maine coon cats

Question
We allready have a pure bred maine coone female cat which is a year old.  This weekend we inherrited a male year old maine coone male cat (who is fixed) which is very unfreiendly to us and the other household pets.  The woman we got her from said she traveld too much and nobody took care of him or liked him.  Since getting him, he has been very, very, hostile towards us and our other animales.  Given it has only been two days, but he scares me...bad!!!!  What our question is, to sum it up, is...what should we be doing to unite and help this cat into out happy animale family.  We have a female maine coone cat, domestic malae cat(fixed and 10 years old) and a 3 month old black lab.  My boyfriend is challenged by the new cat but I am not.  He is making me very unfcomfortable :o(  (the cat) HELP....I am not willing to make my life around this animale...it is my house not his and right now he owns it and in my mind that isn't right...this is my house and I am more than willing to adopt him and make his life better but I am telling you he has taken over quite a bit of our space (he like s to lie by the coffee maker and lunges at me when I go to get a cup of coffee and besides that I do not like animales on my counterspace.  What suggestion and help can you give us before this becomes a huge issue between us....my thoughts at his point and time is to give him back...which we know in our hearts he shouldn't be there..........HELP

Answer
Julie,

In truth, I suspect you were given him because his previous owner had the same problem with his aggressive behavior.  Unless you are willing to spend lots of time socializing this cat, and upsetting your household until things improve, you might want to rethink the whole thing.

Having said that, if he is not hissing and spitting and just lunging, there may be hope.  If his behavior is one in which you feel absolutely intimidated, he will sense this and it will feed this behavior.  He is uncomfortable in the new surroundings and, like middle school children, is acting out.

Without socialization, cats have no idea that biting and scratching behavior towards humans is unacceptable.  Little kittens play incerdibly roughly with each other with lots of biting and scratching (cats and dogs have very, very tough skin).  We socialize our kittens by picking them up and gently stroking them and taliking softly to them. They love being treated this way.  If the biting and scratching behavior starts up, we put them down and walk away.  They catch on that they need to be much more gentle with us soft skinned humans.

A one year old Maine Coon male is another story.  You can give him some time to adjust (two days is no time at all), and see if he comes around.  If, after a couple of weeks, there is no improvement, you may have to find another home with no other pets for him.  We generally recommend introducing a new cat to a home with established pets more gradually than just throwing him in.  However, what is done is done.

So, a couple of things you want to remember.  Lavish extra treats and affection on all the established pets (cats and dogs do get jealous).   If he begins aggressive beahvior, ignore him as if he does not exist.  Let him come to you, not you going to him for petting and the like.  If he becomes aggressive during the petting, walk away.  Do not separate your other animals and the new Maine Coon boy.  In time, they will usually work things out and get along.  Remember, he feels very uprooted and unsure of himself which may explain some of the aggressive behavior.

Another thing you mnight also want to look at is clicker training, a very successful beahvior modification technique for both cats and dogs.  You can look at Karen Pryor's web site

 www.clickertraining.com

At this point, I am not sure what else to tell you.

Best regards... Norm.