Taking resident cat and new kitty to my parent's home?

JenRiri

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We have a 9 yr old that we've had since he was a kitty. We've taken him with us when visiting my parents' home since he was a kitty. We've even lived there for a few months in the past, so he is very well adjusted to our parent's home. It's almost like a second home to him - he seems to instantly recognize the space and goes off on his merry way whenever we drop him off at our parent's regardless of how much time has passed since his last visit.

A month ago we adopted a new kitty (~13 weeks old now) and the intro process went well. They now share the full space in our condo and are more or less peaceful with each other. Our older boy can get a bit snippy if kitty doesn't respect his boundaries and he does like to exert his dominance every now and then.

That said, I'd like to eventually get the new kitty familiarized with our parent's house, as well us get our older boy adjusted to having the kitty with him in this space as well. This is mainly so that we always have the option of dropping them off at our parents if we're in a situation where we're both away without it being a stressful environment for either one of them in the future. Unlike our small condo, our parent's house is 2 stories and has a much larger square footage.

I'm wondering if anyone has gone through this process and how to go about doing this? Should we redo another full re-intro process at our parent's house? Or is that unnecessary at this point? I might be overthinking this but I do know that our older boy exhibits nonrecognition aggression towards the new kitty whenever she comes back from the vet, so i'm wondering if a new environment together might trigger similar behavior even though its an environment that he is already familiar with. Any advice or insights would be helpful!
 

rubysmama

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Good question, and not something I've ever encountered, or recall reading about. Hopefully some other members will have some experience with something similar that they can share and/or offer suggestions.

I do think, especially since the older cat is prone to non-recognition aggression after the kitten was at the vet, that I would take them both at the same time, so that the kitten doesn't come home smelling different. Because the kitten is so young, though, I think you'd probably want to keep it in just one room at your parents place, to start, so it doesn't manage to hide on you, or not be able to find the litter box if the need arises.
 

Mamanyt1953

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I would also suggest taking them at the same time, and I suggest it for the same reason. Take it slow, but there's a fair chance that your resident cat will be willing to show the new kitten the ropes in this new place, since he is familiar with it.
 
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