adult cat and kitten

Question
Hi,
I just purchased a kitten for my five year old cat mandy so she could have a friend as our seven year old cat passed away. I waited for seven months before getting the new kitten which is the same breed as mandy. "Callie" was ten weeks old when we introduced her to Mandy. It was not love at first sight. Mandy is the center of attention at our house and we were very careful to still give her tons of attention. It has been two months now and I will admit our little calico pounces on Mandy and hides and ambushes her. I spoke to our vet and she said Picture mandy as Barbara Bush at a tea party and callie is juevie Hall/Biker babe material. Callie is 16 weeks old and I have started to squirt her with a squirt gun when I can see that she is going to ambush mandy. Mandy in all of her five years has probabley only hissed maybe three times and now she hisses daily. and growls. she does not whack callie back even when callie performs her kung foo kick boxing techniqes on poor mandy. Mandy will hiss and hiss and growl and raise her paw to callie but ever so lady like just retreats somewhere. what can I do? we love love love our mandy and now I feel like I did her a diservice by getting her a friend. we are too attached to our little calico to not keep her. any advice? will this get better with time? I look forward to hearing from you.
                                 Linda

Answer
Hi Linda,

Sometimes it takes a lot of time for the cats to adjust to each other. I would stop the squirt bottle. It's not really working. Get a product called Feliway,(the whole house atomizer). It acts as a kitty tranquilizer and will calm them down. Take a towel or rag and wipe the two of them with the same towel. Make sure you get the scent gland areas. You want to transfer each ones scent to the other. Switch their bedding. You want to have them have a common scent. Use something of yours. This may sound a little gross but work up a sweat in something of yours and wipe both of them with it. These things and time should work. Good luck.

Ciao, Karen