Just saying hello for now. We have two kitties, Sophie (1) and Roxy (4). They are both our sweeties, though Roxy is our "new" kitty, just adopted in October. We have had Sophie since she was 9 weeks old, and lets just say the transition is still in progress. We are lifelong kitty people in our house. My husband and I have had kitties together since 1995, and our "firstborn" Hannah, just passed away a year ago in December (07). We are currently searching for creative ways to help our kitties discover the joys of sisterhood, but we are probably in for a long wait.
Roxy is the dominant kitty now, and Sophie is even intimidated so much she will not go down to use the litter box with unless she has one of us as escort, and Roxy hidden away in another room. This does seem to solve the soiling problems Sophie had a couple of times, but we are hoping this does not have to continue forever, for her sake and for ours. I have read that a total reintroduction may be something we could eventually do, but we are not quite ready to commit to that again yet. We are trying to be more intentional with playtime and protected "alone" time for each cat. We have VERY occasionally seen Sophie creep down to the basement on her own (to the litter box) so we have some hope that she is gaining confidence again, but it is so strange to see our feisty little kitten so spooked and afraid. Both of our kitties are nice people kitties with us, they just don't like each other.
I might say that we did not go looking for a cat older than Sophie when we adopted Roxy, but we were won over by her story of abuse in the past, and charmed that she came to us so easily. We thought she may be permanently timid since the workers at the shelter had worked with her so much just to get her a little out of her shell, but within a couple of days of coming home with us she just blossomed. I do think she has been treated nicely in the past for at least part of her life, because she has never shown any shyness at human contact. Beyond this we do not know much about her history, but physically she is a bit larger than Sophie (I guess Sophie is still growing, but we don't really notice now), and socially more dominant. If this helps anyone psych out our cats a bit, go for it. Sorry for unloading all this at once, but I am still trying to find my way around I guess, and not even sure what questions to ask first.
Roxy is the dominant kitty now, and Sophie is even intimidated so much she will not go down to use the litter box with unless she has one of us as escort, and Roxy hidden away in another room. This does seem to solve the soiling problems Sophie had a couple of times, but we are hoping this does not have to continue forever, for her sake and for ours. I have read that a total reintroduction may be something we could eventually do, but we are not quite ready to commit to that again yet. We are trying to be more intentional with playtime and protected "alone" time for each cat. We have VERY occasionally seen Sophie creep down to the basement on her own (to the litter box) so we have some hope that she is gaining confidence again, but it is so strange to see our feisty little kitten so spooked and afraid. Both of our kitties are nice people kitties with us, they just don't like each other.
I might say that we did not go looking for a cat older than Sophie when we adopted Roxy, but we were won over by her story of abuse in the past, and charmed that she came to us so easily. We thought she may be permanently timid since the workers at the shelter had worked with her so much just to get her a little out of her shell, but within a couple of days of coming home with us she just blossomed. I do think she has been treated nicely in the past for at least part of her life, because she has never shown any shyness at human contact. Beyond this we do not know much about her history, but physically she is a bit larger than Sophie (I guess Sophie is still growing, but we don't really notice now), and socially more dominant. If this helps anyone psych out our cats a bit, go for it. Sorry for unloading all this at once, but I am still trying to find my way around I guess, and not even sure what questions to ask first.