Hi all!
I hope you can help me with my situation--maybe I'm just being impatient but about three weeks ago we introduced a new kitten into the house. We lost our eldest to diabetes in February and our Greyhound in April so we felt it was a good time to add a new member to the household. We found a rescued kitten whos mother had been starved and abused so she was born the runt and is still very small at 6 months. She was also born with only a portion of her front left leg, but she doesn't seem to know its missing as she uses the appendage like it is a full leg. She is absolutely fearless and what she lacks in front leg and size she makes up for in attitude! She has also been recently altered, in fact I removed the sutures myself soon after acquiring her. Any way, upon first introduction, the other two cats (a black female domestic long hair named Bosco, and a male Blue point Siamese named Sam-I-Am, both altered) were of course hissy and leary, but not completely unacceping. She on the other hand still doesn't seem to want to make friends with the established cats. To add to the confusion, we acquired a new dog a week and a half ago. We felt it would be best to let every body get used to each other all at once and the new dog doesn't chase or badger, but is of course curious and wants to get to know the cats, but backs down easily when spat at. Sammy has taken to staying in hiding though and I should mention he is an EXTREMELY shy cat by nature. I have to seek him out and feed him separately in order to be sure hes eating at all. He had gotten to a point of coming out before the dog was introduced, but the new kitten (Tribble) seems to not want to accept any of them at all and can be quite aggressive. The woman at the foster home I got her from said she also refused to get along with her established male cat. She is so young and I realise it has been a short time, but I'm afraid it will become a bad habit as she seeks them out just to badger them. Otherwise I love my little family and all I want is for them all to get along. Do I just have to give it more time? I've never had so much trouble with a kitten being the instigator before-usually kittens tend to try to be accepted rather than to fight.
I hope you can help me with my situation--maybe I'm just being impatient but about three weeks ago we introduced a new kitten into the house. We lost our eldest to diabetes in February and our Greyhound in April so we felt it was a good time to add a new member to the household. We found a rescued kitten whos mother had been starved and abused so she was born the runt and is still very small at 6 months. She was also born with only a portion of her front left leg, but she doesn't seem to know its missing as she uses the appendage like it is a full leg. She is absolutely fearless and what she lacks in front leg and size she makes up for in attitude! She has also been recently altered, in fact I removed the sutures myself soon after acquiring her. Any way, upon first introduction, the other two cats (a black female domestic long hair named Bosco, and a male Blue point Siamese named Sam-I-Am, both altered) were of course hissy and leary, but not completely unacceping. She on the other hand still doesn't seem to want to make friends with the established cats. To add to the confusion, we acquired a new dog a week and a half ago. We felt it would be best to let every body get used to each other all at once and the new dog doesn't chase or badger, but is of course curious and wants to get to know the cats, but backs down easily when spat at. Sammy has taken to staying in hiding though and I should mention he is an EXTREMELY shy cat by nature. I have to seek him out and feed him separately in order to be sure hes eating at all. He had gotten to a point of coming out before the dog was introduced, but the new kitten (Tribble) seems to not want to accept any of them at all and can be quite aggressive. The woman at the foster home I got her from said she also refused to get along with her established male cat. She is so young and I realise it has been a short time, but I'm afraid it will become a bad habit as she seeks them out just to badger them. Otherwise I love my little family and all I want is for them all to get along. Do I just have to give it more time? I've never had so much trouble with a kitten being the instigator before-usually kittens tend to try to be accepted rather than to fight.
