blended cat family progress...

Question
Hi Rosie,

I emailed you a couple of months ago about how to help bring my cat into my boyfriend's household with his two cats.

Just a refresher, in case you  dont recall:

My cat, Zoe, is a spayed, 6 year old female who has never lived with other cats since she was 3 months old.

His cats are bth male, neutered, and one is 7 years and one is 2 years old.

We took your advice, and almost a month ago moved Zoe over to our new place. Since then, she has been in "her" room, which was pre-supplied with my former bedroom furniture and clothes (what she was accustomed to living in).

She seemed to adjust much better than last time. She doesnt (always) panic when either of us enters the room, and will almost immediately jump on the bed to cuddle with either of us when we come in to visit.

For the first two weeks or so she would growl at the closed door when either of the cats walked outside her room. She doesnt seem to do that often anymore, and several times we have found her sitting at the doorframe when we enter (while one of the boys was on the opposite side of the door).

However, she seems bored and lonely (we play with her when we can, but its hard to spend a lot of time in there with our work schedules) - and not too excited about entering the rest of the house. She did pop out for about 30 seconds last week (Id left the door open briefly), but shot back in when she saw one of the boys.

The male cats dont seem to want to fight at all - they are just curious.

What do you suggest as our best next course of action. Do we start to introduce them? Do we leave the door open and let her wander out (and them in)? Do we leave her in there indefinately?

Thanks again for your previous reassurance. I still have two friends who'd love to adopt Zoe, but if at all possible I would like to be able to keep her. She's my first baby! :)

thanks for your help and advice,

Heather (and Cord, for Zoe, Azreal and Loki)

Answer
Hello again Heather (and Cord, for Zoe, Azreal and Loki)!

I'm happy to hear that she's adjusted so well to the household and being in her space like that!  How wonderful!

To answer your question, if she seems interested, you can try opening the door for about a half hour to an hour (completely supervised) and seeing how every cat reacts to one another, and how things go.  You mentioned that she bolts, which is okay...it's a natural response for a shy kitty.  Don't worry if she decides to hide under the bed...the other kitties will be fine coming in to sniff her things (in fact, it's quite healthy for all involved, as long as she doesn't feel threatened).  If you hear a little growling from her from her hidey spot, don't worry...again, it's perfectly natural.  If she starts really sounding stressed, that's when you should shoo the boys out and shut the door for her to have her own space again.  No need to stress out anyone involved in all this.  :o)

If you experience her being stressed, and the scenerio of having to shut the door because of it, give it a day in between trying it again.

I would say try this, depending on how things are going, about fifteen minutes more each time, until you see they are more comfortable around each other.  With Zoe being so shy, you probably won't experience them being buddy-buddy, or anything, but as long as none of them are attacking, feeling threatened, scared, etc. you should be fine.

I would do this for maybe a month, given her shyness, and always supervised, and when you see all parties involved being quite comfortable for about six or seven times in a row (and maybe even playing under the door, or some such...which it sounds like you're experiencing the beginnings of already...yay!), you might be able to go somewhere in the house where you can watch, but they might not necessarily know you're there, so you can see if they're ready for unsupervised time around each other.  

When you're doing the supervised visits, be sure to be about a yard away, reassuring all kitties verbally, but trying at the same time to let them react naturally to the situation.  When they first confront one another, you might see some paw batting, maybe a bit of hissing, but don't worry...don't panic.  It's perfectly natural as well, and just a phase.

All in all, stay calm, be very reassuring to all kitties, and be ready for action, but only if you see they're actually going to fight, or some such.  Otherwise, let them adjust on their own.

Things sound like they're going smoothly already, which is WONDERFUL!!  I don't think you'll have much problem taking the next step here.  

Keep me updated, ok?

Hugs and love to everyone!!  :oD

Rosie*