Happier News!

[Bachtoven]

In January, I posted about the loss of a beloved cat. Well, now I have better news: we adopted two 8-week kittens (siblings) from our local shelter. Meet Lucy and Ethel:



(The shelter had not removed Lucy's tag yet. They named her Daredevil even though the first 2 letters look like "Lu"! It must have meant something else.)

[Paul]

Hi Lucy and Ethel Congrats. So adorable.

[Bachtoven]

Thank you. Now, we have the rather difficult task of slowly introducing them to our 9-year old, extremely territorial current cat! She knows they are in the bathroom and has hissed a bit when she walks by and hears them playing, but so far she hasn't gone as ballistic as we feared. She hissed a bit when we let her smell their bed. The next step is to see one another behind a glass door, then wrap them in a towel so they don't swat at her and show them to her, and finally put them in a room together. We just hope she will finally accept them. Maybe since they are so small her maternal instincts will kick at. If not, then maybe she'll just ignore them and they'll amuse each other. Time will tell.

[Myles B. Astor]

In January, I posted about the loss of a beloved cat. Well, now I have better news: we adopted two 8-week kittens (siblings) from our local shelter. Meet Lucy and Ethel:



(The shelter had not removed Lucy's tag yet. They named her Daredevil even though the first 2 letters look like "Lu"! It must have meant something else.)

Kittens are always adorable! And destructive.

[Bachtoven]

Kittens are always adorable! And destructive.

Yes, they stripped a 2/3 full roll of toilet paper in a matter of minutes!

[Mike]

Cute!

[Albert]

Very cute! My two new cats did the same trick with the toilet paper roll (several times). They also shredded a couple of bills. Kittens are fun!

[Lefisc]

caged.jpgThose cats are incredibly cute. I recently got two new kitties, much to the chagrin of my resident cats. May I give you a few suggestions that were given to me by the shelter, who actually stopped by?

If, just as you are doing, the new cats should spend a few days in a “safe room”” separate from the resident. At this time, it is a good idea to wipe the new kitties with a towel or take their blanket and just put in on the floor in a spot the resident cat will see it. It is also good to take some of the toys the newbies have and also leave that out. The resident cast will smell it, even hiss at it (mine did)

I did not do the towel wrapping. Instead, as my picture show, I got a “fence” at Walmart (it cost ten bucks) and opened the door to the safe room after a few days. I stood by to make sure nothing happened, and in my case nothing did. I kept the door open for a couple of hours. The next day I kept the door open for about five or six hours and nothing happened. The very next day I locked up my resident cat for about an hour and a half. At this time I let the newbies out and let them get the lay of the land. This was important because they were not bothered or threatened by the resident cat.
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This also meant that my resident cat would now come back to her places and have the new smell. At this time she was already getting used to the new cats. I think I duplicated this a second day.

Finally, I opened up the door and saw that there was no reaction from the resident cat to the newbies and I removed the fence. I kept my water gun handy in case there was any outbreak but was none. I was open to how much time they would spend together but they spent the whole day together.

I do not know if your cat sleeps with you now, but if she does, and even if she doesn’t, it is good to lock up the newbies in their safe room for the first few nights after they have been set free. The resident cat will be very possessive about where they sleep and where they eat.

If you are giving the cats wet food you might find it best to feed the cats five or 6 feet apart in the beginning and slowly bring the food together.

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[Bachtoven]

Thanks. We have taken those steps, and held them out to her for a sniff (much hissing and growling ensued), and we recently put up a gate, but the little ones can crawl up and over, so we had to put a large sheet of cardboard at the top to prevent escape. The local pet shop said they can order one with vertical bars so they can't crawl out of it. Our resident cat still hisses and growls at them at times, but others she just takes her seat and watches them! It will be another week or so before we feel comfortable to let them be in the same room.

No, our cat does not sleep with us--we shut her out of the bedroom at night.

Your cats are very cute, too.