Stray Kitty Transitioning To Indoor Kitty - Aggression Toward Current Kitties

Hello!

I certainly hope someone can give me some advice about my situation.

About a month and a half ago, we noticed a little Tortie hanging around on our deck.  The first couple days she ran away if we tried to go outside. Then, all of a sudden, she came immediately to my 12 year-old daughter when she went out to talk to her.  She wasn't dirty or matted, but she was skinny as a rail.  I thought she couldn't be more than about 7 months old at the time.  The fact that she came to my daughter and then to me, did the whole rubbing/nuzzling thing and let us pet her seemed to indicate she was either a neighborhood pet that wandered or a kitty who had been lost or abandoned.  I resisted feeding her at first because I didn't want her to keep hanging around our house if she already had a home. Eventually, we couldn't stand it anymore because she was out there all the time and we started feeding her.  We built her a little outdoor shelter and regularly fed, watered and interacted with her.  About a week after we made her the shelter, she was attacked in the middle of the night by a large male.  I ran out and chased him off and she was unhurt but terrified to the point of peeing all over herself, her bed, and me.  That was the last straw for me - I brought her inside and kept her in our bathroom for a couple weeks.  Eventually, she transitioned to my daughter's bedroom which is bigger and has windows and is much more comfortable for her.

We already have four cats - all rescues:  three 14 year-old siblings and one 8 year-old.   The three siblings we rescued as tiny kittens from our garage when their mother abandoned them, so we're pretty much all they've ever known.  The 8 year-old was a rescue from a shelter.  All of them are pretty easygoing and were clearly aware of the new addition, but curious more than anything.  I wouldn't let her near them or share any of their stuff because I didn't know whether she'd been exposed or infected with anything that she could pass on to them (i.e., FLV, FELV, rabies, etc.).  I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't really have the money to invest in spaying and vaccinating a cat I wasn't sure we could keep.  Long story short, we finally did exactly that about a week and a half ago.  

We had been keeping them all separate but letting Bambi (the stray) out in the house to stretch her legs and explore when the other kitties were upstairs sleeping behind a closed door.  She was out one evening and one of the other cats got out and came downstairs to get something to eat and Bambi went after her like the Tasmanian Devil.  I chased them down and had Bambi stopped at the foot of the stairs while my other poor kitty escaped upstairs.  I didn't have a water bottle near me and was just scared for my other babies, so when Bambi started up the stairs, I, foolishly, acted on instinct and reached down to grab her.  Well, you can imagine what happened next.  Four bite wounds, dozens of scratches, a round of antibiotics and two weeks later, I'm healed up, but her aggression toward the other cats still concerns me.  

She's almost two weeks post-surgery, feeling fine and behaving beautifully when she's in the house alone with us.  She plays, she mews, she lets us pet her.  But, as soon as she sees one of the other cats, she's devil kitty.  Someone from a rescue agency in the area told me that many of her behaviors are hallmarks of the Tortie breed and suggested I get a kennel and put her in the middle of everything and just let her stay there until she can be civil when she's out.  Well, we're trying that and it's not going swimmingly.  We've even let her out a few times with one and then two of the older cats (one female and the male).  They clearly had a conversation with her and she has steered clear of actually attacking them but is certainly very on edge and appears to be biding her time.  She did go after the "patriarch" last night from behind and he set her straight, though not before losing a bit of fur.  Side note, he's double-pawed and has a full set of 24 claws in his arsenal.  

The one time we let her out with the two older ones and the youngest, Smudge, it wasn't 30 seconds before she charged Smudge and attacked.  I sprayed her and she ran but he didn't stand up to her at all.  In fact, the older female, seemed to get mad at Smudge for not standing his ground (he's declawed BTW, came to us that way).  He such a sweetheart and it's breaking my heart that he's being bullied by this little snot ball.  If she'd give him a chance, I would bet good money they'd be best friends since they are very much alike (he's a black cat) in personality and playfulness.

I know this process takes a while.  But she's been in our house almost two months now and I'm running myself ragged trying to avoid death and destruction while taking care of all of them AND my family.  My daughter would be heartbroken (as would I) to give her up, but I'm seriously thinking that might be the best thing for her and for us.  She would probably do very well being the only pet in a household.  On the other hand, I also have this idealistic vision of all of them being friends and my house being peaceful again.  I don't want to continue to restrict her young life, but I cannot compromise the quality of my other cats' lives, especially at the advanced age of three of them.

I've tried the homeopathic sprays and drops that are supposed to calm kitties down and none of them seem to work.  I've tried feeding them in front of one another with her in the cage and the others a safe distance away so they all understand there's no need to fight over food and they can get used to being near each other.  Nothing has worked.  We're all gone most of the day with work and school, so it feels wrong to keep her closed up in a bedroom with only a couple hours out to roam around when we get home.

I just don't know what to do.  If someone can give me some advice or a glimmer of hope that it's just going to take time, I'd really appreciate it.  I know no one has a crystal ball, but I've never had to deal with anything like this and I'm frazzled.  My husband says we should just let her out and let them deal with it themselves, but I'm worried because the younger one doesn't seem inclined to fight back at all and the older two she's met, while they are certainly in charge, are getting very frail and I'm scared she could cause them to break a bone or worse, if she were to engage them in a battle.  The last one of the the older three already has serious nervous issues, so I really think she might have a breakdown having to deal with Bambi.  No joke.

Any help will be more than appreciated!

First off, thank you so much for taking care and rescuing Bambi.  Because of you she will now have a warm safe home.

Secondly, here is a great article on cat to cat introductions.  It sounds like you have done some of the items.  Yet, it is a very slow process with getting some cats together.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-cats

Thirdly, I am in a very similar situation.  I brought a stray into my home the end of May.  He had been living on and around my deck all winter.  At first I thought he was a feral, but gradually he warmed up to me.  I had trapped him to get him neutered and vaccinated, but let him go back outside.  Unfortunately he did not get along with my other two ferals.  He was causing all kinds of trouble.  I tried my hardest to find a home for him, but I ended up not succeeding.  So as a last resort, I brought him into the house.  He is sweet as can be when he is alone.  I can pet him, he sits on my lap and is quite loving.  We have a 5 year old indoor only cat as well.  The two do not get along very well.  Marvin ( the stray I moved inside) stayed in a safe room for 2 months.  During this time, the cats only had limited interactions.  I started with scent swapping, moved to brief glimpes, feeding behind closed doors and feeding in front of a gate.  All went so very well.  I then bought a cheap screen door ($20 from Lowes) to place in the door way.  I secured it with cheap tension rods.  Marvin could see out and hear the sounds of the house.  The cats could also visit through the screen.  This too went really well.  We did room swapping too.  In early August we began to let Marvin out.  At first our resident kitty was put away.  Next we put resident kitty on a harness and finally did away with the harness.  For almost a week, the cats did really well.  They would sniff each other and even lay close to one another.  Then one day, the snits began which quickly went to posturing, yowling, chasing, etc...  Now the boys cannot be left unsupervised.  For 2 solid weeks, I did almost nothing, but babysit these boys.  All fine until one of them invaded the others space.  The water bottle is my friend.  I have found that Composure liquid works very well to keep them calm.  I also have been using Outburst flower essences from Green Hope Farms.  They still cannot be left unattended, but they now can be out and about in the same house with supervision.  At night, our resident kitty is free to roam the house.  Marvin is put back into his room.  When we are not home, one of the cats get put away.  It is quite a pain, but progress is being made.  I hate that one cat has to be put away, but right now it's the way things are.  I do believe they will eventually work things out.  I just do not want an all out fight where someone gets hurt. 

I believe your situation is very difficult already having 4 cats.  I would start with the calmest cat.  You might find that some of the cats will do ok.  I would definitely go back to keeping Bambi in a safe room for awhile.  Try the screen door or two gates stacked on top of each other. 

Thanks, ShadowsRescue!  Your situation does sound very similar to mine.

I have two baby gates that we've used in front of whatever room Bambi happens to be in because I didn't want her running out or someone else running in when we open the door.  Two isn't enough, even, because she's a jumper and a climber and I've seen her scale them both to get out.  Rotten little kitty!

I've thought about a screen door, but I think my husband would lose it if I suggest he take off one of the doors and put a screen door on!  LOL!  Plus, Bambi still has her claws and I've already caught her clawing the screens on the windows, so, I'm fairly confident she'd get through the screen door in a matter of days if not hours.

There are times when they can all be in the living room with us, with Bambi in her kennel, and no one is growling or posturing or anything.  But, she does not want to be face-to-face with any of them.   The resident three she's met are actually just fine with her, just curious and want to get to know her.  But she's so mean, they end up getting agitated in order to defend themselves.  

I will look into the Composure liquid and see if that helps.  I thought the Safe Space was working at first, but now, it doesn't seem to have any effect on Bambi. The other cats couldn't care less.

I've thought about putting her back outside now that she's spayed since she really seems to miss being outdoors.  But, we also noticed she's got some sort of injury or genetic issue going on with her back right leg.  She walks a little funny - though it doesn't slower her down at all - and there was one incident of that leg being temporarily paralyzed since she's been in the house.  She didn't appear to be in any kind of pain or discomfort, but she couldn't stand.  She let me pick her up and hold her and after about an hour, she was completely back to normal and we haven't seen it again since.  But, putting her outside knowing that it might recur makes her vulnerable to another animal and I couldn't stand knowing that.  Plus, I don't think she'd leave our yard now that she knows us and we'd still be feeding her and worrying about her safety.  And, I couldn't stand seeing her outdoors in the winter.  So, I'm stuck.  Either she chills out or I'm going to have to find another home for her but that looks like it will be difficult.

Again, thanks for the advice!   And good luck with your kitties!  

As far as the screen door goes, we didn't take the door off the frame.  My DH would have thrown a fit too.  i just fit the screen door over the door frame.  I bought a screen door wider than the door opening.  I then put 2 tension rods across it.  We also have a gate in front of it.  it works really well.  Although Marvin doesn't try to claw through it.  He too has his claws.  You could use both the double gates and the screen.  I can take a picture of my set up with the screen door it that would help you.

Hmmm.  Well, that might work.  The difficulty would be that there is no room in our house to put her that we don't use frequently, so getting in and out of the room with the screen door would be way too much of a pain.

I'll keep it in mind, though.  Thanks!

ShadowsRescue said:

 
As far as the screen door goes, we didn't take the door off the frame.  My DH would have thrown a fit too.  i just fit the screen door over the door frame.  I bought a screen door wider than the door opening.  I then put 2 tension rods across it.  We also have a gate in front of it.  it works really well.  Although Marvin doesn't try to claw through it.  He too has his claws.  You could use both the double gates and the screen.  I can take a picture of my set up with the screen door it that would help you.

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SR thank you so much for posting that, I keep reading about the screen door thing and couldn't figure out how people were doing it! I would love to see a pic if you don't mind.

I too am having the same problem as you and Shelly. Casper has been here 3 weeks have done most of what Shelly and you have done. Scent, feeding behind closed door etc. I have just started letting her out on supervised visits, or I let her out when the other two are sleeping. But when they are together and my resident cat turns her back Casper goes into attack mode. Would be willing to try the screen door method. 

Here is a picture of the screen door.  The screen door is from Lowes and it was $20.  The tension rods came from Target and I think they were $4.  I only need two, but you could always use more.  The tension rods are great as they don't leave any marks on the wall at all.  They just tighten into place my screwing them and then loosen by turning the opposite direction.  It is a bit of a pain to get in and out of, but I can do it very quickly now.  I also have a gate that is permanent.  It has a small animal door at the bottom.  We leave the gate door closed during the day when Marvin is out, but leave the small animal door open so he can get in there if he needs to, but our large dog cannot get after him. 



Hope this helps.

thank you so much! The tension rods are purely a genus idea! I must give that a try!

saigo said:

 
thank you so much! The tension rods are purely a genus idea! I must give that a try!

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It was my DH's idea.  He comes up with some great ideas and this one has worked so well for us.  We also can move the screen to various rooms.  The screen door is cheaper than most baby gates and the tension rod comes 2 to a pack. 

Hope it works well for you.