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!!!!! DESPERATE FOR PROBLEM ACCLIMATION HELP !!!!!
I'm appealing to the wisdom of the group in hopes of finding some
interesting thoughts/suggestions/solutions to a problem which has been ongoing for about 2 years now. I had raised my cat from tiny kitten stage on a sailboat I formerly lived on for approximately 10 years. She grew up to be a fine mate/friend/etc through the years and is definitely considered a family member. I've always considered her to be well adjusted, happy and playful. Here's the rub: A couple years ago, after multiple carpal tunnel surgeries and three successive serious hurricanes, health and other issues forced us to abandon our original plans of cruising the world and returning to a life firmly planted on terra firma. An old friend offered us (the cat and myself) a place to live and a family to be a part of, a SERIOUSLY nice (and much appreciated) gesture for sure and shortly thereafter, we combined ranks (my friend and his siamese, myself and my cat) to form the extended family we have now become. It should be noted that, having been raised on a boat, my cat's exposure to certain things was less than a "normal" cat's would have been (little knowledge of things like cars, trees, houses, etc), but she'd occasionally been exposed to dogs, other people, etc and never seemed to have any problems interacting with those things. As I said, my friend's cat is a female siamese, approximately 2 years younger than mine, who'd been given to him after being found abanded in a drainage ditch, by some friends. IOW, the house was HER domaine when my cat and I arrived here. Some pertinent issues are that both cats are neutered females, with my cat weighing in about half again larger than his siamese and the biggest thing being that my cat had been de- clawed while as kitten (I know, I know ..). At the time of our arrival at my friend's house (approx two years ago), there was never an issue of dominance as to who's "territory" it was. For the most part, my cat's exposure to having to fight (for anything) has been limited, at best and the skirmishes began almost immediately with the siamese always "corraling" my cat back into "her" bedroom (out of the general living areas). My cat spends the majority of her time in "our" bedroom, generally lounging, chilling, doing the things cat do. She occasionally slithers out into the main parts of the house doing the "exploring, etc" things cats do with the the outcomes of the forrays sometimes ending non-eventfully, sometimes being "ambushed", with the outcome usually ending back in "her room". The question: It's 2 years down the road and we were sure that by now the cats would have "worked things out" and the two would be playing together etc in mutual parts of the house and generally co-existing (at least to the point that the skirmishes would have been past them). Although the siamese is barely half of my cat's size, it completely intimidates my cat from being able to share the socializing stuff we want them to be able to have. Is there a shared "general consensus" technique we could use to "force" (or at least speed up) the process of the kitties accepting each other? Any help (especially techniques which have proven successful in similar situations) would be HUGELY appreciated and help us create an environment which we've been trying to provide for what's seemed like an eternity now. TIA, Phil, David, Kali and Elizabeth |
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