Should I Consider Getting Another Kitten?

[loonieluna]

Hi all!

So I have been considering getting another kitten friend for my 11-month-old cat Luna (and for me too shh) for a while now. Another cat would really solve some of the problems regarding who Luna spends time with more between my siblings and I. My whole family is just so in love with Luna. She is the baby of the house. But my brothers and I are constantly arguing about one thing: who sleeps with her. Luna is a spoiled kitty and will only properly sleep on a bed (particularly loves my bed ). We have come up with a routine where each of us has her for two nights. That isn't too bad but I would love to have her for more and I know if we did get another cat, we would love it just like we love Luna. I know this sounds like a really selfish reason. I can't even believe I'm writing this, but there is another reason.

My little brother's hamster died today. Little Pepper had been Luna's buddy since Luna was 9 weeks old. While we rarely let Pepper out of the cage with Luna around, the times we did, Luna, being an energetic little kitten, would play with her. There was one time I put Pepper right on top of Luna and Luna licked and nuzzled Pepper and Pepper licked Luna back and it was the cutest thing. Luna's play was a little too aggressive for Pepper's little body so they were only out without barriers between them (no cage or exercise ball) on a few occasions during their time together (roughly 9 months). But Luna would always play/wrestle with the cage pepper was in or if Pepper was on her wheel. I know Luna loved Pepper. This morning when Pepper passed, Luna definitely sensed it because she went to the cage and started licking it all over - something she has never done. She continued to hang around the cage and the general area the cage was in even after we buried Pepper and removed the cage. I was heart broken seeing Luna grief the loss of her friend. Now I am seriously considering bringing another kitten to be Luna's friend.

Bringing another hamster is not really an option. My little 13 year old brother was a wreck today after hearing of Pepper's passing. Pepper was his after all. My parents couldn't stand seeing him in pain so when I mentioned getting another hamster they refused, saying hamster have short lifespans and when they die so quickly they bring us pain. Personally, I think animals of any kind teach us so many life lessons and death is one of them, so lifespan does not really matter but I see where they're coming from.

Luna's temperament might also be a little bit of a problem. We aren't sure how she'll treat another cat in the house. We have had other kittens in our house and Luna was very aggressive with the babies but I think that is expected behavior. The kittens weren't around long and we didn't exactly keep them off of Luna's territory. Luna is a strange cat though. She is quite (doesn't meow at all) and not a lap cat. She gets intimidated and aggressive with new people trying to love her as well. She is cuddly, especially when she's sleepy but again, she isn't a lap cat so the closest she's gotten to sleeping on me is when she sleeps with half her body on my legs (ie. all the time, she loves to sleep against legs and bodies and sometimes, faces).

SO I guess what I'm asking is that do you think my reasons are valid enough for me to get another cat and do you think Luna would be able to adjust to a new cat, based on what I have told you about her?

Thank you!

 

[BobTheKitty]

Hello! I'm sorry to hear about your brother's hamster But, I see where you are going with the idea of getting another kitten. My advice is to introduce Luna to some other adult cats before thinking about adopting another cat. Just to make sure your cat doesn't have an aggression problem with other animals. Try to introduce another cat to Luna, but do not bring the other cat into your household. Luna may display territorial aggression. Like, if you were in your house and some stranger just started walking around your house, what would YOU do? Probably protect your territory and your owner. What's funny is I'm also considering getting another kitten for my sweet cat.

After you introduce some adult cats to Luna and if everything goes well, you can start considering getting another cat for Luna. Totally just for Luna

Hope this helped.

 

[loonieluna]

Thank you for the reply!

That suggestion could be very helpful but the thing is Luna is an indoor cat and the other adult cats I know (friends cats) are also indoor cats. So I'm not sure how I would make that work. We have had an adult cat come into our backyard a few times this week. Luna has seen him through the window, but she didn't really seem to care, from what I could see. What I might do is leave a little bit of food out for him/her and the next time I see the cat in my backyard, I'll take Luna out to see him/her from afar. She isn't allowed in the backyard, except for on the upper deck, so it will be a fairly neutral area. I'm pretty sure she'll hiss and growl, though. From the behaviour I have seen her display with other cats, not just kittens but cats her own age as well, she can get very aggressive and stressed. Again, these encounters were on either Luna's ground or some other cat's ground and not on neutral ground and they were also a long time ago when Luna was quite younger (4 months old with the cat her own age and 7 months old with 6 wk old kittens).

Its so sad seeing Luna moping around today. She took her day nap early today, at 11:00pm and slept (on and off) until 9:00 when she had dinner and a little time with the family from and then went back to sleep for the night. And throughout the day, I kept seeing her going back to the area where Pepper's cage was and laying there. She loved to lay beside Pepper's cage and just keep the hamster company. She seems depressed and I do not like it. I am giving as much attention and love to her as I can. I even got her a big new cardboard box which she played in for 10 minutes and then got tired and started sleeping again. Im not super worried about her physical health as she is eating, drinking and using her litterbox but she seems emotionally very sad and lonely. Maybe its just me seeing things. I'm not sure anymore.

My parents don't want to get another cat though. All day I have been nagging them to get another kitty for Luna and they are standing their ground with a "NO". They refuse mostly because of the bill a cat can rack up. From experience with Luna, vets are EXPENSIVE! But my local SPCA funds a lot of the costs when you adopt a cat from there. We didn't get Luna from SPCA but if we had, we would have saved a good 1500$ on spay surgery, tracking chip, vaccines and insurance. I know when the number of cats goes up (which it will in the next few months due to kitten season), SPCA puts on an adoption event where the adoption of an adult cat (6months+) is free including the spay/neuter and vaccines and kittens are only 50$. I'm not sure when this event will be happening but if I still haven't convinced my parents, I will definetly drag them to the SPCA and tell them that they no longer have any excuses lolol.

But if my parents still don't want to adopt another cat (which seems to be where they are headed, despite my constant nagging) and Luna is actually depressed with the loss of her friend, are there ways I can help her cope with it? University is done for the summer so I can spend as much time with her as she (I) wants. She will probably get annoyed because as much of a loving cat as she is, she gets annoyed of me very fast because 9.5 times out of 10, its me thats asking her for attention and not the other way around lolol.

ps. I realize I write alot of mostly irrelevant stuff. But I'm a detailed writer. It's a curse and a blessing.