<p>Thank goodness for wifi. I’m keeping the new cat company in the upstairs bathroom. When DH gets home, old cat will spend a couple of hours in the finished basement with one of us, while new cat gets the run of the house to explore. Right now, new cat is curled up in his bed…very cute!</p>
<p>Re: use of baby gates…we would need one over 6 feet high. Both of these cats are jumpers, and good ones. Last night new cat jumped onto the fireplace mantel from the floor.</p>
<p>We have three litter boxes and separate water and food bowls. </p>
<p>Hopefully this will work out without any trips to the vet for injuries!</p>
<p>This is interesting. I have introduced a number of cats to the household over the years with, generally, good success. Right now 2 of mine are on Prozac, however, which eliminated some peeing on the sofa. Our temperamental female doesn’t bury her stuff, and leaves HUGE pee spots. I swear she saves it up for 2 days! We have a giant litter box (I call it “the beach”) in the laundry room and a normal sized box down in the basement. We try to keep them upstairs so we don’t have to be running around scooping all the time, but they love the challenge of the “other box”. Our 3 males (7, 5 and 4) get along really well. The 5 year old is WildChild’s cat and moved in with us in April when WildChild moved to a small center city studio apartment in Philadelphia. Everyone has to also get used to the huge Golden Retriever, who adores cats. The female can do without him!</p>
<p>I have never understood the aversion to the flea treatment. I have to sneak up on them while they’re sleeping and pin them down. And it’s just a tiny capsule put to the back of the neck so they can’t lick it. Do it and they don’t seem to mind the odor. But if they see you coming, they scatter like roaches in the light. </p>
<p>BTW, I found that putting dirt on top of litter trains outside cats to use the litter box. You can take away the dirt after a while. They seem to have difficulty associating litter with the act. Cats have limited association abilities, but they are very quick at learning the things they can learn. I brought in one cat that wouldn’t go at all despite the litter box until I covered the top with dirt. Took her 2 times and she associated going with the box and not the material in it. I’ve brought in cats that only required having their paws dragged across the surface of the litter to get it. But these cats were used to being touched by people.</p>
<p>When the second of our two ancient cats died, DW said we’d take an animal break. Yeah–right. We found a rescue site online and within 2 weeks we brought home a family --male, female and their female kitten. They already had their internal relationships worked out.</p>
<p>Since all this happened while our son was at college–no empty nest — and our cat family is live entertainment. Best animal experience I could imagine.</p>
<p>You know, I was thinking of this, but the baby gate idea is often suggested even though most cats can jump that high. Maybe it’s very different to jump up from one surface to a higher one that can be seen (you know how they look and seem to be estimating the height before they leap) as opposed to jumping over a barrier and down to the floor on the other side that can’t be fully seen. Not sure even my best jumper could figure that out.</p>
<p>I’ve seen one of my older cats - 12 years old - jump over a 6 and 1/2 foot solid wood fence with 2 feet to spare. And he weighs like 17 pounds. One cat we had would jump straight up from the floor to the top of the refrigerator. Some cats don’t jump well but others are extraordinary. We rarely see the athleticism they’re capable of because they aren’t running from predators. As far as I can tell, cats are so much superior to their prey in agility and speed - meaning mostly rodents and even birds at ground level - that their extreme abilities must be related more to escape from predators. One of my cats got scared, ran at the house, took off near the trees and landed near the door on the deck, a jump of about 20 feet plus the elevation. I suspect he could have gone further if he really needed to. I’ve seen a cat chasing a bird in full flight across the open space and keep up for 30+ feet. More a blur than an animal in motion. That’s the freakish thing about big cats: they can go that fast but hit with the force of all that weight. Imagine being a deer and having a 150 pound mountain lion hit you at 25 mph. </p>
<p>If they see they can get somewhere, they’ll jump to it. They may not do it at first but when they really want it they’ll do it. And they may do it when you’re not looking.</p>
<p>Old cat and I are in the basement which is thankfully a nice finished couple of rooms. New car is getting his roam around the house time. In about an hour, new car will go to bed…in the bathroom, and the rest of us will come upstairs. </p>
<p>We are thinking about getting a harness for old car do when we try them in the same room, we will have some way to control her attacking new cat. Stay tuned!</p>
<p>I’m not there but if the attacks are shows then they’re necessary to get out of the way so they can co-exist. Preventing them may make the old cat feel rejected. It’s not like the new cat will hold it against the old cat. We could learn that from animals: don’t hold a grudge.</p>
<p>Lerg…if I thought the old cat wouldn’t HURT the new one, I would let them stalk their territory. BUT two nights ago, that old cat (who is normally VERY docile, and LOVES having dogs visit) really went on th attack. I don’t want to make a trip to the vet with a cat injured by another cat IN my house!</p>
<p>I’m with thumper here. One of my older cats hissed, growled, chased the little one from her “territory” … i.e., normal. The other one attacked (more than once) with intent to hurt … and did; we ended up at the vet with an abscess from a bite ($100) and instructions to keep the little one away from both cats till healed (a step backwards).</p>
<p>The older cat jumped on me at one point trying to get to the injured young one, which concerned the vet. He suggested the squirt bottle at that time … since it can shut down an attack quickly. We’ve squirted only a couple times now but the older cat seems to have taken a step away from thinking that killing the kitten is a good idea.</p>
<p>Well at least new cat makes us chuckle. Old cat is downstairs with DH. I’m on the main floor with new cat. This is the first time new cat has explored the house in daylight. He is hysterical! All of the reflections really have him very curious…things like ceiling light fixtures, shadows in the house, etc. </p>
<p>Still no progress with old cat but I think well give them a try later tonight.</p>
<p>If you put them in the same space and keep them apart, that may help the older cat learn the space can be shared. Even if the older cat sits up on a counter or hides under furniture. Especially if you can distract the older cat with a treat. </p>
<p>We had the revolving ottoman thing this AM. One is in the space, another watches, takes it, sets off a round of nervous walking around + staring, movement, another takes the space, and so on. And the door is wide open but they prefer to do this. Cats and their interactions are deeply mysterious. But then people argue about politics on the internet despite zero evidence that anyone ever changes opinions.</p>
<p>Ah Thumper, I went through this same thing with D’s young, one year old cat two years ago! I already had my cat, who was about 5 at the time and D’s “home” cat, age 4. Oddly, the youngster took a liking to me- which ticked off my good guy- and tried to sleep on the bed; that triggered mayhem! Within two days, all was settled though and everyone gets along fine. There was enough room in the house for all of them to hide where and when they wanted to and provide some “quiet time”. If things get out of hand, go with the spray bottle or a can with some coins or stones in it (the noise when shaken will make both combatants run off!). Please keep us posted on the progress…</p>
<p>Another possibility, if they are tolerating each other’s presence in the same room, is to play with them together, with one of those toys on a string kind of things.</p>
<p>At this point old cat is NOT tolerating the presence of new car in the same room. We will try again tomorrow. They have been separated for four days but could smell one another under the doors. We are thinking we will put old cat in a harness so it will be easier to snag her if she goes on the attack again. </p>
<p>She is sitting on the couch in our rec room downstairs, sound asleep. New cat is roaming the upstairs with DH. He is quiet too.</p>
<p>I hope they figure things out soon. I’m loath to admit this, but I’m kind of impressed that the senior citizen still has it in her to go on the attack. </p>
<p>My oldster shows trepidation these days when the (now very full-grown) youngsters are in the vicinity. She tries not to enter a room when they are near, and when she goes by, she hisses a warning but also runs past at a pretty good clip. She holds her own but she sometimes seems almost frightened. Poor old cat.</p>
<p>From my limited human perspective, the young ones don’t seem menacing. If anything, they seem to think she is the coolest thing ever. They don’t dare to approach most of the time but they look like an eager fan club. They’re certainly not challenging her: when food is put out for the three of them, she takes first choice and no one dares get in her way. Young boy cat routinely pushes young girl cat out of the way or “shares” her food when he’s done with his own but he wouldn’t dare try this with old lady cat.</p>
<p>I brought in a feral kitten, just weeks old. Couldn’t walk steadily. Our then oldest cat walked up to check the little one out and the kitten hauled off and landed a roundhouse right on the nose. They never got along. That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>I wish I could read what’s in our cats’ minds - a litter of 6 had been found abandoned in a box by DD’s classmate’s mom six years ago and we took in two. They were so fond & would groom each other as kitties, but now they are often swipe each other drawing blood. The calico is usually the aggressor. </p>
<p>Different question altogether - our vet says they are a few pounds overweight. What is your strategy of restricting food when they share the same trays? Do you find a difference using wet paste/wet chunky/dry food from a standpoint of weight gain?</p>