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- Sep 26, 2019
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Context
This Sunday I adopted a new female cat ~1 year old. I have two resident cats, one male and one female both around ~3 years old. The resident cats are not littermates, but we adopted them on the same day when they were both about 3-4 months old. Our resident cats have never lived with any other animals.
Where I’ve started on intros
I have roughly been trying to follow the Jackson Galaxy method. New cat is in their own room (spare bedroom) with toys, litterbox, cat trees, water, etc. New cat seemed confident in the new room fairly quickly so we have done site swapping and feeding on opposite sides of the door at meal times. Those both went well so yesterday night we allowed the first visual access through a tall baby gate. My husband and I will be on either side of the gate waving wand toys and using laser pointers. My male cat seems very calm, but interested in the new cat. He is comfortable playing by the door and will roll on his back and stick a playful paw though the gate and gaze at her. My female cat is having a very different reaction. While I can get her to play some when the door is open, as soon as she loses focus on the toy she starts a stare down with the new cat and will strongly hiss. The new cat has reacted by growling and hissing, as well as charging the gate. When my female cat walks away and it is only my male cat on the other side of the gate, the new cat seems calm. Has anyone gone through a similar situation where two resident cats are having such different reactions to a newcomer? Should I take everything at the pace of the two females interactions, or is there value in trying to get the new female and my resident male cat to meet without a gate?
Any advice is appreciated! It’s been a weirdly emotional few days. I know that it’s still really early in the process, but I’m surprised by how overwhelmed I have felt wanting to do everything I can to make things work. Thanks in advance.
This Sunday I adopted a new female cat ~1 year old. I have two resident cats, one male and one female both around ~3 years old. The resident cats are not littermates, but we adopted them on the same day when they were both about 3-4 months old. Our resident cats have never lived with any other animals.
Where I’ve started on intros
I have roughly been trying to follow the Jackson Galaxy method. New cat is in their own room (spare bedroom) with toys, litterbox, cat trees, water, etc. New cat seemed confident in the new room fairly quickly so we have done site swapping and feeding on opposite sides of the door at meal times. Those both went well so yesterday night we allowed the first visual access through a tall baby gate. My husband and I will be on either side of the gate waving wand toys and using laser pointers. My male cat seems very calm, but interested in the new cat. He is comfortable playing by the door and will roll on his back and stick a playful paw though the gate and gaze at her. My female cat is having a very different reaction. While I can get her to play some when the door is open, as soon as she loses focus on the toy she starts a stare down with the new cat and will strongly hiss. The new cat has reacted by growling and hissing, as well as charging the gate. When my female cat walks away and it is only my male cat on the other side of the gate, the new cat seems calm. Has anyone gone through a similar situation where two resident cats are having such different reactions to a newcomer? Should I take everything at the pace of the two females interactions, or is there value in trying to get the new female and my resident male cat to meet without a gate?
Any advice is appreciated! It’s been a weirdly emotional few days. I know that it’s still really early in the process, but I’m surprised by how overwhelmed I have felt wanting to do everything I can to make things work. Thanks in advance.
