Older Cat seems frightened of New Kitten

After having adopted my older cat (4 yr old female) in January and running into a host of anxiety issues for her in the next few months and only being able to cure some of them through therapeutic means, my vet suggested trying to get her a companion in order to ease the isolation when I was away at work. After extensive consulting with the vet and the volunteers at the shelter where I adopted her, we determined that a kitten would probably be the least threatening addition to the environment. While I have never seen her interact with another cat, my older cat's reactions to the kitten have been...rather opposite of what I was expecting. 

While they haven't interacted much, as I'm keeping the kitten isolated until, at least, she's fully recovered from her spay surgery and working on slowly introducing each other to their scents before allowing any extensive face to face interaction, the few times that they have gotten glimpses at each other when I've had the door open to where I'm keeping the kennel I set up for the kitten (mostly when I'm cleaning the litter box), my older cat's reaction has been to hiss and run, of all things. And she will then spend the next five to ten minutes hiding until I'm able to ease her tension with toys or other distractions. She usually doesn't get aggressive during these incidents, and the one time she did, it was little more than a yowl and a snarl at me, and was immediately followed by her leaping up onto the bed and mewling pathetically as she curled up next to me.

I think the main thing I'm wondering is why she would be demonstrating fear in the face of the kitten's presence and moreover, how it might be best to manage these introductions given the reaction that she's been having. Especially since the kitten is eager to the nth degree to play with her and makes every attempt to stage a jailbreak to do so while I'm cleaning her kennel.

I have one cat who is scared of other cats and we are foster volunteers, that means we have "guest cats" for several months every year. Tom is even scared of tiny (few days old!) kittens! But eventually he´ll come around and get used to them. Right now we are at the point were he still hisses when they climb on him, but he doesn´t run any more.

Feeding them together helps a lot, because they are all busy eating and don´t have time to hiss and growl. I also make sure Tom has a place to go (bedroom) when he has had enough and wants to be alone.

That's definitely encouraging. And I have been feeding them at the same time, as much as I can, especially since the kitten is usually more interested in cuddling and climbing than she is food. My older cat's dry food bowl and water bowl are right next to room the kitten is in anyway, and I have seen her going over to the bowl to get a drink of water and not be detoured at all. She will hiss and then warble (not really sure what's going on there) if the kitten is being particularly loud and demanding through the door, but other than that, she doesn't pay too much attention to the kitten when there's much more important food to focus on.

When i first got 4 1/2 month old Luna, Zoey (a little over a year) was terrified of her. Zoey is a skittish cat. I have no idea what happened to her before i adopted her, but it made her skittish.

Luna, who was still with her siblings when I adopted her was all about wanting to be near Zoey and it scared Z so much. Zoey was never agressive toward Zoey, just scared. I eventually had to just let them out together. I know that it's not proper intro, but I had to let Zoey be around her so she would see that Luna was not a threat. Intros were not working, because Zoey was not curious, and did not care to go near Luna's safe room whatsoever. Even for feedings, Zoey who is all about meals, didn't care to around Luna or the safe room.

Once Zoey realized that Luna would not hurt her they got on fine!

UPDATE: I noticed earlier this morning that when the door was open to the kennel, my older cat wasn't fixating as much on the kitten as she had been, so when she got particularly relaxed, I tried bringing the kitten out of her room to sit on the bed with us for a bit. While there was some hissing, she didn't dash away like she usually does, and even the hissing was much more mild than it has been the last few days. She even ate some treats and allowed me to pet her (a thing which she hadn't been letting me do after I had handled the kitten) while the kitten was sitting right across from her. 

Sounds like you're doing it right.  Keep up the slow and easy introduction, food is a good thing to use to bring them together, and so are toys.

From what I understand, you just want to combine the kitten's presence with things that are good so the older cat associates the kitten with good things.

Feed them together, give them treats together, and play with them together, and take it step by step with constant supervision.  Before you know it they'll be inseparable.

UPDATE: And we have achieved kitty nose touching! I've only been taking the kitten out of her room for maybe a half an hour at a time every two or three hours, now that she's on the tail end of needing to be confined because of being spayed, but those brief interactions have really helped to smooth things over. My older cat isn't afraid of her anymore. She's standing her ground, and while she does still hiss, it's much milder and more infrequent than it had been, generally only when the kitten is getting pretty close to her when she hasn't initiated it or when the kitten gets too close to her stuff.  

Older cats will always hiss at kittens, and it's a good thing because it sets boundaries for the kitten which she needs right now. I think you should get something the kitten will really play with, like a catnip toy or ball, and let the older cat watch. They always seem so amused at this and she may join in some day! Good luck and keep us posted!

Di and Bob said:

 
Older cats will always hiss at kittens, and it's a good thing because it sets boundaries for the kitten which she needs right now. I think you should get something the kitten will really play with, like a catnip toy or ball, and let the older cat watch. They always seem so amused at this and she may join in some day! Good luck and keep us posted!

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Very true, Luna really needed to learn not to attack everything (including my feet) and Zoey taught her that!

Toys really are a great way to get them to bond, Zoey can't resist the laser pointer and I think that helped us a lot!

UPDATE: The hissing has all but stopped. My older cat has transitioned entirely to bopping her if she does something wrong, but it's just a paw bop with claws retracted, and my older cat has been initiating their interaction a lot more often. They've even gotten to the point where they will sleep next to each other in the same space without it being a big deal, and my older cat will let her eat out of the same dish (the kitten is always more interested in what my older cat has than in what I'm giving her) without making a big deal out of it. 

Good to hear. Older cat is realizing that the kitten's mother won't ambush her for being near the kitten. Apparently that's why older cats don't like kittens. They're afraid the mother is near.

You'll have to post a pic of them together in a sleeping pile!!