Some advice from the PH minds....
Discussion
I currently have a 13 year old cat, who for the last 7 years or so has had the run of the house following her housemate getting hit by a car, so she kind of has the house/garden and surrounding area to herself as her own little empire.
On Tuesday, I received the devastating news that my Step Brother had dies from a massive heart attack on Sunday night, leaving behind two young boys who live with their mother and two male cats.
The cats are a couple of years old and essentially homeless, so I have offered to take them as I wouldn't want them to go to anyone but family, and as all other family members have dogs, it leaves me...
I know that it could be a tough few weeks as we introduce the two newcomers into the house, and have spent some time reading stuff on the net about the best ways to go about their introduction. We plan to segregate the two cats from the resident cat for a few days, followed by swapping some bedding between the resident cat and the newcomers so that they can get used to the smell of each other before a gentle introduction a after a 10 days or so.
Does anyone have any tips/ideas/suggestions to try and make the introduction of the newbies as smooth as possible?
All ideas welcome
On Tuesday, I received the devastating news that my Step Brother had dies from a massive heart attack on Sunday night, leaving behind two young boys who live with their mother and two male cats.
The cats are a couple of years old and essentially homeless, so I have offered to take them as I wouldn't want them to go to anyone but family, and as all other family members have dogs, it leaves me...
I know that it could be a tough few weeks as we introduce the two newcomers into the house, and have spent some time reading stuff on the net about the best ways to go about their introduction. We plan to segregate the two cats from the resident cat for a few days, followed by swapping some bedding between the resident cat and the newcomers so that they can get used to the smell of each other before a gentle introduction a after a 10 days or so.
Does anyone have any tips/ideas/suggestions to try and make the introduction of the newbies as smooth as possible?
All ideas welcome
steelbreeze said:
I may have missed something, but why aren't his widow and sons keeping the cats?
In a nutshell: The widow is actually his ex, who just upped and left one day without giving any real reason, the kids live with her, and she doesn't want the cats, so I offered to take them. Thank you all for the kind words, and thank you for the advice. I know that introducing them to our home will take time and might be a bit stressful, but the way I see it is, my Step Brother loved the cats, and they loved him too, so if I can make this work, then I owe to him to do so. It'll be like seeing a small part of his life every day.....
Well, today was the day we picked the newbies up and brought them home. They've been in "their" part of the house for a couple of hours, and so far, seem to be doing ok. They are of course a little jumpy, but they seem to be happy to eat, definitely enjoy some fuss, and as you can see, have made themselves comfortable under the dining table with some old cushions.....
The tabby is Max, which is quite an apt name, because he is one big cat. The other one is called Domino as a result of being white, with black spots down his back - he is apparently quite the hunter.
Our existing cat Caffery knows that something is going on, but so far is just occupying her normal favourite places around the house... And just so she isn't left out, this is her, lying on her favourite towel in one of the spare rooms.
The tabby is Max, which is quite an apt name, because he is one big cat. The other one is called Domino as a result of being white, with black spots down his back - he is apparently quite the hunter.
Our existing cat Caffery knows that something is going on, but so far is just occupying her normal favourite places around the house... And just so she isn't left out, this is her, lying on her favourite towel in one of the spare rooms.
So it's been a while, but time for an update...
The obvious question - how are they getting on? Well Max and Domino have settled in really well and definitely see our house as their home. The only problem we have, which was always a possibility, is our existing cat, Caffery hasn't taken to them at all.
It's not all bad though, as Caffery has got older (she's 15 now) she has steadily become much more of an indoor cat and has pretty much taken to 'owning' upstairs and now only goes out when she really feels like it - mainly warm sunny days and warm nights only - Max does have a habit of hunting for her, and from time to time, fur does fly, but Max is starting to learn that whilst he's much bigger than her, she's not scared to stand her ground and he's learning that because she's a lot quicker than him, a) she can get away quicker than he can give chase and b) if she really does stand her ground, she can be every bit as vicious as him - now when he finds her, he's a lot more wary and she's learnt that he's every bit as scared of her as she is of him - smart girl....
Max is a big cat, weighing in at 8.5kgs when we took him to the vet for his jabs, so has been on a diet, and we've git him down to just over 7kgs now - still big, but definitely healthier now than he was. He's also a big softy, loving his fuss, loves cuddles from our 6 year old, who tends to hug him to death - he loves it.
Domino, loves his fuss when he feels like it, but only when he feels like it... He does love his arm pits tickled though. He's also very much a hunter too, with regular 'presents' being left in the garden for us to find in the morning (two birds and two mice on Saturday morning alone!). He isn't bothered by Caffery at all, and if they cross paths, she hisses away at him, whilst he just gives her the 'whatever' look and carries on doing his own thing
The two newbies are very cute together, regularly sitting and cleaning each other, but again, with Domino, this is very much on his terms, so often Max is left looking like a bit of a plum as Domino just leaves him sat looking like a lemon. They also seem to have won over the neighbours, treating their house like their own, to the point that if we can't find them, they're normally holed up on one of the neighbours beds!!
Caffery definitely doesn't get left out and has the freedom of the house, whereas Max and a Domino are restricted to certain rooms only. They all seem happy enough with that, so whilst not perfect, none of them seem to be coming to any harm, which whilst not ideal, does mean that we can continue to give my brother's cats a home.
Thank you all for the support and advice, it's one of the things that keeps PH a great community to be a part of.
The obvious question - how are they getting on? Well Max and Domino have settled in really well and definitely see our house as their home. The only problem we have, which was always a possibility, is our existing cat, Caffery hasn't taken to them at all.
It's not all bad though, as Caffery has got older (she's 15 now) she has steadily become much more of an indoor cat and has pretty much taken to 'owning' upstairs and now only goes out when she really feels like it - mainly warm sunny days and warm nights only - Max does have a habit of hunting for her, and from time to time, fur does fly, but Max is starting to learn that whilst he's much bigger than her, she's not scared to stand her ground and he's learning that because she's a lot quicker than him, a) she can get away quicker than he can give chase and b) if she really does stand her ground, she can be every bit as vicious as him - now when he finds her, he's a lot more wary and she's learnt that he's every bit as scared of her as she is of him - smart girl....
Max is a big cat, weighing in at 8.5kgs when we took him to the vet for his jabs, so has been on a diet, and we've git him down to just over 7kgs now - still big, but definitely healthier now than he was. He's also a big softy, loving his fuss, loves cuddles from our 6 year old, who tends to hug him to death - he loves it.
Domino, loves his fuss when he feels like it, but only when he feels like it... He does love his arm pits tickled though. He's also very much a hunter too, with regular 'presents' being left in the garden for us to find in the morning (two birds and two mice on Saturday morning alone!). He isn't bothered by Caffery at all, and if they cross paths, she hisses away at him, whilst he just gives her the 'whatever' look and carries on doing his own thing
The two newbies are very cute together, regularly sitting and cleaning each other, but again, with Domino, this is very much on his terms, so often Max is left looking like a bit of a plum as Domino just leaves him sat looking like a lemon. They also seem to have won over the neighbours, treating their house like their own, to the point that if we can't find them, they're normally holed up on one of the neighbours beds!!
Caffery definitely doesn't get left out and has the freedom of the house, whereas Max and a Domino are restricted to certain rooms only. They all seem happy enough with that, so whilst not perfect, none of them seem to be coming to any harm, which whilst not ideal, does mean that we can continue to give my brother's cats a home.
Thank you all for the support and advice, it's one of the things that keeps PH a great community to be a part of.
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