Update on 6 Cat Intro

stacy_s

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Hey everyone, just wanted to update anyone that would like to know about how the intro of 6 cats to my 9 cats and 2 dogs went. The cats seemed in very good spirits immediately after bringing them to their room, happy to see me, ate and played a lot. Two of the cats were let out to mingle with my "kids" last Tuesday am. It went wonderfully so I left the door open so the others could come out at their leisure and mine could go to visit. 3 of the cats have been upstairs permanently now, 2 of them once in a while and 1, Dusty has only been up briefly. I thought everything was going great until today. The smallest cat of my friends, Noelle, who was just spayed by AC is extremely dominant. She bullies all my friends cats and has now started to bully mine. Mainly, I have a mom and daughter cat who get into spats once in a while but never anything violent where it would worry me, just a couple smacks and they are done. Well, today they got into one and Noelle immediately attacked both of them. This sent my mom cat to start to attack 2 of my other cats (that she never attacks) and it was pretty scary. I am hoping that since Noelle was just spayed she may calm down a bit, anyone think so? Also, the dominant male of my friends, Dusty, attacked my dominant male, Dooter, today when he went downstairs. Dooter has been down there a lot and didn't get attacked until today. Dusty is a huge cat but my friend had him declawed (the only one that is declawed) so it makes me less worried about Dooter getting hurt but it's still frightening. Another thing is that I am worried about how my small dog Peanut is going to deal with Dusty when he finally ventures up here for more then a few minutes. Dusty has seen Peanut from afar and I think that he thinks he is also a cat, making me concerned that he may attack him and get hurt by Peanut. Yesterday I was so happy because I felt that I was going to be able to keep all of them but now today things got me really stressed out and think maybe rehoming Noelle and Dusty may have to happen. I am going to give it more time but I can't risk my cats getting hurt/feeling not at home anymore and her cats getting hurt as well. I am hoping that Noelle's hormones will simmer and she will calm down and maybe Dusty just needs more time to get used to this. On a brighter note, I got a call from my friends dad, he lives in France and just found out about his daughter's death a couple days ago because we had to do some detective work to find his phone number. When he found out that my hubby drove 13 hours straight through and back to get the cats he was overwhelmed with joy, which meant so much to me. He knew how much they meant to my friend and also had heard about me in the past but said he never would have thought anyone would do that for his daughter and her cats. He couldn't thank us enough, it took everything I had to hold back the tears. Well if anyone has anymore ideas on what I should do about the Noelle and Dusty situations I would really appreciate it! Thanks again to everyone who helped me, this intro went so much better then I ever thought it would!
 

larke

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If you accept that you're going to keep all the cats, then don't worry about N.& D., because the cats will work out their own pecking order in time, even if you don't like it - e.g. your 'own' cats may end up at very different rungs in the ladder, and things may change periodically too, but if you're going to be rehoming some cats, then I would keep them separate (of course how can you know which ones will get a home..?) if possible, but otherwise just relax, though keep an eye out for serious scratches, etc.
 

zoethor2

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Sounds to me like they've all accepted that they're stuck together, and now they're trying to figure out who gets to be "better" than who.


I wouldn't worry unless they get really violent about it. It's natural for them to figure out their ranking by tussling. I find a spray bottle does wonders to split them up, though, to prevent them from getting too serious.
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by Larke

If you accept that you're going to keep all the cats, then don't worry about N.& D., because the cats will work out their own pecking order in time, even if you don't like it - e.g. your 'own' cats may end up at very different rungs in the ladder, and things may change periodically too, but if you're going to be rehoming some cats, then I would keep them separate (of course how can you know which ones will get a home..?) if possible, but otherwise just relax, though keep an eye out for serious scratches, etc.


Originally Posted by Zoethor2

Sounds to me like they've all accepted that they're stuck together, and now they're trying to figure out who gets to be "better" than who.


I wouldn't worry unless they get really violent about it. It's natural for them to figure out their ranking by tussling.
when i got Cable, she was a kitten - Mouse was alpha cat of my pair [Pixel & Mouse]. after Mouse died, i just assumed that Pixel would take over as alpha - especially since Cable was only about 4-5 months old... but Cable is the queen of the house. even after 3 more additions, she's still queen... altho somedays i think Firefox wants to take it from her!
sounds to me like things are going quite well!
 

momofmany

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I'm glad you've given us an update and it sounds very hopeful!

If you haven't gone thru all the tips in the behavior sticky about introducing new cats to old, now is the time to do so. I particularly like the idea about using vanilla extract on them to make them all smell alike. I'm not sure that I would give up on them yet as it hasn't been that long of a time yet, and many people need to separate new cats for weeks or longer to get any good results. You've done remarkeably well in a short period of time.
 
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