considering taking in a stray....

we have a beautiful 3 year old female ragdoll . She was declawed and fixed when we found her last thanksgiving. She has adjusted well and is very loving. Now we have a large orange tabby showing up at our door. I have not checked him out enuf to see if he is declawed, looks like he is fixed. Question is..If we were to take him in(after vet check up/shots) and he has his claws and she does not, are we going to have WW3, i dont want our ragdoll to get banged up, she is very docile and pretty. Or is it something that shouldnt be a concern.....??? Any help on this matter would be apprecitated.

Thanks

it's too soon to tell how they'll get along, but most cats will be able to live with one another, if introduced slowly over time. claws might help her fend off an attack, but she may not need them. i've found that males and females get along more of the time than, say, two females. assuming he tests neg for all the cat diseases, just keep them in separate rooms at first, then switch rooms so they get used to each others' scent. then have supervised visits for short periods of time. consider getting a feliway plugin, it will reduce mutual anxiety.

when i've taken in strays before, most of the time they're so thankful to have a home they play nice with the resident cats good luck!

what is a feliway plugin?

found it on google, thanks for the info

I have 2 cats, 1 de-clawed (by previous owner) and 1 not de-clawed. It has never been an issue and they do fight. The de-clawed cat is very timid and the other is very aggressive, but neither has been physically hurt.

When introducing any cat to a new cat though, it will take time. Do a google search for "cat introductions" (or search the forum) and you'll find lots of good advice. You will want to keep them separate for at least a week, and definitely until the vet checks out the new cat.

Thanks for all the info, we took her in. It was very cold and windy here in las vegas, she was shivering for a while even when we took her inside .She went to the vet, got all her shots and is healthy from what they say, she was pretty dehydrated though, we had her groomed which they had to shave her down, since her hair was so bad, and the vet gave her a IV for the dehydration,and she is thin, only about 7.5lbs and is about 7 years old, but she seems better now. She is drinking and eating which she wasnt before and has used the box, which is a good sign. She is a sweetheart, very loving. Right now, we are keeping her seperate from the other, so she can get better and they can get used to eachother. She is meowing at me now(even though her voice is horse from crying so much). It was a hard decision to take her in, but we are glad we did. Welcome Sophia!!!!!

If your first cat is docile, there probably will not be any fightings: the superior cat sees the other is docile and surrending at once and accepting his superiority, and thus there is no need to overdo the lesson.
She will probably get some lesson or two yes, but not too much. No big problem.

Feliway is a good advice.

However. What IS an issue here, is the declawing. Please, dont do this if you havent declawed the new one yet.

If the claws is an big issue for you, clipping claws regurarly and scratching trees not enough, there are the clip-on claws. I dont remember their proper name at this moment, but they say they works well. No scratching AND no hurt cat. They arent even costly.

Good luck with your new little friend!

ya i dont think we are going to declaw her, our other one was already declawed when we got her

Yaaaayyy!!! Sophia is one lucky girl!!

Very pleased for you and Sophia! Stories like this make me want to cry out of happiness.

I'm so glad you took her in!

Keeping her separate for a couple of weeks is a GREAT idea. It will really help your intro go much better.

In the meantime, you can help them get used to each other and associate good things with each other.

Take a couple of rags or washcloths (preferable washed without fabric softener or something). Rub Sophia all over with two and rub your little ragdoll over with two. Take one that smells like Sophia and put it under your ragdoll's food dish. Also, twice a day at very regular times put treats down for your ragdoll on the other towel that smells like Sophia. If you can make one of those after a play session, that's even better.

Then do the same for Sophia. Put a rag scented like your ragdoll under Sophia's food dish. And at regular times if possible, put treats down for Sophia on the other rag scented like your ragdoll.

This scent-swapping will really help the two before they actually meet. I really would give it a couple of weeks. And then I'd take Sophia out of her room, and someone go into "Sophia's" room with the ragdoll. Let her investigate and smell everything. Maybe have a play session in there with her (when she's done sniffing everything).

I wouldn't let Sophia loose - maybe hang in the bedroom with her while ragdoll investigates her room. If Sophia wants to investigate the room, that's fine.

But after 15 mintues or an hour or however long ragdoll wants, then let ragdoll back out and put Sophia back in.

Also, after that, you can open the door a crack and let them smell each other. If there's no hissing, maybe you're ready for some supervised time together the next day: let radgoll into Sophia's room for 10 -15 minutes and see how it goes.

Cats are territorial, and in our experience, females do not handle intros to newbies as well as males do. So make sure you continue to shower your ragdoll with lots of love and attention - extra play time. Do lots of things to reassure her that she's still your number one baby.

But help her think that having Sophia around is going to be a total party. When they have their first supervised visit, if they're not hissing or bugging out on each other, maybe give each of them a new toy.

You can also get catnip toys - give one to Sophia and give one to your ragdoll. After they've slobbered and drooled all over them, pick them up, and a week later, give your ragdoll the one Sophia drooled all over, and give Sophia the one that your ragdoll drooled all over (cats become insensitive to catnip if it's left out).

The main thing is to not punish either of them for "bad" behavior towards each other. Cats are very territory-oriented, and your ragdoll being unhappy about having an intruder in hers - and one that it looks like is going to be staying - is natural. So the most important thing is to give them time, help them associate each other with good things, and through heaps of love and attention, help them both understand that sharing the space doesn't mean giving anything up.

for saving a kitty in need!

Laurie

OH! If you only have one litter box out for your ragdoll, you may want to consider putting out another one before you let Sophia out and about. Once you open that door, the room Sophia's been in will be her "safe" space, and you'll need to leave that litter box in there at least for a few weeks (or more). But it's also a good idea to have a second litter box out in the general house to avoid any accidents until you're sure things are going to be OK. (We have 8 litter boxes for 6 cats, because several of our kitties love "attacking" kitties when they head to a litter box - so we make sure they have lots of options. )

Laurie