mild hissing is totally fine. With four year olds, its not a total guarranty, but the odds are pretty good for friendship. Last intro I did was my then chill 4 y.o. cat and a kitten. Since I'm pretty experienced, and my then 4 y.o. was pretty chill, I decided to do a test after 2-3 days. Since there was only some light hissing and curiousity from the 4 y.o. -- it was like he had to follow her and hiss to warn her not to touch his stuff -- I decided they were good to go, and they were friends within another day or two.

You don't have to plan on 2-3 weeks if its going well. If you have a gate, its probably fine to test that out based on what you've described. If the 4 y.o. charges it like a lunatic or seems really freaked out you can simply slow it down. Again, nothing except an actual fight is really going to derail you, and the gate prevents that. So if the 4 y.o. were to stop eating and give himself a hot spot or something like that, you could either go back to isolation, or sometimes people put a towel over the gate and slowly raise it over a few days. If the 4 y.o. merely does some hissing at the gate, thats whats supposed to happen. Get it out, see that nothing bad happens, its like they get tired of hissing for no reason.

 

[CurlyEmy]

Nothing sets back progress except a cat fight. Early visual with some mild hissing is totally fine. With four year olds, its not a total guarranty, but the odds are pretty good for friendship. Last intro I did was my then chill 4 y.o. cat and a kitten. Since I'm pretty experienced, and my then 4 y.o. was pretty chill, I decided to do a test after 2-3 days. Since there was only some light hissing and curiousity from the 4 y.o. -- it was like he had to follow her and hiss to warn her not to touch his stuff -- I decided they were good to go, and they were friends within another day or two.

You don't have to plan on 2-3 weeks if its going well. If you have a gate, its probably fine to test that out based on what you've described. If the 4 y.o. charges it like a lunatic or seems really freaked out you can simply slow it down. Again, nothing except an actual fight is really going to derail you, and the gate prevents that. So if the 4 y.o. were to stop eating and give himself a hot spot or something like that, you could either go back to isolation, or sometimes people put a towel over the gate and slowly raise it over a few days. If the 4 y.o. merely does some hissing at the gate, thats whats supposed to happen. Get it out, see that nothing bad happens, its like they get tired of hissing for no reason.

Thank you for your advise!!
I decided to get out the gate and give it a try. My 4 year old resident cat was mostly curious and did hiss at her, after which the kitten hid under my bed and slowly made herself out. I pet my resident cat and he just stared at her before running away. I’ll keep trying it out with the gate for a few days.
Thanks again!

 

[vince]

Nothing wrong with the early intro. I had one six-week old kitten escape under the door and I found her out with the other cats. No harm done, and I decided if she wanted to meet them and they weren't hissing, I'd let it go on (I didn't leave her out all the time with the two other cats for a week or ten days afterward). She got along fine with the others. Don't beat yourself up if something goes not according to plan; every cat's different. Just play it by ear.