old cat , young cat

Question
I read your answer to the topic of two cats and went to the messy beast website.  At this point, you will probably tell me that my cats will never get along but I thought I would ask your advice anyway.  Last July, we got a 2-year-old neutered male at the local animal shelter.  We have a 12-year-old neutered male named Cookie.  Cookie is used to other animals.  We had a dog and two other cats, who all got along (and have since died). The new cat, Mickey, supposedly came from a house of 4 cats (including him) who were given up for adoption due to one of the children suddenly becoming "allergic" to the cats.  I found out recently from the shelter that the other 3 cats were ages 8, 6, and 4 and were extremely nasty. The shelter euthanized the other 3 cats the day they were brought to the shelter!  Mickey is a little sweetheart with people (as is Cookie).  At first, I thought they were going to be fine together.  They were sniffing noses and Cookie was laying down as if to show non-aggression.  Then I started to notice that Mickey was taking the opportunity to try to dominate, standing over Cookie, turning sideways to look bigger (as I have read) and cocking his head sideways in this peculiar manner.  Eventually, this behavior got worse and he started chasing poor Cookie to within an inch of his life.  They would usually end up under a bed with fur literally flying and awful caterwauling.  I separted them completely and tried reintroducing them to each other.  I tried Feliway.  (I discussed this with my vet multiple times.)  They had a couple of really horrific fights (due to my husband or daughter not paying attention that one or the other cat had gotten out of their area) where poor Cookie literally soiled the carpet with feces!  Cookie also started to defecate on rugs, etc.  At this point, it is just ridiculous the way Mickey acts toward Cookie.  He goes crazy chasing him if he gets out of his quarters.  And poor Cookie is absolutely TERRIFIED of Mickey.  It's such a shame.  They are both adorable, very affectionate and funny cats.  So now they live TOTALLY separate lives and both seem very happy.  We refuse to get rid of Mickey now.  We are already super attached to him.  Are we destined to live like this for many years to come or do you have any other suggestions??  Have you ever heard of cats taking months or years to work things out but eventually they get along??  Or is this situation permanent??  Thanks so much for your input.

Answer
Robin,

At this point I'm going to assume the situation is permanent.

Mickey probably was nice at first because he was getting acclimated to your home. At his last home he probably had to fight alot with the other mean cats and that is all he knows. Mikey is fighting for his territory now at your home, which includes people too.

Poor Cookie! Older cats do not take stress as well as a young cat and it may cause behavior problems (such as you are seeing with improper elimination), emotional problems, or it may make him develop health problems. And most older cats do not like young cats.
Cookie is approx. 64 years old in human years, and Mickey is approx. 24 years old in human years.

Here are two articles on older cats and getting a new cat:

http://www.celiahaddon.co.uk/pet%20problems/cats/new%20cats.html

http://www.messybeast.com/Oldcat.htm

And

here are some articles on the older cat:

http://www.sniksnak.com/resources/geriatric.html

I hope this helped.
Tabbi