Lola Update (New Cat Intro--Need Some Reassurance)

Hi guys. I wrote a week or two ago about my new girl, Lola.

We're on day 11 of her living with us. The first week, we didn't introduce her to anyone, but we had Feliway plugged in for her and downstairs for our cats. When she warmed up to us, we introduced her to Butters, our youngest and smallest cat. He was a bit unsure at first, but all Lola wanted was to play with him.

This was odd to us, since she was slow to warm up to us and she met one of my friends and she let us know she didn't like her (growling while she was in my arms, no swatting or anything major, but she's a Siamese, so she's going to be vocal and tell us how she feels about everything). But, she loves Butters, and he seems to not care one way or the other about her, as long as he gets to eat some of her food and sleep in the bed with us again. He's sort of wonderful.

So, next, last night, we tried Domino. He's our largest, but we thought we'd go with him next before Rosalita, because I'm a little nervous about two girls. I've had two girls before and they hated each other.

Domino was a mess. No attacking, no ears back, nothing HORRID. But he hissed and growled the entire time, with his tail between his legs, and he hid. He did eventually come out and walk around VERY cautiously. The whole time, Butters and Lola were playing with each other, not really paying attention. Lola doesn't seem to care at all about new cats, she's just nervous about new people.

I don't think Domino will hurt her, I think this is more him being sad or scared of her. He wasn't physically aggressive at all, just vocal.

We let them just hang out (and Domino doing his thing the entire time) while my husband was talking to Domino, petting him (Domino is my husband's favorite and vice versa, it's VERY obvious) for about 90 minutes. Then we let Domino go back downstairs, and my husband said that it was like none of that even happened. He was back to being normal as soon as he was downstairs.

So, I know this takes time. We were going to just keep trying with Domino until we get him ok with her, THEN try Rosalita. But. Just keep going? Little visitations, trying to get them to eat treats together, etc?

OR, should I take HER downstairs to HIM? When I do that, SHE gets nervous, because it's a whole new space to her.

give it some time. The older cats will eventually get used to her. the reason why Butters and Lola bonded right away is because they were closer in age perhaps. I adopted my cat Charlie (4 months), and a month later I adopted Jet (2 months). Although there is a 2 month difference, at first there was some hesitation, but they got along very nicely after a few days (and after an impromptu meeting that was rushed). Jet (female) was very defensive. Hissing, backing away, claws out, while all Charlie (male) wanted to do was play. you have to let them duke it out but watch them closely. I did that with Charlie and Jet and they are really good now. They're like siblings almost. They eat together sleep together cuddle and play fight. I would say Jet and Charlie got along quicker than me jet and my boyfriend. Even tho she was playful and forthcoming with Charlie, she was not the same way with us (humans) until much later.

Your older cats may not take a liking to Lola right away, but you guys are doing the right thing. Just be patient. Also, older cats don't really get along like BFF status with much younger cats, especially kittens. they just want to chillax while the younger kitty wants to play and be active!

Don't give up hope. Take it one day at a time, and get Lola used to the rest of the house. The more your older cats get used to her scent, an introduction and cordial relationship is more likely. Also, Lola should feel comfortable in every room...then she will be more willing to meet your older cats despite them being hesitant or not willing. 

i wish you lots of luck and love and be patient and dont give up! you guys probably know better than me with that many kitties in the home =) congrats on Lola. 

good vibes for you and your kitties.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Domino isn't too much older. It goes like this:

Domino: Will be 6 in January

Rosalita: Turned 5 in September

Butters: Turned 4 in April

Lola: Turned 1 in September

So, yes, Domino is the oldest, but he's not elderly.

Pictures!

DOMINO:


ROSALITA:


BUTTERS:


LOLA:

I would definitely NOT take Lola into the other cats' territory.  That might just cause a whole lot of animosity.  Been there, done that, bad results

Check out this thread from another member who has been integrating her cats.  There are some good tips in it:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/267429/sugar-bear-and-shadow-and-their-human-sharon#post_3439631

OMG

I just died at work

at how adorable your little fur babies are awwww they'r soo cute =) and Lola especially stole my heart.

Thanks for sharing the pics!

Just be patient and everything will fall into place. I feel with animals (and i guess this would apply to cats as well, all i have most experience with is dogs), someone just needs to prove he/she is the main boss. whatever they need to do to prove that, as long as its done, then they should all get along. Even though Jet is the younger cat and the newer cat, she proved from the very beginning she was the HBIC and Charlie and them are FINE lol. 

Not all animals need that, its similar to humans i guess, some are leaders, some are followers, etc. but in time they will all have a cuddle fest, and you will catch it on camera, and you're going to upload it to the cat site and let us all bask in its glory =)

Oh, I see Rosalita is a Calico.  I think there is something about Calicos not liking other cats .  It took us FIVE MONTHS to integrate "the boys" into our household.  Callie absolutely hated them,and would even attack the door to their safe room. And she and her older brother never got along either, although we just plopped those two together without even trying to integrate them.  (didn't know any better).  Heaven forbid if we ever brought in another female, I'm thinking.

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
.......... And she and her older brother never got along either, although we just plopped those two together without even trying to integrate them.  (didn't know any better).  ....

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Not sure about calicos, but sometimes i feel its okay to let them duke it out...but keep a close eye on it..and intervene when you feel its getting seriously.

same happened with my cats. and i think u even saw that post and replied to it! they were intro'd too early and suddenly. at first they fought a lot, but after 2 days they were cool. they're cuddle buddies now =)

Before you do the room swapping, you need to do scent exchange, with bedding, or just rubbing each cat with towels, and let the others smell them, lie on them, etc. until there is NO hissing, growling or any odd behavior with the scents.  You can even try brushing all the cats and not cleaning the brush to get the scents on all of them.  Go to Lola in between each cat to make sure her scent gets on everyone.  Brush just a few strokes either on their heads, shoulders or side (basically where they normally rub things). 

We put towels on the floors for them to lay on for a few days,then just kept swapping out the towels every few days from the safe room to the rest of the house and vice versa.  We had some very furry towels at the end of 5 months, but that was the idea.  All 4 cats' scents were all over them, and no one cared.  They all layed on all four towels at any given time.  Then we used those same towels to set their food on when we got to that stage of the integration. 

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
Oh, I see Rosalita is a Calico.  I think there is something about Calicos not liking other cats

.  It took us FIVE MONTHS to integrate "the boys" into our household.  Callie absolutely hated them,and would even attack the door to their safe room. And she and her older brother never got along either, although we just plopped those two together without even trying to integrate them.  (didn't know any better).  Heaven forbid if we ever brought in another female, I'm thinking.

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She IS, but she's the most laid back calico EVER. Like...she loves the other two boys. But I was wondering if two GIRLS might be toxic. Still wondering. Still frightened.

Ok, we'll try the towel swapping again. We did it once, didn't seem to have much happen. But we'll try it again. I'll report back!

One thing that worked for me with my cat that always hisses at the other one when he comes back from the vet is to use a towel that was still damp from my taking a shower.  That's something that I just found really recently.  I had done the thing with the towel before and Alice would still hiss at Patches for 2 or 3 days.  This last time I brought Patches back from the vet I grabbed the towel that I had used for a shower right before I took him to the vet and used that.  No hissing.  Alice was a little leary and sniffed him over good but no hissing.  I'm guessing it's mixing more of my scent in with both cat's scent.