getting to know you

Warning. I may be posting about cats way too much in the next while...cuz....cats! :)
I keep reading about proper ways to introduce cats to each other and it all seems odd. I hope we aren't screwing it up too badly.
We had the 2 new ones in the spare room but let them out to explore after a night. They're eating and drinking. The kitten, after a day, is most comfy in certain areas of the house but will walk by our old guy Gavin and try to approach him but mostly ignore him. She's learning Gavin won't do anything (so proud of our old man for not being a jerk about all this!). They'll try and sniff each other and the kitten will run away or hiss a bit but no big deal. They'll be fine I think.
I feel bad for Dax tho - she is more skittish with other adult cats, including her kitten at the moment. At first she ant the kitten explored together but now that she has met Gavin she is more scared. She hides mostly in a few spots to sleep and comes out occasionally for me and lets me pet her and play with her a little bit, and acts all cute and catlike occasionally...but mostly she isn't too comfortable around the other cats or J yet. She avoids them and if they come within a few feet she'll growl, and even swat at her kitten (who I am sure is a bit confused, but is being weaned now so it makes sense a bit). Gavin just gives her a wide berth, although I can tell he's curious and wants to make friends. I just hope she'll be OK with the new cats eventually. I hate to see her stressed and worry she may stay aggressive. They were kept in a separate bedroom at night but managed to somehow get the door open on the 2nd night and so we've let them explore since then and we lock them in the bedroom only if we both aren't home. It's a big space to learn to feel comfy in so I think it'll be a few weeks before they relax in the house. It seems like it's too late to re-sequester her, so I'm just trying to give her lots of good positive attention when she does come out. I feel like she just settled in her old house (with 9 other cats and 2 dogs) and we uprooted her again. Poor girl.
Considering they aren't fighting or chasing each other around I figure it's not going too badly. The kitten plays like a crazy thing and will already sit and purr on my lap, which blows my mind. J is worried Dax'll get tubby from not playing, but I have to remember it's only been 4 days since we brought her home. I think if we didn't have the kitten adjusting so soon it wouldn't seem so weird.
I have to remember it took years for our cats to be friends and even then at times only tolerated each other. I just want them to not be stressed out by the presence of each other is all.
Any advice cat owners?

3 comments:

solarity said...

"posting about cats way too much"--er, WHAT? There is no such thing.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

JavaChick said...

Agree with Mary Anne. I'm not much of a talker, but get me going on the subject of my cats and it's amazing how much I can find to say. :)

I don't have much experience with introducing new cats, but I think it mostly just takes time.

The one time that I remember, we had two cats, but lost one. A friend found some abandoned kittens, so we took one. The kitten's face reminded me of the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, so we named him Courage. The first time he came face to face with our older cat, he immediately cringed back and came out with something that sounded for all the world like "No no no!". Meanwhile, our older just sat there and looked at the kitten as if to say "yeah, whatever." They ended up getting along really well.

Captain Chlorophyll said...

What type of doorknobs do you have? Are they the paddle-type, that a cat could leap up and pull down on? Even so, two days is quick to cat-ch on. You must have adopted a clever cat!