Expert: Tina - 6/3/2009

Question
Hello, I go to college in south carolina and have had a cat down there to keep
me company since I normally live in NJ. I left my cat with my incompetant
room mate for the summer who apparently has not been taking care of him
properly and leaving him outside for days at a time. I am going to fly down
and bring him home next week however i have two cats already, 9 and10
years old. My father loves my cats very very much and wont let me bring my
college cat home because he fears our other cats will run away. Also one of
my old cats is my cat as well as the new cat. I'm scared they will fight more
because they will sense that they are both mine What can I do when i bring
the new cat home to assure they do not run away and also what can i tell my
dad to convince him to let me bring the cat home? Reguardless what he says
my new cat is coming back to nj for the summer, seeing as that my room
mate sucks..

Answer
Hi Jackie,

I am sorry to hear your room mate was neglecting your cat - but glad he has survived. I recommend keeping your cats all indoors for the introduction period (actually I recommend keeping cats indoors at all times, but they may run away from one another outside) and follow the steps in this article I wrote:

http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/introducing_cats.html

Make sure your SC cat a few days in a quiet room by herself to settle in after the stressful experience and trip.

Take time and don't rush them cats take time to adapt to change. Don't expect the worst, most cats will get along if introduced gradually.

if you do consider keeping your cats indoors you might want to take a look at these ideas for ways to let them enjoy fresh air and sun:

http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/enclosures.html

Good luck!