What?? Who is Daisy?? Don't you already have two cats??
I hear you asking that. Yes I do.
Daisy is a sweet 4 year old kitty who makes lots of funny noises and belongs to a friend of ours who is not able to take care of her right now, so she is living with us temporarily and has been here for about a week.
Now. Back to the part where we already have two cats. Before Daisy came I was worried about how the kitty introductions would go. Pisica and Gepetto have never met any other cats since we adopted them, and they are basically inseparable and have complete charge of the house and us. What?
I didn't know how all the cats would get along. In particular I was worried about Pisica - so small, timid and worried.
"Pisica," I would say to her in the days leading up to Daisy coming to live with us, "there is a new kitty coming, but don't worry. We still love you. And no matter what, always be yourself."
Yes I did really say that to my cat. Multiple times. Much to the hubs' shock and dismay.
BUT. As it turns out I was worried for the wrong reasons. My precious, frail little Pisica...
...is a bully!! I've never heard such noises as the ones that come out of her little body. If you can imagine a cat screaming - that's it. And no it's not pleasant. Screams, deep throated growls that sound like a lion at the zoo rather than a house cat, strange groans, and hissing. Oh the hissing. SO MUCH hissing.
According to multiple internet sources, we should be keeping the new cat in a "safe" room with everything that she needs and gradually introduce the cats more and more until they can get along. Or at least be in the same room with each other without Pisica having a psychotic episode. So that's what we've been doing. Apparently it can take a pretty long time.
We HAVE seen improvements however. We can spend time with Daisy and then come out to the other two and they now sniff our hands without hissing and arching their backs. And Daisy has been coming out of her room more often (when we are around to supervise) to explore while the other two keep a close watch. There is still hissing and growling, but not as much.
Any tips from those of you that have added new cats to your home before? Some magical trick we should know about? I know we need to be patient, but Daisy could be staying with us for over a year, so I definitely want her to be comfortable here at some point! And able to come out of her room - she's super social and I know she gets antsy in there.
Any hints to speed up the process?
We got three cats all within one year, and they were all kittens when we got each one. for the first one or two days that we had a new one we kept her in a "safe room" during the times we were out of the house, but really we learned that if we just let the cats get used to each other - and that did mean that the older cats would attack the newest (if it got to aggressive we stepped in). Within a few days they were best buddies! We got this advice from a friend of ours who had introduced cats before "just let them go at it" they said and then they'll be licking each other in no time. two days was the max amount of time it took for any of our cats to get along. There was plenty of hissing and growling and upset kitties, but it subsided really quickly. Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice! We have been letting her out more and more, and it's getting better. I do think we are going about it a bit too cautiously - and maybe that's why they haven't really gotten used to each other yet. I need to just suck it up and let them go at it - I'm just such a worry wart!!! lol.
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