Meet Horatio

Yesterday was Horatio's first week anniversary in the basement. Unfortunately, hubby and I worked late, so I didn't get a chance to take pictures of him to post. I'm posting a couple tonight, they are a bit grainy but I think you will be able to tell how sweet he is. We're planning on letting him come discover the upstairs on Saturday afternoon. We have started the smelly rag project, with his under their food dish and the girls' under his. He is getting more and more clingy during our visits downstairs and sometimes cries a bit after we return upstairs. I think he is ready to socialize. We're planning on putting our indoor kitties in the bedroom and letting him go around to smell the place. If he seems comfy with that, do you think it is wise to let the girls out to meet him? Or do you think that it will take several trips upstairs on his own before he is ready to meet our other cats?
Let us know your thoughts on the best way to introduce everyone. Thanks for all the support through the past week, we couldn't have done it without your help!

Such a big - fluffy! - beautiful boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You two have done all the work, and obviously he's loving it!

Look at the sweet face! You're doing a great job...

Ohhh what a bigggg kitttyy....As soon as I looked at the pics I started doing my cross between Elmer Fudd and baby talking!! *Yea BF thinks Im in need of a daily helmet* Ohhhhh hes a weally biiiiggggg kitttyyyy!! He looks bigger than my Fatty Fatman!

What color are those eyes?

He looks like one mighty happy fluffy kitty.

He is gorgeous!! I am so happy he found such a great home with such loving and caring people!

He's so beautiful! He looks just like my Sunny cat!

Thanks for all the compliments on Horatio He is very fluffy! He is actually not that big, the vet claims they weighed him in the pet taxi and deducted the taxi's weight and got him at 9.2 lbs. I'd say from handling him he's between 5 and 7 lbs. In the winter time he fluffs up big time! His eyes are bright green. Tonight after work (and payday) we came home with three doses of Frontline to get all the cats protected against any remaining fleas and possible threat of tapeworm. Our 10-year-old girls weren't too happy. My hubby had to hold down Katie, our baby of the twins, while I applied and she cried and cried about it. Bianca, the alpha sister, tolerates Frontline because she's allergic to fleas. With Horatio, even with all the fur, it was a breeze. I was petting him and then just squirted the stuff right on, he didn't even notice. He is crying from the basement now, though, I think he is lonely and bored and wants to come upstairs full time to become a lap cat. Tomorrow, we bring him up for the first time. Wish us luck!

My husband urged me to post a photo of our 10-year-old British Blue twins Bianca and Katie. They look small in this picture, but they are about 16 lbs. each!!! The really interesting twist to this story is that when my husband went to adopt them a decade ago, they had an orange brother that looked just like Horatio. He was unfortunately spoken for, so my husband could only get the girls for us. 10 years later, Horatio finds us and claims our house as the place he wants to live. What are the odds??? We are just blessed people, I think.

Your cat family is adorable!! And Horatio does look a lot like Jake! Take a look at the picture of my Pinky (top row of cats on the far right next to my nickname at top), and tell me that they are not long lost cousins!!

Have you found the introducing an old cat to a new cat thread in Behavior? It makes a lot of suggestions on how to gradually introduce cats. You won't know Horatio's attitude towards others (nor the sister's towards strangers) until they meet. With a new male and 2 resident sisters, my guess is that things will go smoothly, but one never knows with cats.

Have some vanilla extract on hand (real stuff, not imitation) to use as a scent neutralizer on all of them if you need it.

Since it's later than Saturday afternoon, I assume that Horatio is upstairs by now. How is it going?

Horatio is gorgeous and I hope he settles in well with the rest of your fur family, I ma sure he will. I just love your British Blue twins, eve more as my Billy is a British blue and no they aren't the smallest of cats . x

When we came home from work this afternoon, I went down to pet Horatio for a bit and then invited him to come upstairs, leaving the door open. We did not isolate the girls at first, thinking he's so nice and they feel so comfortable. But the minute the basement door opened, they took their guarding spots, Bianca on top of the dining room table and Katie under the table facing the basement door. Horatio came up the stairs, saw the girls and gave a friendly greeting. His soft kitty, "Hey how's it going?" meow, to which our alpha cat Bianca gave a very low, angry reply. Just one meow. She didn't hiss or growl at him, but whatever she conveyed with that one meow, Horatio slowly went back down the stairs and sat at the landing. My hubby went to the door, sat down and talked to him for about 20 minutes hoping to coax him, no go. Then, we put the girls in the bedroom, hubby went in with them and I stayed at the dining room table, kind of doing the ignoring kitty, reading routine. Horatio once again came all the way to the door, sniffed around and went back three steps down. He sat there watching me for an hour. I finally went to pet him. He ran all the way back down to his basement camp, let me pet him for a while. I told him Bianca and Katie wouldn't hurt him and they are nice girls, they just don't know him yet. I came back up, closed the basement door but left the cat door unlocked (our basement door came with a cat door, which we got a carpenter friend make a locking door from the inside, as our girls don't go to the basement unless there is a tornado warning). We're going to try to leave the cat door open as long as we stay up tonight, see if he ventures up. I'm set up at the dining room table, making sure the girls don't guard the door.
I thought this would have gone a lot more smoothly. It's shaping up to be a long, slow process.
Amy and Ruth, thanks for the compliments on the fur family's looks:-) I do think that Horatio and Jake & Pinky might be long-lost cousins, Amy. Billy's fangs are quite something, Ruth. I am kind of searching the behavior forum for advice, but there are a lot more threads there. We have been doing the smelly rag exchange project, which apparently did not help so much this time:-( We do not have a cat tree, that might be a good project. And I am going to invest in some Feliway for sure.
My hubby just asked me "Are our cats bullies?" We didn't think they would be. We thought the stray outside cat would be the one freaking out. Turns out, he just wants to be friends and they think he can live in the basement forever!
Luckily I do have the next two days off and will continue working on this. Will keep you guys updated. Any advice as usual would be much appreciated. Thanks!

You do have a gorgeous fur family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...and that went great, actually! A growl isn't bad at all! And isolating the girls while he comes up to explore (if he'll come back up there) is also a good idea for a little while each day. It'll get them accustomed to his scent in their territory.

They may all wind up being best friends - and this is no indication of how long it will take.

The trick with the scent swapping is to get the girls associating his scent with good things like their favorite treats and food. The next step is for them to think his being around is a total party. Not wanting him in their territory (at first) is quite normal... the next time they can see him, praise the one that isn't growling to high heaven and give her treats. See how the other one reacts. Get new toys for them - and try distracting them with play (often doesn't work at first).

But always give them attention first when he's around. They need to be reassured that it's their territory and they're bosses of it... and they get treats and play or pets or praise or whatever when they're ignoring him - because at least at first that is the goal.

My biggest advice is to take it slow. Some cats take days, weeks or months to adjust to each other. Your girls are pretty set in their ways and might not welcome a stranger so readily as a cat who lived on the streets who hung out with strange cats. Feral cats can sometimes instantly accept another cat while house cats are used to their "territory".

Some people use baby gates or screen doors in doorways (floor to ceiling) so that cats can exchange their scent and see each other before they go face to face.

The day started out not so good. A friend of my hubby's just had to do laundry and even though I was with Horatio in the basement and even though said friend had seen Horatio back in his outdoor-only days, Horatio freaked out and found the only cubby-hole in the basement, above the stairs to the basement and hid there all day. Finally around 7 p.m. he must have gotten hungry enough that he came out to eat. After that, we unlocked the cat door in the basement and waited to see what he would do. He has come out several times in the last few hours. The first time, he came through the cat door, looked around the hallway and went right back down. I think that was to test that the kitty door worked both ways:-) The second time he went into our bedroom walked around for a bit, knocked over a shoe box, scared himself & ran back down. The third time, he went into the spare bedroom and looked around & went back down. The last time he came up, he came into the dining room, saw our alpha cat Bianca in the living room, started walking and talking to her in his kitty voice, "Are you my mommy?" Bianca wasn't thrilled. She sat there for a while but as Horatio approached she started to run toward him. He ran straight back to his kitty door and disappeared into the basement. I gave Bianca some cheesy treats and told her what a good girl she was for not hurting Horatio. But part of me wonders if I didn't just reinforce protecting the territory behavior... Hard to tell. She did seem to enjoy her treats and went back to her favorite cat scratcher. Throughout all of this activity, our other female kitty, Katie has been sleeping on the couch.
I'm going to count today as progress unless you guys think otherwise. I think unlocking the cat door for a few hours a day and letting Horatio come up at his convenience and comfort level is the only way to do this. I am beginning to realize this may take weeks... But he is out of harm's way, i.e. the cold and traffic, and seems to enjoy his basement camp. We put a "cat wheel of fun," a cardboard scratcher and a stuffed toy down there for him. We've also switched his litter from potting soil to corn-based litter. I'm hoping he adjusts to that. In the meanwhile, there will be plenty of his scent upstairs for the girls to get used to. He really is a sweet little boy.
By the way, do they really make floor-to-ceiling baby/cat gates? I thought those only came in the 20-30-inch tall versions...

You made progress today. He came up 4 times on his own and is exploring enough things - he'll get over the scary part soon enough.

I own 4 baby gates and stack them one on top of each other. It is a royal pain if you have to go thru the door with those gates, but it might be an idea for a couple hours each day. Do you have friends you can borrow them from?

Anyone suggest a screen door yet? A regular old fashioned wooden screen door can be put up and fixed in place with shims. About $20 at Lowes.

We have one (permanently - long story) between one bathroom door (its a Jack and Jill bathroom) and one bedroom - the domain of Teresa, who thinks she's our only cat.

She and the others visit without the racket she makes when anyone feline dares enter her territory. Honestly, you'd think they were skinning her alive the way she yelled.

Anyway, a screen door may work better than the baby gates, especially at the top of stairs. I've stacked gates when I've had guests on the porch and they work great but they are a pain in the butt when you need to go in and out.

IMO things seem to be going great!!!!!

I love reading these updates! Horatio is such a lucky kitty. And your whole fur family is beautiful!!!!

Things got a lot better last night, before they got worse. After my post, Horatio came through the kitty door two more times. Went straight to Bianca, who was sitting on the floor. They did the sniffing faces thing without incident. Horatio kept circling her and talking to her and when she had enough, Bianca sat up and raised her right paw at him, but did not hit. Horatio seemed to get the message and sat about two feet from her submissively. Then he walked around again and went downstairs after a few minutes. He came up again and got close to Bianca, she didn't feel like she had to threaten him that time, he walked around the dining room, jumped up to the window looked out and ran straight back to the basement. My hubby made the joke that he saw there was still snow on the ground and decided the basement was a good enough place to be for a little while longer. It was way past midnight by this point, we thought that was enough exploring, so we locked the kitty door, told him good night and went to bed. This is when things took a turn for the worse. Horatio kept going at the basement door, trying to figure out why the kitty door was no longer opening and cried and cried and cried, until about 3:30 in the morning. I kept telling him it's sleepy time and we can all see each other in the morning, but really it did not seem to reassure him. He finally must have worn himself out or we must have passed out from exhaustion. This morning my hubby fed him breakfast and unlocked the kitty door and told him he could come back upstairs. I went down to pet him and Horatio ran from me for a little bit and seemed timid even after coming to get some pets. He's been sitting on top of the stairs in front of the kitty door for several hours but has not tried to come through once. I keep pushing the kitty door to show him it's open, but I think he's confused and we've lost some trust here. Poor kitty. Luckily I'm home all day today, so I'll keep trying to coax him to come out.
I thought the kitty door held a lot of promise, but I'm afraid to keep it open all the time just yet, I thought they needed to get to know each other a little better. But are we messing with his poor little mind too much by locking and unlocking it at our convenience?

Well, given there's no actual real aggression between him and the girls, I'd probably consider just leaving it open. He's got a place to retreat where the girls don't follow. ????

We rescued all of our kitties but one when we lived in a small space, so we had no place to separate new kitties... and no one got injured. A few scratches on a nose here or there, a couple of scabs on a head - but that was only because we didn't keep their claws clipped short enough.

If the girls did more than run at him - or go to bop him on the head when he shoves his face at them - I'd maybe worry a little. But really, it seems like things are progressing really well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!