Expert: Ali - 1/7/2009

Question
i currently have a 18month old British blue male cat Louie who lives indoors, his a very loving playful cat full of energy and very in your face full of personality. A few weeks ago i saw a cat get hit by a car took it to RSPCA where it had its leg removed and no owners came forward, so i took him on. his been in the flat 2 weeks now and for the first week kept them apart just getting use to eachothers smells, and now when they see each other the new one just hides and growls and will not come back out attacking me and Louie. i live in a small flat so there isn't no room without a hiding place, i try to feed them together but Louie is way too interested in the poor new one its not a distraction. there is no distracting Louie away from the new one he just chases him scaring the life out of him leaving the new one shaking in fright hiding. how can i get him use to Louie? plus I'm worried as his missing a leg and Louie can play rough. did i do the wrong thing bringing him in to a house with such a big personality cat.

Answer
Lucy,

I receive a number of questions pertaining to new cat/kitten introductions and I have answered countless questions on the subject. I will give you the short version to help give you an idea about what's going on and how it can be fixed, if you would like more details you can certainly check out my previous answers on this subject. First of all, cats are fairly territorial and don't tend to like change very much which is why you are seeing the reaction to your new kitty that you describe. It's generally best to isolate a cat that's new to your household for about 2-3 weeks. I have found that the best way to do this is to place the new kitty behind a closed door and providing him with all of the usual kitty amenities (for example: food, water, toys, a bed, a litter box, etc).

There are two main reasons that I recommend this way of introducing the cats to each other and minimize the risk of injury or trauma to people in the household and the cats. First of all, in a case like this you don't have any medical history on this fellow, keeping him quarantined for 2-3 weeks will give any viral or bacterial infections a chance to show themselves without taking the risk that your kitty may become ill. Secondly the isolation period allows both cats the chance to get used to the other cat's presence which means that fights are less likely to occur, this reduces the likelihood that anyone will be injured. Feeding the cats on either side of the closed door will allow them to associate each other's scents, meows and presence with something positive- food. From your description I think it's only reasonable for the new kitty to be fearful and uncomfortable, he's had a fairly rough go of it over the last while. You could try out a homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences designed to calm and reassure. Since this remedy is preserved in a solution of grape alcohol it tends not to be popular with pets when administered orally. I generally administer Rescue Remedy by adding 5-7 drops to fresh water in each cat's dish every morning. You should start to notice calmer and happier cats fairly quickly.

Once your new feline friend has been isolated for 2-3 weeks and still seems healthy (eating, drinking, urinating, defecating, etc) you can begin to re-introduce the two cats face to face. I normally do this at meal time when the cats are hungry and less focused on defending their territory. You could also play with the cats using an interactive toy such as a kitty tease or even an old shoelace, if you use string, ribbon, shoelaces or any similar toy with your cats it's very important to keep them away from the cats when you aren't there to supervise because these types of toys can be swallowed and cause serious damage within a cat's digestive system. In some cases the cats will be able to pass string and other similar items, but more often the cat requires surgery to remove the offending item and stop it from causing damage within the digestive system or causing bowels to twist over each other causing the tissue to die.

There's nothing wrong with adding a new kitty to the household so long as it's done properly and both cats are able to adjust to each other's presence. It's also important to know that Louie and your new kitty should be sterilized because intact male cats can cause serious injury to each other and people if they fight. If the cats do fight I would recommend that you not try and get between them because they can attack their humans as a result of being anxious and agitated. I would recommend that you keep a glass of water or broom handy for the first while, especially if these guys aren't neutered. If things get out of hand you can toss a glass of water on them which should help to dampen their enthusiasm in terms of fighting. Failing that you can use a broom to gently and gradually guide one of the cats into a room by himself to cool off. I think that once the cats get comfortable with each other they will become quite friendly provided that they are neutered of course, if they aren't sterilized it's quite natural to see fighting and posturing because they feel instinctively as though they must prove who is most dominant. As for the fact that your kitty has recently lost a limb he will adapt fairly quickly and after awhile he won't even notice the loss.