I was hoping for some advice...
We have a year old neutered female cat, Mini (we've had her since 8 weeks old) and 2 months ago introduced a non-neutered female kitten to the house, Tink - in the hope she'd be company for Mini. We followed all the advice given by vets and online 'experts' on how to introduce them and have taken it slowly - they are still separated at night and during the day whilst we are at work (the older cat having access to the cat flap at all times). We are concerned that Mini is still, more often than not, very hostile towards Tink - growling and hissing, with the occasional attack. Mini will occasionally clean Tink and there are daily play sessions but these generally descend into Mini getting grumpy and hissing, sometimes an attack. Today they spent 3-4 hours asleep on our bed less than 30cm apart but when they got up, Mini was back to her grumpy ways again. Mini sometimes just ignores Tink but for the most part is generally upset by her presence. She has always been quite feisty but was very affectionate and loving towards us. Now she is offhand/sometimes aggressive towards us when the kitten is around, only letting us pet her when the kitten is shut away. People keep saying 'give it time' but we are concerned that she is unhappy and that Tink (who so far seems unaffected) may become timid/unhappy. We are due to have Tink neutered within the next couple of weeks. We do not want to re-home Tink and will do what we can to avoid that happening but is it cruel to leave it another 2 months when she has become accustomed to going outside here and has bonded with us even more? Please help! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
We have a year old neutered female cat, Mini (we've had her since 8 weeks old) and 2 months ago introduced a non-neutered female kitten to the house, Tink - in the hope she'd be company for Mini. We followed all the advice given by vets and online 'experts' on how to introduce them and have taken it slowly - they are still separated at night and during the day whilst we are at work (the older cat having access to the cat flap at all times). We are concerned that Mini is still, more often than not, very hostile towards Tink - growling and hissing, with the occasional attack. Mini will occasionally clean Tink and there are daily play sessions but these generally descend into Mini getting grumpy and hissing, sometimes an attack. Today they spent 3-4 hours asleep on our bed less than 30cm apart but when they got up, Mini was back to her grumpy ways again. Mini sometimes just ignores Tink but for the most part is generally upset by her presence. She has always been quite feisty but was very affectionate and loving towards us. Now she is offhand/sometimes aggressive towards us when the kitten is around, only letting us pet her when the kitten is shut away. People keep saying 'give it time' but we are concerned that she is unhappy and that Tink (who so far seems unaffected) may become timid/unhappy. We are due to have Tink neutered within the next couple of weeks. We do not want to re-home Tink and will do what we can to avoid that happening but is it cruel to leave it another 2 months when she has become accustomed to going outside here and has bonded with us even more? Please help! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
