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#42
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Well....last night Marigold made a "jail break" out of where I put
her. She had the run of the house! It was good that Whiskers had been put in my brother's room (to keep her from meowing at my door all night). Maybe we should let her roam the house at night if Whiskers is in another room? I can't see how it could hurt? -Doug (Danathar) wrote in message . com... Thanks for the advice. Its been...lets see, about 4 days since I got her. So I think we will do the room swapping today. Basically letting whiskers into where I'm keeping Marigold, and letting Marigold explore supervised. Thanks again! -Doug (CajunPrincess) wrote in message . com... (Danathar) wrote in message . com... Thanks in advance to anybody that responds to me! We already have a 12 year old cat that has been ours for close to 6 years. On friday night we (my roommate and I) got a 2 year old cat from the local humane society. This cat is VERY nervous and takes time to warm up to people. I knew this when I got the cat, but I would still like things to go smoother. The cat has actually been in the custody of one of the humane workers house since march. She has 3 other cats and I have proof from her experience that the new cat can coexist with other cats and will warm up to humans after some time. I brought the new cat in the carrying case into the house and put it down on the floor to let the 12 year old (whiskers) see/sniff and to watch her reaction. She (whiskers) growled and hissed at the new cat (Marigold). Marigold is the type of cat that does not vocalize very often and when she is afraid tends to hide and "freeze" in one location, so Marigold didn't hiss or growl back. So I sighed and figured that things were going to take some time. I brought her up some stairs to a set of rooms (one of which is mine) that is connected by an adjacent bathroom. I put the carrying case down in the adjacent room. I decided to let Marigold get used to me first before traumatizing her more with Whiskers so I closed the bedroom doors to both rooms to keep her from the rest of the house (and whiskers). I opened the carrying case, it took her about 2 hours to come out. When she did, she immidately found the bed that was in a corner of the room and wedged herself in the corner underneath the bed. She kept there for almost 24 hours and did not eat/drink or use the kitty litter box in the room ( I put the food/water in the middle of the room..away from the litter box about 10 feet away) After 24 hours she came out while I was not around and wedged herself in another corner of the room by a desk (but at least hand accessible). I put the food and water close to her (within inches) and started to pet her. She seemed to warm up and began eating (no water yet). As she ate she became increasingly friendly, and was receptive to me petting her more but I could see that any sudden movement on my part or strange noise coming from outside the room would cause her to freeze for a second before continuing to eat and rubbing up against my hand. So It's now monday morning. She was very vocal this morning and friendly. I had to leave her in the closed rooms while I am at work. So I am sure the two cats are meowing at each other through the door while I am gone. At this point I would really like to get the ball rolling with introducing the two cats to each other, but the new cat is SO skittish (nervous) that I am afraid that if I bring whiskers in the room for a short while, whiskers growling and hissing will just eradicate what little trust I've developed with Marigold. Any suggestions as to how to proceed next would be GREATLY appreciated! -Doug Its been nearly a month since we adopted two neutered male cats-one senior (12 yo) and one adult (3 yo); so here's my advice FWIW. The younger cat is large (12 lb); the senior cat is a jumbo (about 18 lbs). Our situation is a little different since we were not adding a cat to a household that already had one, but some aspects of our experience may be helptful. At the advice of the vet, we kept them both isolated in seperate rooms to get them as comfortable as possible with their surroundings, then started introducing towels which we had rubbed one cat with into the other cat's room after a couple of days. Then we swapped rooms. After about four days, we started taking turns letting each cat out to explore the rest of the house while the other was in their room. Finally, after a little over a week, we let them out in the house together under supervision and alternated letting one have the run of the house overnight while the other stayed in his room. After a few days of doing this, we got to a point of just setting them up in the house together 24 hours. Our approach in introducing the cats would probably need to be modified in a situation like yours. I don't see the need or desirability for restricting the resident cat to one room except maybe for short periods of time while the new cat is allowed to explore. We had a few bumps in the road but nothing compared to what some people experience. Basically, after they were both allowed to have the run of the house the older cat was pretty dominant and would occasionally go after the younger one. We don't know the background of the younger one, so we don't know if he was an only cat in his first home. It settled down to occasional spats where the younger cat would cower a bit, which seemed to encourage the other a bit. The dissapointing thing was that the younger cat was, to some extent, stressed by the situation and you could see him looking over his shoulder for the older one, who seemed to resent attention being paid to the younger one. The two tolerated each other most of the time with spats once every day or so. The younger cat had been very sweet and loving at the shelter but that part of his personality only showed up for short periods when he was away from the other cat. The vet indicated that this was a dominance issue that would probably work out in time but at her suggestion we tried Feliway-two plug-ins as well as the spray. This made a fairly dramatic difference. The younger cat seemed to become *much* more comfortable and stopped being cowed by the older cat. The younger cat has become much more affectionate, more like he was at the shelter. This seemed to confuse the older cat a bit at first-I caught him acting like he was going to spray a laptop bag in the first few hours after we started the Feliway (he had never acted like he was going to spray at all before); however, he seems to have adjusted to the change in "inter-cat" dynamics and things seem to be rolling along very well now. It seems from what I've read that using Feliway to calm cats down or help smooth out dominance issues is kind of a crapshoot-some people report it working like it did in our case and some people try it with little or no positive effect. It *is* fairly expensive, and in our case the vet charges the list price for it. You can find it much cheaper on the web if you can afford to wait a few days (next time we get it that's what we will do). Maybe some of the above will be of help to you. I would say we learned to be patient and above all not rush things or get unduly upset if the cats don't become best buddies immediately. I think this is often a "three steps forward, one step back" type of process. I believe that the results are going to vary to an extent from case to case based upon the personalities and backgrounds of the cats involved, so what works in one situation is not guaranteed to work in another. Anyway, best of luck. |
#43
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Well....last night Marigold made a "jail break" out of where I put
her. She had the run of the house! It was good that Whiskers had been put in my brother's room (to keep her from meowing at my door all night). Maybe we should let her roam the house at night if Whiskers is in another room? I can't see how it could hurt? -Doug (Danathar) wrote in message . com... Thanks for the advice. Its been...lets see, about 4 days since I got her. So I think we will do the room swapping today. Basically letting whiskers into where I'm keeping Marigold, and letting Marigold explore supervised. Thanks again! -Doug (CajunPrincess) wrote in message . com... (Danathar) wrote in message . com... Thanks in advance to anybody that responds to me! We already have a 12 year old cat that has been ours for close to 6 years. On friday night we (my roommate and I) got a 2 year old cat from the local humane society. This cat is VERY nervous and takes time to warm up to people. I knew this when I got the cat, but I would still like things to go smoother. The cat has actually been in the custody of one of the humane workers house since march. She has 3 other cats and I have proof from her experience that the new cat can coexist with other cats and will warm up to humans after some time. I brought the new cat in the carrying case into the house and put it down on the floor to let the 12 year old (whiskers) see/sniff and to watch her reaction. She (whiskers) growled and hissed at the new cat (Marigold). Marigold is the type of cat that does not vocalize very often and when she is afraid tends to hide and "freeze" in one location, so Marigold didn't hiss or growl back. So I sighed and figured that things were going to take some time. I brought her up some stairs to a set of rooms (one of which is mine) that is connected by an adjacent bathroom. I put the carrying case down in the adjacent room. I decided to let Marigold get used to me first before traumatizing her more with Whiskers so I closed the bedroom doors to both rooms to keep her from the rest of the house (and whiskers). I opened the carrying case, it took her about 2 hours to come out. When she did, she immidately found the bed that was in a corner of the room and wedged herself in the corner underneath the bed. She kept there for almost 24 hours and did not eat/drink or use the kitty litter box in the room ( I put the food/water in the middle of the room..away from the litter box about 10 feet away) After 24 hours she came out while I was not around and wedged herself in another corner of the room by a desk (but at least hand accessible). I put the food and water close to her (within inches) and started to pet her. She seemed to warm up and began eating (no water yet). As she ate she became increasingly friendly, and was receptive to me petting her more but I could see that any sudden movement on my part or strange noise coming from outside the room would cause her to freeze for a second before continuing to eat and rubbing up against my hand. So It's now monday morning. She was very vocal this morning and friendly. I had to leave her in the closed rooms while I am at work. So I am sure the two cats are meowing at each other through the door while I am gone. At this point I would really like to get the ball rolling with introducing the two cats to each other, but the new cat is SO skittish (nervous) that I am afraid that if I bring whiskers in the room for a short while, whiskers growling and hissing will just eradicate what little trust I've developed with Marigold. Any suggestions as to how to proceed next would be GREATLY appreciated! -Doug Its been nearly a month since we adopted two neutered male cats-one senior (12 yo) and one adult (3 yo); so here's my advice FWIW. The younger cat is large (12 lb); the senior cat is a jumbo (about 18 lbs). Our situation is a little different since we were not adding a cat to a household that already had one, but some aspects of our experience may be helptful. At the advice of the vet, we kept them both isolated in seperate rooms to get them as comfortable as possible with their surroundings, then started introducing towels which we had rubbed one cat with into the other cat's room after a couple of days. Then we swapped rooms. After about four days, we started taking turns letting each cat out to explore the rest of the house while the other was in their room. Finally, after a little over a week, we let them out in the house together under supervision and alternated letting one have the run of the house overnight while the other stayed in his room. After a few days of doing this, we got to a point of just setting them up in the house together 24 hours. Our approach in introducing the cats would probably need to be modified in a situation like yours. I don't see the need or desirability for restricting the resident cat to one room except maybe for short periods of time while the new cat is allowed to explore. We had a few bumps in the road but nothing compared to what some people experience. Basically, after they were both allowed to have the run of the house the older cat was pretty dominant and would occasionally go after the younger one. We don't know the background of the younger one, so we don't know if he was an only cat in his first home. It settled down to occasional spats where the younger cat would cower a bit, which seemed to encourage the other a bit. The dissapointing thing was that the younger cat was, to some extent, stressed by the situation and you could see him looking over his shoulder for the older one, who seemed to resent attention being paid to the younger one. The two tolerated each other most of the time with spats once every day or so. The younger cat had been very sweet and loving at the shelter but that part of his personality only showed up for short periods when he was away from the other cat. The vet indicated that this was a dominance issue that would probably work out in time but at her suggestion we tried Feliway-two plug-ins as well as the spray. This made a fairly dramatic difference. The younger cat seemed to become *much* more comfortable and stopped being cowed by the older cat. The younger cat has become much more affectionate, more like he was at the shelter. This seemed to confuse the older cat a bit at first-I caught him acting like he was going to spray a laptop bag in the first few hours after we started the Feliway (he had never acted like he was going to spray at all before); however, he seems to have adjusted to the change in "inter-cat" dynamics and things seem to be rolling along very well now. It seems from what I've read that using Feliway to calm cats down or help smooth out dominance issues is kind of a crapshoot-some people report it working like it did in our case and some people try it with little or no positive effect. It *is* fairly expensive, and in our case the vet charges the list price for it. You can find it much cheaper on the web if you can afford to wait a few days (next time we get it that's what we will do). Maybe some of the above will be of help to you. I would say we learned to be patient and above all not rush things or get unduly upset if the cats don't become best buddies immediately. I think this is often a "three steps forward, one step back" type of process. I believe that the results are going to vary to an extent from case to case based upon the personalities and backgrounds of the cats involved, so what works in one situation is not guaranteed to work in another. Anyway, best of luck. |
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