Hi all,
About a week and a half ago we found what seemed to be either a stray cat or a lost indoor cat with no collar or chip. We tried to find her owners to no avail, so we decided to keep her and start the process of integrating her into our lives. (She is fixed and has been brought up to date on her shots so it was safe for our other cats)
New Cat can be very friendly, is very confident and definitely has a sweetness to her, but she also has a hard time not playing rough at times. We found out eventually that there was a woman/family in our neighborhood who tried taking her in, but her two cats didn’t “accept her” and she had a hard time “receiving love”. Apparently they put her back out on the street, while still feeding her.
I everything has been complicated by the holidays, New Cat had been staying in the guest bedroom, but my husband’s parents were coming to stay with us during Thanksgiving, so we decided to try and hurry along the introduction process with our other two, mostly because we had no idea if she’d be able to sleep in the room with them, and didn’t know where else we would put her in the house while they were here.
I feel like one way or another we’ve done just about everything wrong, and I’m worried there’s nothing we can do to backtrack in time. We’ve never tried to let the cats fight it out, but ever since letting New Cat out into the house I’ve hated putting her back in the guest room full time, so we try and have them in the same space, which is often hit or miss. Mostly we either have to put New Cat up and let the other two out, or vice versa.
Another thing we’ve done wrong is we didn’t start with feeding them on either side of a door. We were free feeding them, which was making cooperation difficult for our 2 cats. We’ve stopped free feeding and just do the soft food for breakfast and dinner like we’ve always done. Like most cats, they’re super unhappy with all of the changes, and while our Sweet Boy has been generally receptive to New Cat, every time she has a chance to sneak up on him she does, which results in a kerfuffle between them.
Our Sassy Girl has HATED having New Cat in her home. Unless she’s on top of the fridge the minute she sees New Cat she’s on defense, and if she gets too close Sassy Girl starts to growl, hiss, make demon noises of hatred. She has been very unreceptive to New Cat, and this has been the hardest challenge to over come.
Christmas is the ultimate factor, I’ve been planning on going back to my home city to see my family a week before Christmas, and then for Christmas Eve/Day/Day after my husband will be joining me down there, meaning all the cats will have to be alone together for several days.
Thank you to anyone who has read this far. As of right now this seems impossible, and I don’t know what to do to try and help make this work. If push comes to shove and we can’t make it work, my husband and I have decided to give her to a Cat Fostering Program, as I don’t think I could trust people online, and I know foster programs do extensive research on who they’re giving their animals to, so I know she’ll wind up in a good home no matter what.
I’m nearly 20 weeks pregnant and have been a mess over all of this, any comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Again, thank you to anyone who has read this far.
Tl;dr Brought new cat into home, due to the holidays we’ve had to rush introductions between other cats. Tensions are still high and we aren’t able to leave all the cats alone together. With Christmas coming up, if things don’t change drastically we will have to give New Cat to foster program. Any advice welcome/wanted!!!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/e60pt9/need_help_trying_to_get_new_cat_and_other_2_cats/
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