Moving to Unfamiliar cats to a New Apartment

Question
Hi, I have a 2 year-old, spade, indoor female cat and I found a roommate with a 7 year-old spade (I think so) female cat (that sometimes goes outdoors) and we are going to move into an apartment together.  There's lot of info regarding introducing a resident cat to a newcomer, but I have found no info that specifically address my situation.  What is the less stressful way to introduce my cat and her to a new environment and a cat companion?  I adopted my cat from a shelter when she was a few months old, she had lived with two of her sibling in a host family until she was ready to be adopted.  However, since I have adopted her she has lived without other pets. She's a cat with a lot of energy and loves to play.  My soon-to-be-roommate adopted her cat from it's prior owner recently (maybe a year ago?) and she only has this one pet.  She did host a friend's cat recently and that wasn't a good experience.  Her cat was jealous and withdrew.  Could you please advise! I am really hoping that these cats will be good playmates for one another.  Thanks so much!

Answer
Hi VS!

You're right, it is a bit of a unique situation.  First thing that needs to be done is some bloodwork on the roommates cat.  Going outside puts the cat at a very high risk for feline leukemia and feline aids, between the two they are currently the top killers of cats.  The cat may seem perfectly healthy right now but both virus' are highly contagious through cat to cat contact and this would put your cat at risk.  I generally recommend against vaccinations as they are usually more harmful than helpful but in this case, especially if the other cat is going to continue to go outside, you may want to consider getting these inoculations for your cat.  However, DO NOT get the vaccine for FIP, Feline Infectious Periotinitis, this vaccine has been found to actually cause the disease.  YOu need to time the shots though, when are you moving in?  You want to give your kitty as much time as possible to recover before you stress her immune system further by moving.

Back to the integration problem, both cats are going to be stressed by the move itself, when a cat is stressed it lowers their immune system.  Every cat, healthy or not, harbor's their own germs and many are also 'carriers' for certain virus', these are virus' that the individual cat handles just fine but the other cat may not. The best bet for the first little while is to keep them completely separated until they can get over the stress of the move.  Your cat in your room, hers in her room, if either of them have the run of the main area they will come in contact with the other through the bottom of the door, that would be the second step.  I would keep them completely separated for at least two weeks, let them get used to the new surroundings, get over the 'trauma' of the move itself and let their immune systems get back to normal then move on to step two.  After the two weeks, each cat should get some time in the main area individually, while they are out and about they will 'meet' the other cat through the bottom of the door, this is a safe way of meeting as there's a door in between them :)  I would do this for a few days and by then both will be very curious about the 'thing' living on the other side, this is the time for short supervised visits.  There will be some hissing and may even be a swat or two in the beginning but you should leave them be provided it doesn't get out of hand as they will have to establish the hierarchy between them, it generally doesn't take long for the dominant female to assert herself and the other one usually doesn't challenge once it's set.  The supervised visits will tell you how both cats are reacting and you should be able to judge from there how many of these visits they need before you can simply let them both out, usually about a week.  Over the next couple of weeks you will notice that even though they are probably getting along, every once in a while a fight will break out, this is the establishing of the hierarchy and usually consists of a hiss and a swat or two, again, leave them be provided no one is getting hurt.  Once this is established they will likely be inseparable ;)

Good luck with your move and the new kitty relationship :)

Natoma