Re: It's a girl!
gardenchat@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: It's a girl!
  • From: C* C* <c*@comcast.net>
  • Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:08:14 -0600
Part of the integration issue seems to be each cats' personality, and their age when they joined the community. One of mine joined as a kitten and worshipped the ground the oldest male walked on. When he died, I got another male, and the ex-kitten hates him. We adopted another, an older cat, and her philosophy was "the best defense is a good offense". They all tolerate her, but there is a lot of hissing to this day. Our original, and oldest cat remains the "alpha" and all of the others defer to her. 
Cathy, west central IL, z5b

On Dec 21, 2010, at 12:15 PM, Aplfgcnys@aol.com wrote:
I'm sure they will adapt. I've introduced numerous cats into my household with other cats, and it sometimes takes a few days or weeks, but they have never failed to adjust. One old neutered male just adopted an introduced 
pair
of kittens and mothered them, but when the male kitten grew up the old cat 
became somewhat hostile. The young cat was really devastated.
We are coping with a situation similar to yours. A small female cat just showed up at our door some weeks ago. At first she was very nervous and wouldn't let us get near her, but in a short while would come to me when I showed her dry food in my hand. It soon appeared that she really loves to be petted - but still won't let Chet get near her. A neighbor told us 
that she
used to belong to a family down the private road near us. We know that the father in that family had a terrible accident and has been in the hospital 
for a
good while, so maybe they just couldn't cope with the cat and ran her off. 
She
seems so nervous that I can believe she had been abused. I'm sure she is spayed - she's not young, but there are no signs that she ever had kittens. I'm also sure she is housebroken, because we have been shutting her into the garage at night, and when I open the door in the morning she makes a dash for a soft place behind a woodpile. She really lives here now - is 
around
all day and night. I think she wants to come in the house, but I can't let 
her
in with my two until I have her checked by the vet. Talked to the vet
yesterday
and she gave tips about how to capture her. We'll take her in for overnight observation, and if she's in good health she'll join the family. It just 
makes
me so sad that this nice animal wants so badly to be part of a family, and 
I have to keep her outside. Also, it's getting so cold at night that I
worry
about her. At least she is inside the garage at night and that's better than 
outside with all the predators, etc.

I'm sure your cats will adjust.  They're all amazing creatures.
APL

In a message dated 12/21/2010 12:38:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,
dp2413@comcast.net writes:
We were quite sure this was so, after we finally were able to touch stray 
cat
Blackie a little, but the vet confirmed it yesterday. Brief backstory: She arrived here in May of 2009 and we couldn't get anywhere near her. We had to put food in the shed and then back away at least 25 feet. A slight scratch 
of
foot on gravel sent her scrambling into the woods or under a chicken coop. I 
was first able to touch her this spring - a year later, and then only
briefly
until recently.
The morning started with a tranquilizer for her, and then a drive to the 
vets
after much howling on her part. I could have used a tranquilizer by then! The howling was ok for me, but I was so afraid she'd hurt herself in panic, 
or
secrete herself behind the washer or something where we couldn't get to her 
while waiting for her to be calm enough to get into the crate.
The best news is that she's FIV, FeLeuk and heartworm negative. She's also been spayed. They had to shave a bit of her belly to get past the thick fur 
to
find the spay scar, but the tattoo is there. That gives us hope that she 
also
has had at least a rabies vaccination. Now let the introductions begin!
Question for you cat people. We had her indoors (in a crate, sedated for a while after I brought her home from the vet) and the other cats mostly were curious, not hostile. What do you think the odds are that we can integrate 
her
into the household without hostilities? The other 4 cats are all neutered males. She's been spending the night in the utility room, and the other cats 
have been aware of her, as she has been of them.
We had a terrible time when we adopted E.T. He tore most of the screens on 
the
porch trying to get to two of the other cats, and we finally had to put 
harnesses on all of them, and keep spray bottles at the ready when we
brought
him into the house. Of course, the two cats in the family then were male, 
and
he was a street smart Tom (neutered first thing, but still trying to fight through the screens after 4 months) with the scars to show it. The kitten 
was
no problem, once he was big enough not to be chipmunk (prey sized).

Any suggestions?

d

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