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 Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:13 pm
I'm sure many of you own more than one cat, right?
Well, about a week ago, my mother found a kitten in the garage. Since it was about two months and a week old, and its mother was nowhere to be found, she decided we would keep him. We called him Figaro.
Well, the problem is that we have another cat. She is about three years and a half, her name is Zuca.
Since Zuca was brought in when she was about two months old, when we owned another cat named Furret (who once left and never came back), and they had no problem getting along, we thought it would be the same with Figaro and Zuca. But every time Figaro gets near Zuca, she hisses. We'd never heard her hiss. =S
I wonder what we can do to get them to get along? Zuca currently seems kind of...not angry, more like sad, at us. She won't even come inside the house most of the time, except when I call her.
I'm afraid Zuca might want to run away, since she likes to go outside quite a lot, and we live beside a mountain. sad
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:08 am
I'd give them a little more time to adjust before you really start to get worried - a week isn't very long and cats usually need to sort things out between themselves. Violet was constantly hissing at Clover and hitting her in the head with her paws for the first couple of weeks after we got her, but they figured things out and are now completely inseparable and the best of friends.
Just make sure you give Zuca lots of attention, so she doesn't feel like she's losing her place in your house or your family. If you are concerned that she may run away, you might consider keeping her in the house when possible.
One method I've heard of but not tried for making cats get along is to cover them both with tuna juice and then toss them in a bathtub together, and supposedly they'll eventually stop fighting and have to cooperate to get themselves clean. Not sure how effective it would be...
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:29 am
-Giggles at the Tuna suggestion.- xD
What Anlina says about giving it time is true...as well about keeping your cats inside and making sure Zuca doesn't feel as though she's being abandoned by her family.
We had a similar situation (only we'd adopted some kittens) and our older female cat (who used to be a great mother but is now deceased) wouldn't want to go near either of the kittens and would hiss at them as well. We've had others as well, but what we find works best is if they're shut into a large room together for a week or so, and you go in and feed them at the same time (if you've got dishes that have two bowls on the same one, even better, because it shows them they have to eat together and face/be near each other while doing so)...
You should start to see an improvement as long as you give both of them attention and lots of love.
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:56 pm
Cats can be territorial, so my cats each get their own space. I adopted an adult last fall. She's still timid and doesn't venture far out of her safety zone. I adopted a kitten about a month ago and she started out spending her alone time (when I wasn't home to watch her) in a bathroom.
When I was home, she followed me and the dog around. When we needed a break from the kitten, I put her in a soft-sided dog kennel (about $25 from Target). She could still see us, but she had lots of toys to play with so she was happily occupied.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of the older cat and she'd come out to investigate the newcomer. There were hisses and defensive postures for the first few meetings. Eventually that mellowed out to playing and chasing. Never has the kitten invaded the older cat's room unless I was there.
Kitty has now graduated to free run of the house when I'm not home. The older cat has even ventured out from her safety zone. The cats will eventually work it out, but let them do it at their own pace. Don't force them together. It may cause a personality conflict that can't be repaired. One thing that you can do is to switch their beds or blankets where they sleep to get each used to the other's scent.
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:58 am
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