I’m very excited about getting a kitten, because I’ve never raised a baby cat before. The first cat I got might as well be a baby cat because I certainly treat her like one, but I got her when she was just under a year old, so I didn’t exactly raise her from kittenhood. This comes with bad news though, because we have to get rid of a cat for this kitten. Not that we’re getting rid of him to get a kitten. It’s just that our second cat isn’t working out with our first cat. We think it just might be because of the second cat’s personality and the age difference between the two cats that they’re not getting along. Anyway, I’m getting a kitten sometime in the next two weeks! I’m so excited!
By the way, I know I’m not suppose to pick my cats according to their colouring, and I certainly didn’t do so for the other two cats, but I have decided that the kitten should be an orange tabby, just so I can get my love of orange tabbies out of my system and be able to adopt cats of other colouring in the future!
Congratulations!! I wish I could have kittens all the time, but my two cats take up enough of my time as it is.
I wish you the best of luck with your new little furball.
Well, I’m going to be a bit of a wet blanket about this. If you’re “getting rid” of a cat because of conflict, adding a different cat is fraught with potential complications.
What do you mean by getting rid of cat #2, by the way? And what have you tried to work things out?
It’s a bit of a long story, so if you really want to know, bear with me.
The short version of it, if you want to skip the babble, is that the second cat just isn’t fitting into our home.
We got the girl cat about six months ago, and we left her roam around our place, explore it, and get comfortable with us and her new home. She seemed to really enjoy being with us, and especially bonded with me. A couple of months after that, we cat-sat for a friend of ours who was going on vacation for a few weeks. We slowly introduced the cats, as we had no idea how my little girl would react to another cat. The cat we were cat-sitting was male, and was also around her age, give or take a few months. At first, there was some hissing and cautious swiping, but they got over that in less than a week and got along like best buddies after that. At the end of the other cat’s stay, she was grooming him and snuggling with him.
He then had to go back to his owners, and we noticed that our cat wasn’t as happy without another cat to keep her company. We were in the middle of discussing the possibility of another cat when one caught my SO’s eye. He was a bit older, around nine years old. He was very snuggly at the shelter and when we let him out of the cage to play with us, he was very active and he didn’t seem to mind when a cat in another cage hissed at him. We thought he would be a great contribution to our family of cats, so we adopted him.
We did all the normal introductions with the cats, and my little girl hissed up a storm at first, but we thought she would grow out of it. She wouldn’t, so we had to keep them separate for a long time, longer than we did with the cat we were cat-sitting. Eventually, they got used to each other’s scent and was able to co-exist while supervised. Eventually, we trusted them enough to leave them alone, or so we thought.
They were okay for a couple of weeks, but one day, one cat must have looked at the other cat funny or something, because we came home to find tuffs of fur from both cats everywhere. I checked both cats to make sure they weren’t bleeding or anything (they weren’t) and separated them again. I was getting a little worried about my girl cat’s behaviour, because I talked to some more experienced cat people, and she’s spayed, not normally territorial, and got along fine with a previous cat. I was told that while the girl cat may get along fine with other cats, she probably just didn’t like the one we brought home for no reason other than she just doesn’t like him.
Besides that, I have a very different way of raising my animals. Although I acknowledge that cats are very independant, I like establishing rules like no scratching the furniture, feeding will be done on my time, and no running outside when we open the screen door. The second cat has done all these things despite trying to reinforce that it is not okay for him to do so. When he scratches the furniture, I walk up to him, hold his body down to stop him, say loudly and firmly “NO!” and then show him his catpost. We’ve been trying to do this for a while, and he does go to his post sometimes, but when he thinks we’re not looking, he goes back to scratching the furniture because it’s more convenient for him. He begs for food when it’s not feeding time, which is okay, because my girl cat begs too, but the problem is that my girl cat usually have some food in her bowl all the time; she’s just a slow eater and takes her time. He frequently steals from her bowl and despite being sprayed with water and scruffed when he does so, he keeps doing it. He’s also tried escaping several times. Lucky for us, he’s so fat that he can’t run really fast or really far, so we’ve managed to snag him when he bolts out. Despite the hot weather, we now have to keep all our doors shut, even the screen door, because he knows how to manuver it open and run out. He may be just really slow at learning, or he’s too old to learn, but my SO and I, as much as we love our animals, can’t spend forever teaching him how to behave in our household.
We both feel that he isn’t the right fit for our home, and he deserves to be with a family that can give him the attention he needs. He is a cat that should probably be in a home as the only cat, as he likes attention very much, and acts out when he doesn’t get it. His personality just isn’t right for me or my SO or my little girl cat.
Given all this though, our little girl cat really does enjoy the company of another cat around, just not the one we brought home, for whatever reason. So, a kitten, a blank slate, one that can be taught and molded to fit all our personalities. We know that there will be some crazy kitten antics, and some frustration in teaching him what is right and wrong, but it will be a lot less aggravating for all of us.
So you are doing what with the second cat? You’ve found him a home?
He sounds like a perfectly normal cat. No matter what training you give, cats have personalities. Some will scratch furniture and want to run outside. Some will never sharpen their claws on anything and wouldn’t dream of going outside.
We signed a contract with the SPCA when we adopted him, that if we have to give him up, for any reason, we must return him back to the SPCA. So, even if we’d like to find him a new home ourselves, it’s out of our hands.
I realise that the cat may just be a different type of cat that we are used to, since our little girl is so well behaved, and if he is, he’s at the opposite end of the spectrum. I’m not saying he’s a bad cat, or unworthy of a loving family, but the best for everyone is if he’s not with us, because he just doesn’t fit in. I’m sure another family will see him and fall in love with his cuddly little face, doesn’t mind that he scratches furniture sometimes and acts out, but we do, and it upsets us to have to punish him, and it upsets him to be punished, so it’s just best if he’s in a home where people can tolerate his shortcomings a little more than we can.
I can’t make you do anything, but I can say that you are setting yourself up for the same thing again. Cats squabble. Cats scratch. Many cats like open doors. You’re “trading up” for some ideal that you probably won’t get, and you’re trying to make it sound like it’s for your cat’s best interest.
Hey, maybe it is. A sucky home is probably no fun for a cat. But if you seriously think that your cat is at the other end of the spectrum, you’ve never met a real handful.
You sound pretty inexperienced about cats, and that can lead people to have expectations that won’t be met without a heaping helping of damned good luck.
Like I said before, I would find him a good home myself if I could, but I have to give him back to the SPCA for them to rehome him. The best I can do is tell people about what a cuddly adorable fat cat he is and hope they go in and see him and fall in love with him. Once he’s back at the shelter, he will be just like any other cats that I see when I visit… I wished I could have him and keep him, but he’s just not the type of cat that we can have. Like the other shelter cats I see and feel sorry for, I like to keep myself from feeling sad for them by hoping that they find the right family and have very happy lives.
The scratching, the escaping, the stealing of food isn’t a big enough problem for my SO and I to discuss giving him back. It’s just part of the reason. The biggest reason is our girl cat just doesn’t like him. I don’t want to keep them separated forever just to have a little peace and quiet in this home. She was here first, and she has first priority in these matters. I have heard suggestions like yours, that a kitten might not work out as well, but in the end, we decided to give the kitten idea a try, because she really does like the company of other cats. I’ve seen how happy she is when there is another cat that she likes around. It keeps her so much more lively and excited when we get home from work or school.
If after all this, she doesn’t like the kitten either, then I will chalk it up to my girl cat wanting to be the sole cat of our household and accept it. Sometimes adult cats with a large age difference clash, and sometimes kittens and adult cats work out, sometimes they don’t. My SO and I are willing to take another chance at a kitten to cheer up our little girl who has been miserable the past couple of months without a real friend.
I just wanted to add that although I am indeed inexperienced with cats, my SO isn’t. He grew up in a house full of cats and raised several of his own. He and I have discussed this very thoroughly, and I trust him to let me know when my expectations of pet ownership is out of line, and he hasn’t so far.
If you truly wished to have him and keep him, you would. He sounds like a perfectly normal cat. You are simply looking to trade up, possibly because you think kittens are cuter and more malleable. It’s foolish, but I can’t stop you. I can definitely not ooh and aah over the decision though.
Some cats just don’t get along with other cats. My cat is one of those cats. I would love to have a pair of cats to play together and keep each other company, but my cat will not tolerate that. The only difference between my situation and the OP’s is that mine is the first cat in a household, not the second. I think that if the OP was “I’m placing my cat up for adoption because she isn’t getting along with my other cat” nobody would have a problem with it. In an ideal world, every cat would have a loving home, but we don’t live in an ideal world so only the most adoptable and lucky cats get loving homes.
I, for one, demand pictures of the little fluffball! I love the orange stripey flavor! My next one will probably be one. The name Julius for an orange cat is still up for grabs since Cuervo was named Cuervo.