I’m looking for a cat expert out there. I have a one year old, neutered female, very well adjusted cat. We got her from the Human Society when she was 4 months and she adapted to her new environment very well. For example, I was able to box train her in a few weeks with no accidents whatsoever.
We even moved to a new house a month ago and she again adapted within a day or two. No problem. She’s able to go outside whenever she wants when we are home… and sometimes is out all night… and doesn’t seem to get into fights with other cats in the neighborhood. She’s not shy, but she doesn’t appear overly territorial either. Probably because she’s still fairly young.
My question is would it be wise to get another cat at this point in time? We aren’t home during the day so she is by herself a lot of the time. She sleeps most of the day and parties at night… which seems pretty normal for cat. She doesn’t act like a kitten anymore… but she’s still pretty frisky for a teenager.
We were thinking of getting another 4-5 month old kitten for companionship but two things came to mind:
She is definitely part of the family (we have two kids) and I don’t know how she would react to having a “strange” animal in the house. What I wouldn’t want is to have to deal with cats fighting all the time if they didn’t get along for some reason… and of course I couldn’t take the second cat back if that were the case. Do you think she would accept another cat at this point? Would it matter if it was a male or female (neutered of course)?
I thought cats were pretty much loners and weren’t social in the same sense as dogs were. I know people who have lots of cats… and they all seem to get along… but I didn’t think it was a requirement to have more than one for them to be well adjusted and happy. I could be all wrong about that.
Can someone who has had lots of experience with cats in different situations help me out here? And I know that every cat is different so don’t just say it depends…
The difference is that they are not pack animals. I believe there was a study done in England (?) a few years ago showing that the local cats lived in a large, diffuse group. The males tended to roam quite a bit but they always came back to the group. The females tended to stay near warmth and food (for the kittens) and assisted each other when needed.
If you are going to introduce a new cat to the household, then it does seem best to do so when the first cat is still young and not yet set in her ways. Not all cats appreciate company (mine hates all other carbon-based life forms) but many do enjoy having someone else with whom they can wrestle.
My experience with multiple cat owning is that they will tend to fight a bit but much of the more serious “I’m gonna kick yer ass!” type of behaviour settled into play fighting. However, a good friend of mine has two cats, brother and sister, who have been together all their lives and still have nasty fights. In other words, cats are much like children. Good luck!
I got 3 cats in my house, only one of them is mine, when they all got introduced there was a bunch of hissing and what not, but after a couple of days things settled out. The way I look at it when I’m not at home my cat isn’t just sitting around by himself doing whatever cats do by themselves. He now knows that somewhere around the house are 2 more cats…
I agree with xcheopis. Cats are social animals. They definitely like having other cats around.
I have a seven-year-old male cat (fixed). He’s an indoor-only guy. Over the years he’s had two cat roomates, male and female. We adopted both when they were kittens. Never had any problems getting along. (We’ve had bad luck with kitty roomates - both succumbed to fatal illness. But that’s another story for another time.) The point is, up until recently, my cat has always gotten along with newly introduced cats.
Our seven-year-old male cat (fixed) has been without cat companionship for a while now. He seems quite happy that way, but he does get a little agressive playing with us. When he has a roomate, he can wrestle with them and not tear us up.
So two weeks ago we got a new roommate for him - a one-year-old female who had been a stray and was pregnant when brought to the pound. The vet at the pound aborted the kittens (she wasn’t very far along, apparently) and sterilized her. This was all done before we found her. In any case, after we brought her home, the introductions did not go well. She hissed and attacked the 7-yo male. He hid under the bed. We shut her into an unused bathroom with food, water and litter.
Two weeks of short introductory sessions and strict discipline (water squirter) appear to have done the trick. Our older male is still a little skittish, but the young female doesn’t hiss at him any more, and they both initiate play with each other. It looks like they’re going to be buddies after all.
So my advice is to go ahead and get another cat. It doesn’t matter what sex it is. Have it sterilized. Make sure it hasn’t got anything (like fleas, ear mites, a cold or :shudder: FLV) that could be transmitted to the other cat. And get a young one. I think the reason we had trouble was because she was a year old and had been around the block (stray, pregnant).
And get it from the pound or humane society. There are lots of great cats there just waiting for a new home.
Looks like you’ve already made up your mind, but I’ll put my $0.02 in. I was once in a very similar situation, with a 1-year-old spayed female. This cat was kind of incorrigible re scratching and biting. So I got another 1yo spayed female to keep the first one company and it mellowed her out tremendously. Worked out perfectly.
A caveat: They’ll be at each others’ throats for the first couple of weeks. Don’t let it bother you.
Cats are far more interesting when they can bug each other. The only cat I’ve ever known that didn’t take to newcomers was Omar, my mother’s half-persian. But he was almost 20, and didn’t really take to anyone.
Our cats Batman and Angel have for the time being been deported to my mother’s house for the crime of Being Cats Around a Pregnant Woman. It turns out they’re much happier there, but even before they deigned to acknowledge the house’s human inhabitants, they were getting on very well indeed with a King Charles Spaniel and a Golden Retriever who also hang out there. The dogs are now perceived as large cats (both learned their lesson about hassling cats a long time ago, from Omar) and the cats even try to do the feline rubbing-against-one-another thing with them, but of course dogs just don’t do that.
The only trouble you might have is with a cat that has… well, issues. Many from animal shelters have had bad treatment from life, but it needn’t be a problem so long as you make sure the folk at the shelter know what you’re after.