Hi,
I got a lot of great advice when I rescued my neighbor's cat that was dying of mange. We have the little girl in our guest bedroom in a kennel, and we must handle her with gloves until she is totally well. She is almost there. So far our 2 house cats don't seem to be aware that she is on board. We will have to bring them together soon. We didn't intend to keep this kitty but once you save their lives and name them, well, it's hard to hand them over. Any suggestions about how to get them to get along? Our two have happy lives (brother and sister) and never fight for real. We don't want to upset their lives.
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Purrs
Introducing new cat to the house cats
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Hi, Penny, welcome to TDK, so nice to have you aboard. I will leave this subject for other TDKers to help with as I don't have much success with my two getting along with anybody -- they're holy terrors -- but I know many TDKers have loads of experience with this and I'm sure you will get some great advice! It's so wonderful to hear that your little neighbour cat is almost better...
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Hi Penny,
Good on you for saving the sick little girl! Grrrr to her owners.
We had a v. happy family with just two siamese (one rescued from a kitty-factory: spent her first 9 months in a cage, she's very temperamental), and the other purchased to be her best friend. But then we got involved in rescuing a colony of cats - the colony started with 3 and became 14 very quickly. We found homes for all of the 10 kittens except one (he's special - read: developmentally disabled - and we love him soooo much). One of our neighbours trapped the boy feral (there were 3 ferals who created this whole hullabaloo) and took him to be put down :-((
With much effort, using a 'specially-built drop-trap (they were too savvy for the regular traps) we managed to catch the original two mums - completely feral - born in the car park.
It took us around three months to tame one of the little girls - she had her own room, and we'd enter and feed her, and try to pat her many times every day (I'm covered in scars). But eventually she fell in love with our 'special' boy, so mixing her in wasn't too hard in the end (except that our temperamental siamese began weeing on our leather couches). She is now an angel, who adores us, and we her.
But one of the "ferals" remained that way for eight months!!! Each time we tried to introduce her to the others she would LUNGE for them, and draw blood! We spent 8 long months playing musical rooms. The thing is, she is so adorable, and has been through so much, that we just figured we'd keep going that way for as long as we had to. We'd never let them in the same room, but we'd have the door open just enough for no-one to get shredded. Finally, for some bizarre reason, she came around, and finally, our last little feral is completely part of the family!
BTW: our family numbers six (feline members, anyway). The sixth is an adult female darling that someone dumped when they realised there was a colony being fed there. She has been the easiest, most adorable, addition to our lives. Her name is Lollipop - we love her so much - I hope your sick girl is just like her - no trouble to anyone at all.
BTW: We swear by Feliway. There's a shortage here in Australia, and we've just today managed to buy some more (we have the dispenser and the spray). We have a very big house, but six cats will often want their own space, and Feliway just seems to make everything a happy home.
And the other thing: we find that an organised play time (we do it after dinner) helps with bonding. If anyone gets cranky, just distract them. We used to keep a water-spray bottle handy, but we find we don't need it anymore.
Best of luck, Penny! It's worth it. We won't be taking in anyone else, but we'll love our six as much as we can as long as we can.
:-)
Posted 2 weeks ago by sharbimillionaire #
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If you click my avatar you will be taken to my two original cats' pages. I put a photo of Krinkles on each. One is the first day we grabbed her and you can see how messed up she was. The other is after 3 weeks of treatment. Today when we had her play session she was running around the "clinic" (guest bedroom) after a toy mouse and laying all over my husband and me asking to be petted. It helps that she was itchy at first and loved to be brushed and petted. She even let me trim her claws tonight! What a sweetie. I guess we'll just play it by ear when we introduce the kids!
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Wow, the difference in Krinkle's condition is absolutely amazing. And I love the name Holdsworth. Where did that name come from?
Posted 2 weeks ago by CheetahBoysmommy #
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SHarbi: They put the male feral down??!?! whatever for? sheesh. We have families here (in Malaysia, it's still all the rage among the malays to have as many kids as they can) that have 10-14 children. suppose we shd put the fathers down as well.
BTW, what's Feliway? And where can you get it? I'm having trouble introducing my rescued baby (2 mth-old Scruffy) to my cat Little Ant. She behaves when I'm around but the moment I turn my attention away, even for the lightest bit, Little Ant pounces on Scruffy. It's a bit hard to keep them separated like this as I live in a single-room apartment and Scruffy doesn't like being locked up in my room while I'm away at work. I will try the group playtime method when I get back.
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Cheetahboysmommy
The name Holdsworth came from the musician Alan Holdsworth. My husband is a musician and all of our cats (except Krinkles) are named after musicians. So Holdsworth's sister Taylor is named for James Taylor. We used to have a cat Fred named for Fred Frith a little known oddball musician. I thought Holdsworth sounded like a butler, but I have grown to love the name.
Update on Krinkles,
We let her have the run of the bedroom and suddenly she is running away from us where she was rolling all over us and purring. She was feral for 6 months and was probably too sick to run anywhere when we rescued her. We'll sit in the room and try to gain her trust again. She's probably happy to be free from the kennel we had her in during her recovery. Next week we are having her spayed so I hope we can catch her!
By the way, Cheetah Boy is adorable!
I went on Google and read about Feliway. I guess if our cats start peeing outside their litter box once we introduce Krinkles, it should be a good product to buy. You can get it on line if you have trouble finding it in Australia.
Thanks to everyone for the good ideas.
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