Hi everyone,
I've been reading through some of the posts here to add to tips I've already gathered from around the web for introducing cats. It sounds like a lot of the regular posters here have multi-cat households so I'm hoping for some additional advice.
I recently rescued a cat from a community park where she had been dumped off at a feral cat colony. I have no idea how long she'd been there; she was thin and foraging for food in a garbage can, but she didn't seem particularly "feralized". She ran right over to me, meowing, purring, and rubbing against my legs. I took her home with me that evening and got her in to see my vet the next morning. She was given a clean bill of health so I had her vaccinated and spayed. My vet estimated her age at around 2 years. I've named her Natalie.
She's been with me for ~7 weeks now and I'm still having some issues getting her integrated with my 2 other cats. She's definitely territorial and quite reactive to anything that startles or agitates her.
My resident cats (both neutered males):
Vinnie: 6 years old and very curious about Natalie. He's very good natured, happy-go-lucky and goofy. He would have made friends with her on day one, if she had allowed it. He frequently hangs outside the door to her room and always wants to watch her when I've got the door open and baby gates stacked to keep them separated.
Chauncey: ~12 years old and currently in chronic renal failure mode. He's been doing very well with supportive care, but he is a little bit frail at this point so I'm very protective of him. He has so far mostly chosen to stay away from the part of the house where Natalie currently lives. He has seen her a few times (with mutual hissing involved), but I haven't yet tried to force him to be actively involved in the introduction process.
Natalie is set up in a spare bedroom. She has a cat tree in front of a nice window, tall scratch post, toys, as well as her own litter box and food/water bowls. When I'm home in the evening, I let her out of her room for 1-2 hours. She sometimes stays in that general part of the house with stacked baby gates separating 2 spare bedrooms and a guest bathroom from my living room and kitchen. This set up allows the boys to have the main part of the house, but they can see her through the baby gates. A few times a week, I shut the boys in my bedroom and let Natalie have access to the main part of the house. I try to make sure that all three cats get personalized play time and attention every day.
I started the introduction phase out with her totally isolated behind a closed door for the first week and then gradually started letting her and Vinnie see each other by cracking open the door. Around week 3 I graduated to using the stacked baby gates. I've done the scent transfer thing; rubbing everyone down with small towels and leaving them in each other's spaces. I've also got a feliway diffuser running on Natalie's side of the house.
I feel like I've done a decent job of following the cat introduction guidelines, but 7 weeks in, I don't feel comfortable letting Natalie have direct access to either of the boys because she does still hiss and charge at Vinnie through the baby gates. She's agressively chased him the few times that I have let them be in the same room to sort of 'test the water'. She is at the point now where she will sometimes just ignore him when he's watching from his side of the baby gates, but if he approaches the gates too closely or starts meowing, she still charges at him. When she charges him, he does tend to run and I worry that she may grow conditioned to view him as prey. I reward her with a few crunchy treats when she does walk past the gates and ignores him. I'm not sure if his insistence on watching her from a few feet beyond the gate is a positive or negative thing as far as the introductions go. He pretty much camps out there when she's out of her room. He also will only let me be on her side of the gates for so long before he starts meowing at me for attention (which can incite a reaction from her).
I continue to ensure exposure between her and Vinnie in the hopes that she'll start to chill out with him soon. I'm not sure how to bring Chauncey into the mix. He knows she's there, and chooses to avoid her. At some point, he needs to properly 'meet' her if I'm ever ready to let her have full run of the house. At the moment, I figure just getting her and Vinnie on the same page would be major victory and then I'll have to deal with Chauncey, but I was hoping someone would have suggestions for how to handle him with Natalie.
If anyone has any tips or suggestions to throw my way, I would greatly appreciate it! I know that 7 weeks isn't necessarily a long time in cat world, but it is sort of stressful to live in a divided household. I feel bad that Natalie spends so much of her day locked away from the world, but I work full time so I have to balance free time between her and the boys.
Thanks a bunch for reading this, and sorry its so long!!
I've been reading through some of the posts here to add to tips I've already gathered from around the web for introducing cats. It sounds like a lot of the regular posters here have multi-cat households so I'm hoping for some additional advice.
I recently rescued a cat from a community park where she had been dumped off at a feral cat colony. I have no idea how long she'd been there; she was thin and foraging for food in a garbage can, but she didn't seem particularly "feralized". She ran right over to me, meowing, purring, and rubbing against my legs. I took her home with me that evening and got her in to see my vet the next morning. She was given a clean bill of health so I had her vaccinated and spayed. My vet estimated her age at around 2 years. I've named her Natalie.
She's been with me for ~7 weeks now and I'm still having some issues getting her integrated with my 2 other cats. She's definitely territorial and quite reactive to anything that startles or agitates her.
My resident cats (both neutered males):
Vinnie: 6 years old and very curious about Natalie. He's very good natured, happy-go-lucky and goofy. He would have made friends with her on day one, if she had allowed it. He frequently hangs outside the door to her room and always wants to watch her when I've got the door open and baby gates stacked to keep them separated.
Chauncey: ~12 years old and currently in chronic renal failure mode. He's been doing very well with supportive care, but he is a little bit frail at this point so I'm very protective of him. He has so far mostly chosen to stay away from the part of the house where Natalie currently lives. He has seen her a few times (with mutual hissing involved), but I haven't yet tried to force him to be actively involved in the introduction process.
Natalie is set up in a spare bedroom. She has a cat tree in front of a nice window, tall scratch post, toys, as well as her own litter box and food/water bowls. When I'm home in the evening, I let her out of her room for 1-2 hours. She sometimes stays in that general part of the house with stacked baby gates separating 2 spare bedrooms and a guest bathroom from my living room and kitchen. This set up allows the boys to have the main part of the house, but they can see her through the baby gates. A few times a week, I shut the boys in my bedroom and let Natalie have access to the main part of the house. I try to make sure that all three cats get personalized play time and attention every day.
I started the introduction phase out with her totally isolated behind a closed door for the first week and then gradually started letting her and Vinnie see each other by cracking open the door. Around week 3 I graduated to using the stacked baby gates. I've done the scent transfer thing; rubbing everyone down with small towels and leaving them in each other's spaces. I've also got a feliway diffuser running on Natalie's side of the house.
I feel like I've done a decent job of following the cat introduction guidelines, but 7 weeks in, I don't feel comfortable letting Natalie have direct access to either of the boys because she does still hiss and charge at Vinnie through the baby gates. She's agressively chased him the few times that I have let them be in the same room to sort of 'test the water'. She is at the point now where she will sometimes just ignore him when he's watching from his side of the baby gates, but if he approaches the gates too closely or starts meowing, she still charges at him. When she charges him, he does tend to run and I worry that she may grow conditioned to view him as prey. I reward her with a few crunchy treats when she does walk past the gates and ignores him. I'm not sure if his insistence on watching her from a few feet beyond the gate is a positive or negative thing as far as the introductions go. He pretty much camps out there when she's out of her room. He also will only let me be on her side of the gates for so long before he starts meowing at me for attention (which can incite a reaction from her).
I continue to ensure exposure between her and Vinnie in the hopes that she'll start to chill out with him soon. I'm not sure how to bring Chauncey into the mix. He knows she's there, and chooses to avoid her. At some point, he needs to properly 'meet' her if I'm ever ready to let her have full run of the house. At the moment, I figure just getting her and Vinnie on the same page would be major victory and then I'll have to deal with Chauncey, but I was hoping someone would have suggestions for how to handle him with Natalie.
If anyone has any tips or suggestions to throw my way, I would greatly appreciate it! I know that 7 weeks isn't necessarily a long time in cat world, but it is sort of stressful to live in a divided household. I feel bad that Natalie spends so much of her day locked away from the world, but I work full time so I have to balance free time between her and the boys.
Thanks a bunch for reading this, and sorry its so long!!