new cat scared of previous cat in house

I'm sure this question has been asked before.

But...

I recently took in a stray kitten, perhaps 8-12 months old. He is semi-feral I guess. It took him a long time to warm up to us, like a few months, before we could pick him up and bring him in the house. We got him neutered. He really adjusted well to my greyhound, as they had 'met' and sniffed on a daily basis when I took him out to do his business. The cat, Midnight, always rubbed up against the greyhound, Dash, before he would ever come near us.

We have another cat, Weasley, perhaps 4 yrs old, we found abandoned on the parkway one night. He was skinny but very loving and friendly. He is neutered also. All our pets are. He also loves the greyhound. But Weasley is fearless, and curious like a typical cat.

We did everything we were supposed to when we brought Midnight in, to better the chances of the two cats getting along. We kept midnight in Dash's room (without Dash in it of course), with his own food and litter box. We let both cats roam free in the house, on their own, to get the scent of the other cat. We put one cat in a safe location that the other can sniff and all that. This went on for a month. Midnight, is so skiddish about everything, except the dog, that he jumps at any sudden movement or sound. He'll lay and cuddle with us, but will run away if we try to pick him up off the ground. we have to let him come to us. If we are sitting there and he is cuddling and we reach down to pet him, he jumps at first. He plays, and we play with him, but still is skiddish about everything.

Now whenever we let the two cats together, at first there was a fight. Weasley isnt looking to fight, he wants to play, but is so brutish and gung-ho it usually ends up in a chase. Every time weasley comes near midnight, midnight hisses and growls. we are trying the feeding together thing, but not sure if we are doing it right. There are times when weasley ignores midnight, but then there are times he just wants to torment him.

I dont expect them to be best friends. I just want midnight to feel safe and secure that no one will harm him in the home. I want him to be less afraid of everything. What should I do?

You are doing it right. I've had the same issues with some of mine, I found that eventually they do learn to tolerate each other. Every now and again there is a little hissing and a little growling but it takes time and patience. Good luck.

I am going through the exact same thing your going through. I have a 3 year old cat, Malia and I just brought in a 4 1/2 month old kitten, Nala about 2 weeks ago. Malia sometimes ignores her but she sometimes wants to play and torment Nala and Nala almost always growls and hisses when Malia chases her and paws at her. It was like that for a couple days and I have noticed that Nala is slowly starting to want to play with Malia. I see Nala trying to chase Malia every now and then but when Malia tries to chase her back then Nala will hiss and growl and drop to the floor scared. Malia will usually back off when Nala growls, but there are times when she will sit at stare at the poor kitty and keep trying to paw at her but I just let them be. Someone has told me that soon Nala will learn to defend herself and start opening up.

They are eating next to eachother now and I have caught Nala stealing some food from Malia's plate and Malia just backed off and let her eat lol. But at first, I let them eat in the same area but far away and every day I just put their bowls closer and closer together and now they eat RIGHT next to eachother. But Nala is still terrified when Malia chases her.

Midnight will start to get used to everything, I think weasley is just "testing" midnight. Thats what everyone has told me and its just normal cat behavior.

Goodluck with everything!

Thats awesome that you are taking care of this kitty. You will have such fun watching him make himself at home!

I agree that it is just gonna take some time. Sounds like the are okay just trying to work out the boundries. Just make sure they have their own spaces to sleep and look out the windows. So there are no fights over the "best" spots.

Do you have enough litter boxes? Mine have no probelm sharing but most kitties like to have a box for themselves and one extra for "communal" sharing.

Sounds like you are doing really well not forcing them to interact or "like" each other. Once the new kitty knows that he can relax and just be himself he will. It takes a while. But it is so awesome watching them change and open up.