Finding a friend for a possibly feral cat

Hi everyone,

I have had my cat for about 3 years now. She's a tortoise shell who was originally found by a dumpster as a kitten and taken in. For the most part, she's social with humans, however she's always very cautious (this is why I say possibly feral) and is definitely the one who dictates when we get to pet her.

Anyhow, to the point of the post. During the day she's by herself for a number of hours. So my fiancee and I are interested in exploring the idea of taking in a playmate for her. Our ideal scenario is to adopt a cat. We're hoping that a playmate will get her a bit more active, fufilled, and potentially make her a bit more social. We do not know how she will react to other cats. I suppose this is one of the first things we need to figure out.

Does this sound feasible? Does anyone out there have advice or a similar experience? Please share any info you think would be useful for us to take into consideration.

A lot of other people are going to have a lot more experience than me on this, and they might need a bit more detail on your cats personality. BUT, having said that, I do find having more than one cat is really useful if you are worried about not being around all the time. We have three (former) feral kittens and it is great as they keep each other company while we are out - we never worry about them getting too bored because inevitably they end up chasing each other around.

Like I said, others will be able to advise better, but just wanted to say IN THEORY it could be a very good idea for your piece of mind and for the overall happiness and health of your cat. And, if you do decide adopting another cat is for the best, then there is a load of information on this site about introductions!

Good luck!

you never know how cats will react, you just have to try to find a good cat and hope for the best. we have a former feral who sounds similar, she's come a long way but is still very shy with us. we have several other cats though, and for the most part she LOVES them! she's like a whole other cat when she's playing with them, she's crazy-active, diving onto the cat tree and scampering after one or more of them.

so it's possible your cat might actually really benefit from a pal. though i now have known a couple of cats who truly do seem better off alone, i still maintain nearly all cats see an improvement in their quality of life when they get a companion.