Sis and her husband are going on their honeymoon at the end of this month. They have three cats, two of which will be cared for by their neighbour (he’ll visit and feed them and give them attention and so on). One of those two adapts rather badly to changes, that’s why they’ll stay at Sis’ house.
The third one, however, is not the type to leave behind unsupervised, and so she’s asked us to catsit him. The honeymoon lasts four weeks (other end of the world, natch), and they’ll bring him over next week, making his stay last five weeks at least.
We have two cats of our own, who’re ten and a half. The visitor is about two years old, very rambunctious, and likely to eat everything in sight (he was a stray before they took him in).
Frankly, I’m getting a bit worried about the three of them interacting. Our male cat is territorial, so I have no idea how he would deal with a younger male invading like that.
I took care of a friend’s cat for almost 2 months a couple years ago. At the time I only had 1 cat of my own, but she’s very much an only cat and wasn’t happy about the situation.
I’d recommend treating it like you’ve adopted a new cat: follow all the suggestions on “how to introduce a new cat to your home” type websites. In general, close the new cat in a spare bedroom or somewhere that it can be alone and your cats can smell it under the door. Leave it there for a day if possible (with its own litterbox brought from its house or a new disposable litterbox filled with some litter from its home so it has its usual smell around).
Then when the hissing dies down, open the door and let the cats check each other out while supervised. If they show signs of aggression or try to swat at each other, separate them again. Just keep the introductions slow and let them get used to the idea of another cat.
And then when they still hate each other after a couple days and the slow introduction doesn’t seem to be working, just open the door and let them sort it out. In the end, that’s what I had to do, and they never really got to like each other, but at least the hissing did stop.
Just be forewarned that it’s tough not to get attached to the new guy. After a couple months, I really didn’t want to give my visitor back!
would a correct guess be that this is a male still in kittenhood or very recently beyond that age?
in my household, the famous miss speck (whose peccadillos i’ve posted about before) is ‘hell kitten on wheels,’ even as she nears the 1-yr-old mark. among other things, she actually - literally - climbs walls! she would be hard to give to someone for a few weeks if they weren’t accustomed to her antics in advance.
thank god for catnip, and lots of it. feed it to them, rub it on both of them well in advance of their first official non-fenced-off meeting and then again when they get formally introduced. that’s what i did when miss speck met my big guy, turk (18 pounds!), for the first time. he was less than amused in the beginning, but they get on very well now. i’ve even seen him roll over on his back to play with her.
and **taxi ** is right. the meeting should be supervised, and a handy spray bottle of warm water wouldn’t be a bad thing, either if things get a little out of hand.
mayhem. heh. this sounds ***very * ** familiar, weaver. i have a certain amount of ‘fallout’ to deal with regarding miss speck just about every monday myself.
i generally spend weekends (this is friday night through monday lunch or sometimes sunday night depending on what i have facing me at work on monday) at the divemaster’s. miss speck isn’t at ALL fond of me being gone for those two or sometimes three days in a row and isn’t shy about letting me know her opinion about it, either.
i’ve learned not to leave loose paperwork lying around, hairbands, or any other small items such as my rubber tub stopper where she can get to them. she will steal and hide them - or shred them - if she’s in the mood. this past monday i was remiss. it took me almost an hour to find that damn stopper!
my darling departed murphy had his own quirks. if the closet doors weren’t firmly shut, he would steal and hide my slippers.
The cat has arrived. He’s currently behind the couch, growling at nothing in particular, since he can’t see either of our cats.
Our male cat is not pleased with this intruder. The first blows have been exchanged, around the corner of the couch. His sister was a bit more tolerant of the guest, but she’s keeping to herself right now.
Then why not board kitty? At least that way he’d be safe and he’d be the only one stressed out, instead of raising hell with your whole household.
When I read the original post my stomach did that squidgy thing tummies do to signify the “OH NO” feeling. It seems cruel and unnecessarily chaos-provoking to subject your own cats to a new cat in the house who isn’t even going to stay. I doubt anyone is going to be happy with the arrangement, and even after new kitty goes home you might have sequelae of its visit to deal with for a very long time, behavior-wise.
We have a cat who probably couldn’t be left alone also, although I might trust the others in a pinch. I would never want Teddy to stay with strange cats in a strange household, though. If they won’t board him, could they put him in a room by himself for the duration? Whatever his behavior problems, he is at his very best in his own home.
she would be hard to give to someone for a few weeks if they weren’t accustomed to her antics in advance.
It’s not a good idea to leave him unsupervised for most of the day.
