New kitten with mature cat.....HELP!

Question
Recently, I got a three year old cat and she came from a woman who had to get rid of her, because she had gotten a dog and the cat is terrified of dogs. So, I took her into my home and when I let her out of her cage when we got home, she was terrified.......she automatically ran straight to the basement and jumped onto the ceiling.
When I finally got her down and took her back upstairs, she immediately ran back down and this time she was on the ceiling stuck in a whole bunch of wires! I have been putting her in a separate room for a while now with her food/water/litter box....I just let her out the other day to see what she would do and she just went for the basement again. I am starting to get worried that she is going to get hurt or worse. I also got a new kitten, because I thought that maybe a companion would be good for her, but when I let them meet each other for the first time, they hissed at each other and ran away from each other.....is this normal.....it's been almost a week now and they still don't like each other.....I need a lot of advice on what to do, or else I am going to have to get rid of the older cat because where she keeps going is starting to get me worried and she's not getting the attention she needs. I would rather just start off fresh with my new kitten, but I feel bad about getting rid of the older cat.......and so many changes of environment are very stressful for older/mature cats?! Please HELP ME.......ASAP!!!!!!!

Answer
Hello Chelsea,

There is no point in placing her, this will likely just add to her problems.  It is normal for cats to take time getting used to one another and while they do they will hiss and growl.

I am pasting below a response to help socialize feral kittens but the same technique would be used to help your fearful kitty.  I would also put her on Rescue Remedy and Rock Rose a few times a day to help calm her down.

Good Luck!

Natoma
Chenza Maine Coons
www.chenza.com

The key is time and FOOD!  ;)

You should use the food as a tool, associate yourself with the food and they will come around to you.  You should keep them inside your house otherwise a week from not they will not be there when you go out to see them.  It is also much safer for them inside.

Start by keeping them in a bathroom, this is a small enough area that there should be no place for them to hide when you come in.  Don't grab at them, the key is to let them come to you.  When you feed them for the first few days go into the bathroom with the food, oops forgot, you shouldn't free feed otherwise you're defeating the purpose and the food will not be associated with you.  Go into the bathroom with the food and for now put the bowl downas far away from you as possible, sit at the other end of the bathroom and let them eat.  They may be too nervous to go to the bowl the first few times so you need to wait about twenty minutes if they have not eaten by then take the food bowl and leave them be, always take the bowl with you, then you can try again for the evening/morning meal, they should get three a day as super young kittens.  Eventually their hunger will overide the nervousness of humans and they will eat.  As you do this start moving the bowl closer to you everytime you feed them to the point that the bowl will be right beside you.  By this time they should be somewhat trusting of you although still nervous.

This is probably going to take about a week.  The next step is to attempt to pet them while they are eating, very gently reach out while their minds are consumed with the food and start petting, depending on how things are going this would be when you would attempt to start to cuddle with them.  After some success with petting while eating gently take one of them up after the food is gone and cuddle it, scratching behind the ear but never pet the belly (It's a trust thing), watch the body language if the kitten is super stiff and wide eyed cuddle for a minute and then rest the kitten on your lap and let them walk/run away.  Don't hang onto them for too long, they need to be able to go when they want to in order to learn that pets and cuddles are a good thing and that they can leave if they so choose.  This will eventually lead to the kittens coming to you.  It is VERY important to do this with feral kittens as if you don't they will never trust humans.  

Once the kittens seem a bit more comfortable with you you can graduate to letting them in your bedroom but I wouldn't let them run the house for quite a while.  You need to be able to get your hands on them, if they hide all of the time their behavior will never be changed.