Greetings from a newbie to the site

I share the inside of my house with 8 cats ranging in age from 3 to 12 years. All are spoiled, fat and healthy and enjoy the finest food, toys and litter available because I work in the pet industry and can get great discounts!!

I also care for 4 ferals/strays in my yard. Mommy came to me 7 years ago and scoped me out for about 2 weeks before bringing me her kittens. She was fierce back then and would attack me if I approached. After much patience and the aid of a dust mop, I could feed her and her kittens in a make-shift feeding station I set up.

Long-story-short, I ended up trapping 12 cats and kittens the following year and through TNR, found homes for all the kittens and have been caring for the adults ever since. (the father of everyone took off after his neutering...wanted no parts of me after that).

Now, Mommy has been wanting to come inside my house. She's become a sweet, affectionate cat who adores me, and being the sucker I am, I've obliged.

She went to the vets on the 28th for blood work and whatnot, and is now inside my family/cat room in a Midwest 4' tall cage, learning to be a house cat.

More importantly, I'm hoping she can learn to be a pride-member, but alas, she is very aggressive with my other cats.

A member of the forum this morning kindly pointed out that it could be her health that is peaking her aggression, as she is being treated for two very infected ears AND she needs to have dental work done.

I've contacted a rescue group to find out about lower cost dentistry, and hope to have that taken care of in the next few weeks.

So...I'm hoping to gain some advice on how to introduce this sweet-to-people, mean-to-cats, cat to my other housemates.

Has anyone else had any luck getting a cat-aggressive adult cat blended into an adult cat household? If so, please share with me so I can help this girl enjoy the warmth and safety of the inside of my home.

Thanks.

Valerie

PS. my gravatar image is Mommy.

[COLOR=#"Blue"]Hola y bienvenido a TCS, ...Catulina & Milky te saludan!!!........[/COLOR]
(Translate: Hi and Welcome to TCS, Catulina & Milky say hello to you!!!...)

your avatar is lovely!..:love: she´s prettie!

Please feel as you home here, we can learn so much and deep about out kittys in this marvelous site, I just only please ask you read the rules and other stuffs that can help you to feel as you Real home!.. here you have the link my friend.
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82565

Please ask whatever you need to know, there are plenty of good members and of course our tireless Mod´s to help us here!....

See you on the forums!, Glad you join us!

Hi, welcome to TCS!  Bless you for what you do to help cats.  DH and I did manage to blend an aggressive adult cat (Daisy) into our household.  She was very scared at first and would attack anything that frightened her...me, Speck, even the Dustbuster.  We used Feliway plug-ins and I think they did help a bit.  But most of the calming down process came with time.  My neighbor moved away and left Blueberry, but we aren't having too much blending her with the others.  She is sweet with me, fairly decent to DH,  but just doesn't like other cats...even Blackberry, her sister.  All the other cats steer clear of Blueberry.

Thank you Nurseangel! This is the most helpful reply I have received. I don't think anything I do will have much to do with the outcome of this attempt to have Mommy accept other cats.When she was outside with her daughters, I wasn't allowed to even pet them too much in her presence or she'd beat them for it! I had a former stray outside who was the sweetest boy on the planet and she'd attack him for rubbing on me just to make a point. She wants me and wants me completely. My best hope right now is that the other cats will realize they need to give her a wide berth and just keep clear.

Just a few moments ago, I had her out for her eardrops, treats, hugs and a walk-about in the cat room and even sitting next to me, she spotted a cat about 15 feet away and locked in for an attack. I shooed the cat and then quickly poked her, kind of like the dog whisperer does with his "shs!" and she snapped out of it and actually shook her head! I'm going to try discouraging it in this manner along with blocking and distracting her for a while. 

Others have agreed that she needs to have all her health issues corrected before she can truly be considered a balanced cat, but I still think deep inside her...this may be a possession issue surrounding me that I need to address.

I'm hopeful for her, but doubtful based on her history. But...all-in-all, I love her and want to keep her happy and safe.

Thanks again.

8catsto9 said:

Thank you Nurseangel! This is the most helpful reply I have received. I don't think anything I do will have much to do with the outcome of this attempt to have Mommy accept other cats.When she was outside with her daughters, I wasn't allowed to even pet them too much in her presence or she'd beat them for it! I had a former stray outside who was the sweetest boy on the planet and she'd attack him for rubbing on me just to make a point. She wants me and wants me completely. My best hope right now is that the other cats will realize they need to give her a wide berth and just keep clear.

Just a few moments ago, I had her out for her eardrops, treats, hugs and a walk-about in the cat room and even sitting next to me, she spotted a cat about 15 feet away and locked in for an attack. I shooed the cat and then quickly poked her, kind of like the dog whisperer does with his "shs!" and she snapped out of it and actually shook her head! I'm going to try discouraging it in this manner along with blocking and distracting her for a while. 

Others have agreed that she needs to have all her health issues corrected before she can truly be considered a balanced cat, but I still think deep inside her...this may be a possession issue surrounding me that I need to address.

I'm hopeful for her, but doubtful based on her history. But...all-in-all, I love her and want to keep her happy and safe.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

You're welcome.    I don't really know a great deal about cat health and behavior issues, but your situation is something I've had some experience with.  At first, with Daisy, I was afraid to go into the living room because she sit on the back of my sofa and growl when anyone walked into the room.   I'm not sure what horrors Daisy went through as a stray, she was starved and afraid of men when we adopted her.  (Now she thinks DH is the most wonderful creature that ever walked the earth.  Yes, I am a little jealous... )  I was really surprised how, in time, she turned out to be sweet.  She still bites me, but mostly that's just because she is jealous of the other cats getting attention or because I pet her when she doesn't want to be disturbed.  Blueberry is another story.  I am afraid she has been the victim of abuse to the extent that she may never fully recover.  She will always be welcome in our home, but we really have to watch her around the other cats.  It's sad because she can be so loving with people; she is the closest to a lap cat in my entire crew (at least to me...the rest are all about DH).  I can see the wonderful purrsonality she would have had, if only given the chance by her former owner.  Now I don't know, but I am holding out hope that maybe things will change some time down the road.  (For the record, I never saw her former owner abuse her and shouldn't accuse, but I knew him.  And I don't think she came to be the way she is by having a pleasant life.)

Hi there welcome along to TCS