A new arrival. HELP!!!!

Until 13th May 2003 I owned 2 cats, a 7 year old castrated male and an 8 month old spayed female. On May 13th I acquired another older castrated male. He is very friendly and not at all aggressive. He just wants to be friends with my 2 original cats. They wont have any of it.There have been no fights,just lots of hissing and growling.Can anyone suggest anything I can do to help the three of them get along together? The new arrival does not go out yet,(he came from a couple a few doors away and we are worried he will keep going back to them),but the original 2 cats spend a lot of time outside,but sleeping indoors at night.

I'm sorry I don't know what to suggest but WELCOME!!!

I'm going to move this to our behaviour forum for you where you will get some good advice.
Welcome to TCS also!

The three cats seem to be getting on a lot better today.Woolley,(pictured below),sat opposite Harry and made no attempt to hiss,growl or run away,I hope it is the start of things to come.I decided to weigh all the cats and foud that Harry weighs 12lbs and is very fat,Woolley weighs 10lbs and is very lean and baby Doris weighs 5lbs.Bless them all!!

Thanks for sharing Woolley's pix and keeping us abreast of the ongoings. :

With regards to Woolley's weight, i was wondering if encouraging him to exercise through playing interactive toys helps? i have mini play sessions for my two kitties throughout the day. This way, they would get some exercise.

Doris sounds like a tiny sweety pie.

Take care and happy weekend!

Smiles and Cheers!

Its actually Harry who is fat.He doesn't go out yet, and so gets no natural exercise.In a couple of weeks time he will be out and about.Woolley is a very large lean cat,standing about 15inches at the shoulder.I will start playing games with Harry as it will help him keep healthy.Below is Doris.

What a striking picture of Doris - beautiful!

Thankyou very much.I'm glad you liked it.The piece of wood next to her is a piece of 4"x4" wood,it shows how small she is.

I think both photo's show how adorable and precious your cats are. I especially enjoyed the picture of Doris, though. What a beauty! Woolley looks to have the purrrrfect name with all that fur. I'm happy things are turning out well.

Woolley is really called Woolwich because I got him at the same time as I bought a house through the Woolwich Building Society.His name has since been shortened to Woolley and my partner and daughters insist on calling him Woolbert,but he is Woolley to me.

No matter what you call him, he is so precious. You should enter that one of Doris in a cat photo contest. I really think it's great! Shows lots of spirit or something. What are their personalities like?

Glad you liked the photos.We have only had Harry for about 5 days.He has got a great personality.He loves to be made a fuss of,but he gets very over excited and claws and bites.Occasionally he draws blood,but its all done in play.We have no idea of his age.He just wants to get in a warm lap and sleep.The trouble is that he weighs so much that my legs go dead after a short while.His previous owner fed him constantly hence the weight problem.Woolley is fantastic.He never does anything wrong.He is so laid back,anyone can do anything with him and he just purrs loudly all the time.My children have asked me to stop him going in their bedroom at night because he purrs at them when they are asleep and it is so loud it wakes them up!He will intercept crisps if you are not quick enough eating them,but he is just great.He is 8 years old now.Doris is a funny one.She is very small and affectionate.She does a good impression of a meer cat.When we approach her,she stands on her back legs to have her head stroked.She loves to bounce towards us in the garden and hide at the bottom of the stairs so that when we walk past her,she can pounce on us!She is a bit upset at the moment because of Harry turning up.She spends at lot of time hissing and growling at him,but doesn't attack him.She is a very funny little girl.She is just 8 months old.

At last I have a picture of 12lb Harry AKA Lump.

Believe it or not, since your new cat has been in your house only a couple of days and all you have is hissing and growling, I would say that things are going very well! As long as there are no attacks, I would keep things just the way they are.

To speed up their getting along, you might try Hissy's favorite trick and put a dab of vanilla (or your cologne) on all three cats. That way they all smell the same. Since cats are very scent driven, making the new cat smell the same as the other cats will likely help. Please use only a small amount of the scent because you don't want to overwhelm them. Do not spray the cats, instead put the vanilla or cologne on your hands and then pet the cats to spread the scent.

Also, try giving treats to each cat whenever they are in the presence of the new cat and play with the old cats' favorite toys whenever they are with the new cat. This way they will associate good things (treats, games) with the new cat.

Good luck!

I merged your two threads together so it won't be so confusing. We like to keep discussions about the same thing all in one thread so that readers won't get lost. I hope you don't mind.

My gosh, Harry is a big boy. But very handsome at that. I'm sure once he starts playing and romping with your other cats and yourself he'll drop some of the weight. Are you feeding him a "lite" diet at all? Or maybe ask your vet for some suggestions as well.

You have quite a nice looking feline family!

Harry actually has very small feet and a tiny tail,but when he sits down his belly spreads across the floor.He isn't eating much at the moment because hes still put out at moving in with me,but he is able to eat 24 7,as do the other 2. The other 2 are not at all over weight,infact I took Woolley to the vet because he was so lean.The vet said nothing was wrong,but he was the most muscular cat he had ever come across.He turns all his food into muscle and spends lots of time outside doing cat things.Harry will lose weight because I wont give him squishy food every time he demands it.

Good for you - a positive attitude right from the get go! We're behind you all the way (and with Harry on his journey to becoming lean as well).

Keep the pictures coming on his progress. Like I said before - he is definitely handsome. After looking at the picture again, I had to smile - he's so cute!

You have really beautiful cats!
Well, they did very well - they didn't heart ich other. Think they will sleep together soon!