On 3 Nov 2003 06:50:44 -0800, wrote:

Hi,


I have a spayed female kitten (a month or so old?). She's an indoor
cat and is pretty needy (meows when I'm not around, etc...).

I work full time and I spend time with friends on weekends, so there
are long periods when she's alone at home. I want to do what's best
for her, so I have a few questions:


1) Should I get another kitten to keep her company? If so, what
gender should the kitten be?

2) Should I give her away to folks who already have some cats? I
don't know if she's "bonded" with me or not so I don't know how much
it would hurt her to part company with me.

I see that Bob Brenchley is making a nuisance of himself here now. He
probably appears in more killfiles than anyone else in the cat and
legal groups. He is best filtered out; if you can't filter him,
ignore him. *Don't respond to him.* I notice he as added a warning
to his header about quoting him except in direct replies - that is
clearly to discourage the "you said this there and the opposite here -
which is it?" discussions that always follow his appearance.

As for your cat questions. Cats bond more readily with places than
with people, though this certainly does occur. The main effect is
that it is more difficult to successfully rehome a cat that has
established himself. They are also territorial, which can make it
difficult to introduce new cats. None of this applies very much to
kittens - they are easily rehomed and most easily introduced to
another kitten.

While cats are naturally solitary, their natural environment is far
from sterile and includes interactions with all sorts of other
animals: a lone kitten in a house with no other animals and no people
is starved for stimulation. Multiple cats usually get along well
enough that they keep each other stimulated without killing each
other. I strongly recommend at least one more kitten. I have good
results with multiple (neutered) males, but my (spayed) females don't
get along nearly as well with each other, and for that matter some
don't get along with the males, not even their own brothers, as well
as the other males do (but Millie and Snowball get along with
everybody) - a male might be the best bet.

Now I'm going to change the Bob Brenchley filter to global scope.


T.E.D. - e-mail must contain "T.E.D." or my .sig in the body)