I'm happy I found you! Some ?'s

Hello all! I am a cat lover in Salt Lake City Utah, the proud purr-son
of Lovey, a two year old adopted dilute tortie who loves my husband and
tolerates me. I am a firm believer in adoption and non declawing;
neutering when young, and that fur people are people too (my husband &
kids think I'm a little nuts).
I adopted a forlorn long term cage resident last year this time, and we
had nine months of fun and sadness. Ginger had a very sad combo of
wanting to be on or by me and a very unpredictable tolerance to
physical contact. As background, I am 52, the daughter of a
veterinarian, and have "owned" cats since I was 7 years old. I'm
experienced in "cat language" both verbal & non. I learned Ginger's
cues, and survived many scratches and a couple of minor bites in the
process. Ginger was 6 yrs old and Lovey a little over 1 when Ginger
joined our family. They NEVER got along. Although Lovey has our three
little dogs whipped into shape, she lived in fear of Ginger.
To shorten my long sad story in March of this year Ginger, completely
unprovoked, while sitting on my lap jumped up and bit my face, missing
my left eye by 1 inch. This was the second unprovoked severe bite in 8
weeks, and it became seriously infected just as the first one had (IV
antibiotics & all that great stuff. This bite was so severe it
required 5 stitches- even though it was a cat bite, it was a gaping
wound on my forehead & the ER decided it had to be stitched). I had
Ginger euthanized the next day at Animal Control, after contacting the
agency I had adopted her from and they said she needed to be
euthanized, she was too dangerous to try to adopt out again. It broke
my heart to have to do this - I tried so hard with her and I know she
was probably abused / damaged long before she came into our home.
So now it's kitten season. My Dad (the vet) suggested I try again with
a male young kitten. I have a couple of questions.
Should I get 2 kittens to keep each other company and reduce Loveys'
stress? Or would one kitten be less stressful? (I have a separate room
for the kitten to call it's own, and I do sslloooow intros to the other
animals.
Is it true male kittens are more loving & bond better? Lovey is a
spayed female (spayed at first heat at 6 months old).
Thank you in advance for reading this BOOK :-) and any helpful advice.
I'm so happy I found cat lovers!
Barbara

On Mon, 22 May 2006 08:32:32 -0700, sharppointy1 wrote:

Hello all! I am a cat lover in Salt Lake City Utah, the proud purr-son
of Lovey, a two year old adopted dilute tortie who loves my husband and
tolerates me. I am a firm believer in adoption and non declawing;
neutering when young, and that fur people are people too (my husband &
kids think I'm a little nuts).

Welcome, Barbara! I'm glad you found us. This is an excellent group of
people, and we are all absolute cat-nuts.

again with a male young kitten. I have a couple of questions. Should I
get 2 kittens to keep each other company and reduce Loveys' stress? Or
would one kitten be less stressful? (I have a separate room for the
kitten to call it's own, and I do sslloooow intros to the other animals.
Is it true male kittens are more loving & bond better? Lovey is a
spayed female (spayed at first heat at 6 months old). Thank you in
advance for reading this BOOK :-) and any helpful advice.
I'm so happy I found cat lovers!
Barbara

I'm so sorry to hear of the problems with Ginger. Things like that are
very sad, but they do sometimes happen.

As to one kitten or two, that depends a lot on Lovey and on your phsyical
layout. It sounds like Lovey has pretty well mastered the household, so
two kittens might be well within her tolerance. And there is something to
be said for adding kittens 2 at a time, so they will have each other to
play with and won't always be bugging Lovey.

When we first adopted Tabitha (black DLH, about 3 yrs old) she chose
Amelia as her surrogate momcat. She spent all of her time with Amelia,
which was fine with our other cat, Cleopatra. But Amelia did tend to get
tired of all the attention. A couple months later I rescued Samuel, who
was about the same age as Tabitha. From that day on, Tabitha and Samuel
were play-buddies. Tabitha still came to Amelia for grooming and
companionship, but when Tabitha just *had* to play she could go bother
Samuel instead of bothering Amelia.

As to male or female bonding more closely, I believe that too is more an
individual thing rather than a gender thing. We currently have 6 kitties,
4 of them female and 2 male. The one who bonded to me most closely is
Harriet (Harri Roadcat). I'm sure that's because we spent our first 7
months together living in a semi and touring the US But Samuel, Ranger,
and Amelia have also formed extremely close bonds to me. So it's evenly
balanced between mail and female here.

Dan

wrote:
Hello all! I am a cat lover in Salt Lake City Utah, the proud purr-son
of Lovey, a two year old adopted dilute tortie who loves my husband and
tolerates me. I am a firm believer in adoption and non declawing;
neutering when young, and that fur people are people too (my husband &
kids think I'm a little nuts).
I adopted a forlorn long term cage resident last year this time, and we
had nine months of fun and sadness. Ginger had a very sad combo of
wanting to be on or by me and a very unpredictable tolerance to
physical contact. As background, I am 52, the daughter of a
veterinarian, and have "owned" cats since I was 7 years old. I'm
experienced in "cat language" both verbal & non. I learned Ginger's
cues, and survived many scratches and a couple of minor bites in the
process. Ginger was 6 yrs old and Lovey a little over 1 when Ginger
joined our family. They NEVER got along. Although Lovey has our three
little dogs whipped into shape, she lived in fear of Ginger.
To shorten my long sad story in March of this year Ginger, completely
unprovoked, while sitting on my lap jumped up and bit my face, missing
my left eye by 1 inch. This was the second unprovoked severe bite in 8
weeks, and it became seriously infected just as the first one had (IV
antibiotics & all that great stuff. This bite was so severe it
required 5 stitches- even though it was a cat bite, it was a gaping
wound on my forehead & the ER decided it had to be stitched). I had
Ginger euthanized the next day at Animal Control, after contacting the
agency I had adopted her from and they said she needed to be
euthanized, she was too dangerous to try to adopt out again. It broke
my heart to have to do this - I tried so hard with her and I know she
was probably abused / damaged long before she came into our home.
So now it's kitten season. My Dad (the vet) suggested I try again with
a male young kitten. I have a couple of questions.
Should I get 2 kittens to keep each other company and reduce Loveys'
stress? Or would one kitten be less stressful? (I have a separate room
for the kitten to call it's own, and I do sslloooow intros to the other
animals.
Is it true male kittens are more loving & bond better? Lovey is a
spayed female (spayed at first heat at 6 months old).
Thank you in advance for reading this BOOK :-) and any helpful advice.
I'm so happy I found cat lovers!
Barbara

Hi Barbara, and welcome. I'm no expert by any means, but a couple of
things to consider: If you get two, kittens they'll play with each
other mostly and won't pester Lovey so much. OTOH, they'll bond with
each other, but in the process, with a slow intro like you said, Lovey
should learn to tolerate them and hopefully even like them. :-)
It would also be nice if you could find a calm, laid-back adult too;
they're so hard to place at shelters during kitten season.
I think your dad is right, or at least according to my household he is.
My boys are very laid-back, very calm and accept new cats readily. My
girls are another story. They seem far more territorial and just plain
cranky when they're not getting their way. (which isn't too often, LOL)
Good luck. And again, welcome to the group.

Sherry

On 2006-05-22, penned:
Should I get 2 kittens to keep each other company and reduce Loveys'
stress? Or would one kitten be less stressful? (I have a separate room
for the kitten to call it's own, and I do sslloooow intros to the other
animals.

Hi, Barbara!

I'm far from expert in these matters, but I'd think an important
question is, do you have enough room in the house for three dogs and
two to three cats to get along comfortably? It seems like dogs are
often less territorial with one another than cats, but cats seem to
want some sprawl of their own. The related question is, do you have
room for 3-4 litter boxes (a rule of thumb with multiple cats seems to
be, have one more litterbox than cats, and spread them around the
house, not all right next to each other).

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

I would keep an open mind on whether males are friendlier than females.
My male is friendlier than his sister, but I had another female that
was an absolute doll. I'd just go visit kitties and you will find the
right one.

Theresa

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
On 2006-05-22, penned:
Should I get 2 kittens to keep each other company and reduce Loveys'
stress? Or would one kitten be less stressful? (I have a separate room
for the kitten to call it's own, and I do sslloooow intros to the other
animals.

Hi, Barbara!

I'm far from expert in these matters, but I'd think an important
question is, do you have enough room in the house for three dogs and
two to three cats to get along comfortably? It seems like dogs are
often less territorial with one another than cats, but cats seem to
want some sprawl of their own. The related question is, do you have
room for 3-4 litter boxes (a rule of thumb with multiple cats seems to
be, have one more litterbox than cats, and spread them around the
house, not all right next to each other).

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

I don't think that's always true; I don't think it's necessary to have
4 litterboxes for 3 cats. I always kept 4 litterboxes for 4 cats; and
nobody ever used two of them. So I got rid of one, added another cat in
the process; now we have three large boxes for 5 cats. It's okay by
them, and they're scooped twice a day. Nobody's complaining yet.

Sherry

wrote in news:1148311952.696833.116770
@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Should I get 2 kittens to keep each other company and reduce Loveys'
stress? Or would one kitten be less stressful? (I have a separate room
for the kitten to call it's own, and I do sslloooow intros to the other
animals.
Is it true male kittens are more loving & bond better? Lovey is a
spayed female (spayed at first heat at 6 months old).
Thank you in advance for reading this BOOK :-) and any helpful advice.
I'm so happy I found cat lovers!


Try to get littermates if you can. I don't think the gender makes any
difference; at least, that's been my experience.

Chak

--
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
--Jeannette Rankin

theresa wrote:

I would keep an open mind on whether males are friendlier than females.
My male is friendlier than his sister, but I had another female that
was an absolute doll. I'd just go visit kitties and you will find the
right one.

Theresa


And it may not be a kitten. Quite often I've seen people go to the
local PetSmart to adopt a kitten and leave with an older cat. With good
medical care, proper feeding, and great genetic back ground, cats can
live into their twenties. So getting an older cat is a great option and
you are giving a great home to a kitty who really needs you.

BTW, welcome to the group. We are a group of cat servants (ok slaves,
but I don't like to admit it) here with an occasional troll. the FAQ
for this group is at http://www.angelfire.com/mt/yowie/catfaq.htm It
can help explain many of our quirks and make it easier for you to
understand the group dynamics of this place. Besides, it's one of the
few readable FAQs I've ever found.

Pam S.

"Tanada" wrote in message
k.net...
theresa wrote:

I would keep an open mind on whether males are friendlier than females.
My male is friendlier than his sister, but I had another female that
was an absolute doll. I'd just go visit kitties and you will find the
right one.

Theresa


And it may not be a kitten. Quite often I've seen people go to the
local PetSmart to adopt a kitten and leave with an older cat. With good
medical care, proper feeding, and great genetic back ground, cats can
live into their twenties. So getting an older cat is a great option and
you are giving a great home to a kitty who really needs you.

I wound up adopting an adult, Mr. Clark, and two kittens, Ding and Rhonda.
The adoption group, Advocats, is in both PetCo and PetSmart in the Northern
Virginia area.

They are quite good, if you are considering multiple cats, of letting you
see their interactions before making a decision. Obviously, we weren't sure
how an adult neutered male would react to kittens, but it was immediately
obvious he was a natural parent.

"Tanada" wrote in message
k.net...
theresa wrote:

I would keep an open mind on whether males are friendlier than females.
My male is friendlier than his sister, but I had another female that
was an absolute doll. I'd just go visit kitties and you will find the
right one.

Theresa


And it may not be a kitten. Quite often I've seen people go to the local
PetSmart to adopt a kitten and leave with an older cat. With good medical
care, proper feeding, and great genetic back ground, cats can live into
their twenties. So getting an older cat is a great option and you are
giving a great home to a kitty who really needs you.

BTW, welcome to the group. We are a group of cat servants (ok slaves, but
I don't like to admit it) here with an occasional troll. the FAQ for this
group is at http://www.angelfire.com/mt/yowie/catfaq.htm It can help
explain many of our quirks and make it easier for you to understand the
group dynamics of this place. Besides, it's one of the few readable FAQs
I've ever found.

Pam S.

I'll second that. Molly was 18 months old (approximately) when we adopted
her. And a feral rescue who had had kittens. She isn't affectionate with
us but is with the kids and neighbors. Go figure.

My kitten that I truly adored had died and I needed a replacement. I wanted
a "little girl with big ears and a long tail" but wouldn't specify further
as any more than that would have just been asking for my Rosie back. Not
fair to me or to Rosie's memory or to a newcomer. Molly has all that but is
otherwise nothing like Rosie.

Molly is mostly aloof as I'd expect in a feral, but is also truly a kitten
at heart.

Jo