Advice needed

Hi, I need some advice regarding my two cats. I have had my 6 year old male cat for about 1.5 years, and last month we adopted a 5 month old kitten. We kept them separated for 2 weeks and followed the advice from the thread on this site. At first things seemed to be going well. There was a bit of growling between them, (mostly from my male cat), and a few swipes at each other when they crossed paths, but nothing major. However, for the past few days my kitten has been attacking my older cat. Everytime she sees him she swipes at him and chases him all around the house, (a lot of grwoling and hissing). My male cat is holding his ground, ( he is a lot bigger than her), but I can tell that he is stressed out. I have caught him peeing and pooping throughout the house, (and he's never done that before), and his eyes are watery a lot of the time. He has one spot up high that he loves to curl up and sleep on, but this morning my kitten started fighting with him and she has now taken over the spot. I feel so bad for my older cat. We adopted the kitten because we thought he was lonely, but now my heart is breaking seeing him so upset over her. I don't know what to do. I should mention that my kitten is not spayed yet, (she goes in on Monday), and she was in heat last week. Since the heat cycle ended she has been mean to older cat. Thanks for any advice.

The kitten chasing and provoking your older cat is completely normal for a kitten,knows no better and this is what they do! Has your cat ever gone elsewhere then the litter prior to the kitten coming into the picture? If this is new, I would definitely say that he is unhappy with the kitten suddenly being there..................he is displaying his displeasure by not using the litter. He is not a mean, aggressive cat, he knows this is a kitten, therefore he allows the kitten to chase him and does not physically harm i t, but mentally he is very upset and probably feels that he didn't ask for this

Do you think there is hope that he will eventually just accept her. As much as I want them to be buddies, if it ends up that they just tolerate each other I will be ok with that. I just hate seeing him so sad. He was such a happy cat before and I feel like I really made a mistake getting the kitten.

I think there is hope. My boys have always been more receptive to new kittens than my girls are.I think some of the tension is due to the female's newfound "maturity". It may be better to go ahead and separate them again, until after her spay.

If you haven't already, I would add a couple more litterboxes.

There is more than hope! You can help your guy appreciate the kitten and feel better about the entire experience......... Getting her spayed will help, yet I doubt it is a major issue at this point, it will be very soon! It is very important to get her spayed within the next month! He may not have any hormonal issues but she will be or already is,and hell have no fury ! Talk to him a lot, take advantage of the silly factor with the kitten...........he needs to feel that he is still in charge, loved, the dominant cat........

There's LOTS of hope!! It may take awhile, but they are just working everything out, like who's the boss and what the rules of play are. You can help your older cat by getting some Comfort Zone w/ Feliway plug ins. This will help calm him down. Keep an eye on him and if in a couple of weeks that doesn't seem to be helping, try some Rescue Remedy drops. This combination worked great for my older girl when we adopted a 6 mo kitten (she was 10 at the time).

As the previous poster mentioned, give your older cat LOTS of undivided attention. My older cat LOVES for me to sing to her, so I make a point of singing for her at least once a day, maybe while having a petting session or something else your boy likes. Be patient and celebrate the small positive improvements. One other thing, you may need to add a couple of litter boxes or one with a lid as the kitty may be terrorizing him in the box.

Stephanie