Greetings. Over the past year, my wife and I ended up catless for the first time in 30 years when our three year old met his demise out hunting one night and we had to finally put our 18 year old to sleep (chronic kidney failure reached the point where the cat was suffering).
So, three weeks ago, I went to the local shelter and picked out the most incredible little 11 week old boy kitty, Bubba Jr. Absolute ball of fire, into everything, will play for hours and then fall asleep on your belly purring away. Puts up with being carried around, the whole nine yards.
Having taken the hunting loss of your last little guy hard, I made the decision that Bubba Jr would be an indoor kitty. As I played with him for the first two weeks, I realized that he needed more rough housing as in an indoor kitty than I could give him, so I headed back to the shelter where I proceeded to get conned by an adorable little 14 week old tan tabby girl named Scaredy Cat. Scaredy Cat was born outside in somebody's yard to an outdoor feral mom, but had been acclimatizing in foster care. She was shy, but lay in my lap purring away for fifteen minutes at the shelter. Seemed like a good lap-kitty counter-point to Bubba Jr's rambuncitiousness.
So, I brought Scaredy Cat home opened the carrier in a bedroom and watched as the cat bolted under the bed! By day 2, the cat had emerged to eat food and use the box in her bedroom (when nobody was around), but otherwise was still lodged solidly under the bed. Neither my wife nor I had laid eyes on our new kitty.
By night 2, I could get the cat to emerge from under the bed to play with a kitty fishing pole toy, but no petting (I wasn't going to freak the cat out with a scruff capture).
Day 3, it was roaming the bedroom exploring. I lured it close enough to me lying on the floor with the play toy to give it a pet, which it seemed to enjoy with a loud purr before heading back into hiding.
By night 3, Bubba and Scaredy Cat knew each other was there on the other side of a closed door. They'd caught some glimpses, heard some meows. So, I propped the door open about an inch and Scaredy Cat ran over to check it out. They rubbed noses through the opening and then started playing bat the reaching paw with each other. Things seemed to be OK and, frankly, keeping Scaredy Cat locked up in a bedroom had about run its course. So, I opened the door and watched an amazing display of kitty olympics over the next 24 hours following and hour or so of Scaredy hiding behind the toilet while Bubba tried to "play". One lap around the house, Bubba would be chasing, tackling Scaredy Cat and rolling around. The next lap a few minutes later, Scaredy Cat was chasing Bubba Jr. It was mostly play fighting, with the occasional escalation to a brief hiss while locked together. At least Scaredy Cat was out from under the bed. I even caught them asleep next to each other under Scaredy Cat's bed.
Now, a week after bringing Scaredy Cat home, we've seen:
a) a wider range of play between the two cats, even "sharing" a ball -- in addition to kitty olympics.
b) Scaredy Cat's litter box is now in the hall outside her bedroom.
c) Scaredy roams the house and comes running when I call her, although she will still bolt back to her safe room at sudden movements.
d) Scaredy has walked up to me lying on the floor, rubbed up against me, and let me pet her. She also walks up and rubs against my legs. Still no picking up and I'm not forcing the issue.
e) I've gotten the two cats to eat at the same time from separate bowls at opposite ends of the kitchen. It's hard to make more progress towards eating together because I can't pick up Scaredy to put her down anywhere. Everything has to be done through enticement! And the enticements for one kitty inevitably brings the other! For example, to train her to use the sisal scratching post, I can't pick her up and carry her over as I normally would because she freaks out, so I have to lure her to the post with a toy (and do it when Bubba is not around to play with the toy first because he's already learned the scratching post games).
All in all, a fun positive experience with two new kitties with completely different personalities.
So, three weeks ago, I went to the local shelter and picked out the most incredible little 11 week old boy kitty, Bubba Jr. Absolute ball of fire, into everything, will play for hours and then fall asleep on your belly purring away. Puts up with being carried around, the whole nine yards.
Having taken the hunting loss of your last little guy hard, I made the decision that Bubba Jr would be an indoor kitty. As I played with him for the first two weeks, I realized that he needed more rough housing as in an indoor kitty than I could give him, so I headed back to the shelter where I proceeded to get conned by an adorable little 14 week old tan tabby girl named Scaredy Cat. Scaredy Cat was born outside in somebody's yard to an outdoor feral mom, but had been acclimatizing in foster care. She was shy, but lay in my lap purring away for fifteen minutes at the shelter. Seemed like a good lap-kitty counter-point to Bubba Jr's rambuncitiousness.
So, I brought Scaredy Cat home opened the carrier in a bedroom and watched as the cat bolted under the bed! By day 2, the cat had emerged to eat food and use the box in her bedroom (when nobody was around), but otherwise was still lodged solidly under the bed. Neither my wife nor I had laid eyes on our new kitty.
By night 2, I could get the cat to emerge from under the bed to play with a kitty fishing pole toy, but no petting (I wasn't going to freak the cat out with a scruff capture).
Day 3, it was roaming the bedroom exploring. I lured it close enough to me lying on the floor with the play toy to give it a pet, which it seemed to enjoy with a loud purr before heading back into hiding.
By night 3, Bubba and Scaredy Cat knew each other was there on the other side of a closed door. They'd caught some glimpses, heard some meows. So, I propped the door open about an inch and Scaredy Cat ran over to check it out. They rubbed noses through the opening and then started playing bat the reaching paw with each other. Things seemed to be OK and, frankly, keeping Scaredy Cat locked up in a bedroom had about run its course. So, I opened the door and watched an amazing display of kitty olympics over the next 24 hours following and hour or so of Scaredy hiding behind the toilet while Bubba tried to "play". One lap around the house, Bubba would be chasing, tackling Scaredy Cat and rolling around. The next lap a few minutes later, Scaredy Cat was chasing Bubba Jr. It was mostly play fighting, with the occasional escalation to a brief hiss while locked together. At least Scaredy Cat was out from under the bed. I even caught them asleep next to each other under Scaredy Cat's bed.
Now, a week after bringing Scaredy Cat home, we've seen:
a) a wider range of play between the two cats, even "sharing" a ball -- in addition to kitty olympics.
b) Scaredy Cat's litter box is now in the hall outside her bedroom.
c) Scaredy roams the house and comes running when I call her, although she will still bolt back to her safe room at sudden movements.
d) Scaredy has walked up to me lying on the floor, rubbed up against me, and let me pet her. She also walks up and rubs against my legs. Still no picking up and I'm not forcing the issue.
e) I've gotten the two cats to eat at the same time from separate bowls at opposite ends of the kitchen. It's hard to make more progress towards eating together because I can't pick up Scaredy to put her down anywhere. Everything has to be done through enticement! And the enticements for one kitty inevitably brings the other! For example, to train her to use the sisal scratching post, I can't pick her up and carry her over as I normally would because she freaks out, so I have to lure her to the post with a toy (and do it when Bubba is not around to play with the toy first because he's already learned the scratching post games).
All in all, a fun positive experience with two new kitties with completely different personalities.
