We have two outdoor cats, about 12 years old, and two indoor cats about 4 years old. Everybody's been getting along fine.
Recently, we adopted a neighborhood kitten; the kitten has a crippled front leg but is otherwise in good health and gets around fine. I'm guessing she is about one year old, and has been spayed by some previous owner. She is *very* affectionate with people, but seems to be exceedingly afraid of other cats; my guess is that she had trouble with the many large neighborhood cats during the time that she was abandoned.
We kept her in the garage for the first several weeks; after a couple of weeks we left the solid door open but the screen door closed, all day, so they could start checking each other out but were physically separated. I'd been a little worried about them meeting because the new kitten (Alana) is very petite, and our Siamese (Yoda) is friendly but can be rather aggressive in playing (as Siamese are wont to be).
Anyway, they appeared to be adapting reasonably well, so we started leaving Alana out and about while we're home, and Yoda would *really* like to make friends. What I'm seeing, though, is that Alana will aggressively chase the others down, try to corner them, and stand there hissing at them, cutting them off when they try to flee. (this has only been going on for a day or so). Interestingly, she doesn't fuzz up her fur or tail, nor any of the other "make myself look large" behaviors...
What should I make of this?
Should I just let things proceed and see what happens?? Yoda certainly seems to be confused about it; I expected him to smack her for a loop, since he out-weighs her by about 5 pounds of solid muscle, but he's actually fleeing from her (at least so far)!!
We've been letting her out since last weekend (while we're home), but up until last night and this morning, she'd been avoid the others and just staying near one of the humans. This "chasing down the others" behavior just appeared this morning.
For now, I slapped my leg, barked NO at her, and put her back in the garage, and then immediately turned to trusty CatSite for insights!
Recently, we adopted a neighborhood kitten; the kitten has a crippled front leg but is otherwise in good health and gets around fine. I'm guessing she is about one year old, and has been spayed by some previous owner. She is *very* affectionate with people, but seems to be exceedingly afraid of other cats; my guess is that she had trouble with the many large neighborhood cats during the time that she was abandoned.
We kept her in the garage for the first several weeks; after a couple of weeks we left the solid door open but the screen door closed, all day, so they could start checking each other out but were physically separated. I'd been a little worried about them meeting because the new kitten (Alana) is very petite, and our Siamese (Yoda) is friendly but can be rather aggressive in playing (as Siamese are wont to be).
Anyway, they appeared to be adapting reasonably well, so we started leaving Alana out and about while we're home, and Yoda would *really* like to make friends. What I'm seeing, though, is that Alana will aggressively chase the others down, try to corner them, and stand there hissing at them, cutting them off when they try to flee. (this has only been going on for a day or so). Interestingly, she doesn't fuzz up her fur or tail, nor any of the other "make myself look large" behaviors...
What should I make of this?
Should I just let things proceed and see what happens?? Yoda certainly seems to be confused about it; I expected him to smack her for a loop, since he out-weighs her by about 5 pounds of solid muscle, but he's actually fleeing from her (at least so far)!!We've been letting her out since last weekend (while we're home), but up until last night and this morning, she'd been avoid the others and just staying near one of the humans. This "chasing down the others" behavior just appeared this morning.
For now, I slapped my leg, barked NO at her, and put her back in the garage, and then immediately turned to trusty CatSite for insights!
).
