Cat Introduction Woes

Tempest and Oatmeal just met.

Oatmeal said: Hi! Hello! Let's play!

Tempest said nothing.

Oatmeal wandered off to explore.

Tempest snuggled hubby.

No hissing, no growling, no hostility or flight. Just "meh whatever." 

Brilliant Sounds VERY promising for the future :nod: Is Tempest in total shock at having a cat around who actually listens when she says she's not interested?! :lol3:

@Columbine   Tempest didn't seem to care at all; as long as Oatmeal doesn't impinge on her daddy time or charge at her, it's all the same to her. 

@Columbine  You may be amused to learn that high on the list of current names for Oatmeal is Asha. At the moment it's likely she'll either be Asha, Sharada, Ashavan or Sarasvati.

:love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love::heart3::heart2::heart3::love:

What a cutie :9:

Of course, I love the name Asha :bigwink: I'd not have picked it otherwise. You might be interested to know that the other names in the running here were Aashka (blessing) and Shanti (peace). I do like Sharada though :nod: Ashavan and Sarasvati don't sound cuddly enough for her somehow :dk:

Aashka and Shanti were on the list as well, but ended up discarded. I'm growing frustrated though, my hubby is refusing to settle on a name. Last night he liked that list, but just now he complained about them. But he's not coming up with alternate suggestions either, just vetoing everything. 

Oatmeal is such an adorable combination of Sinbad and Tempest in some ways. In that picture above, her top half looked just like Sinbad as you can see, but her bottom half looked like Tempest - she had her belly up on display and was wiggling her hips to encourage belly rubs the same way Tempest does. And every time I thought she was asleep and stopped the belly rubs, she would lift her head and just look  at me. 

Prema (true love) or Premala (loving) suit her character perfectly. Just throwing them out there :winkblue:

I like all those cuddly names, esp Aashka, but I keep going back to Oatie.      Or what about Bliss?    I know it doesn't fit with the other kitty names but it sure suits her from her photos.    

That is fantastic news on how Tempest has responded to her meetings with the new resident.  I'm sure much of it is to do with not being charged at.  I wonder if she realizes that Oatmeal has been charging Sinbad?      

Fingers crossed that your new arrival is exactly what Sinbad and Tempest have needed to be able to settle in together.    

We'll be doing a full on, planned out, supervised face to face meeting tonight.

But I consider a good sign to be something that just happened - I made Oatmeal a new nest out of a box and some tshirts, and removed our bathrobes which are pretty nasty after several days on the bathroom floor with her. The phone rang, so I dropped the bathrobes on the floor in the hall. When I returned, Sinbad was standing in front of them, sniffing curiously. He was midway through a thorough sniffing investigation, when Tempest wanted to know what was going on and jumped out of her room.

I'd been sitting on the stairs, and she saw me, and started down in search of belly rubs. Halfway down, she was far enough to see Sinbad - who was standing at the bathrobes staring at her.

She stared at Sinbad, he stared at her. She stared at me, then back at him. He kept staring - but didn't charge up! He was uncertain, doing what I call his uncertain paw; when he's not sure what to do, his front left paw slowly curls forward and uncurls as he thinks.

Eventually she decided discretion was the better part of valor, and returned to the sewing table. But it was her decision, rather than one made in fear, as he had made no moves to charge at her! After she left, he returned to his curious bathrobe investigations.  I consider this excellent all around, and hopefully it bodes well for our face to face later tonight. I left the robes there for now, to give him time to examine them.

:jaw: That's amazing Go Sinbad, you clever, clever boy I WISH I'd seen Tempest's face when Sinbad DIDN'T charge her I hope she doesn't feel rejected now :lol3: I can't wait to hear how the meeting goes. I suppose filming it would be out of the question......? :eyebrows:

Face to face update:

Hubby held Oatmeal in his lap, and I sat with Sinbad on the floor. We decided to keep Oatmeal confined in hubby's lap, and give all power of approach or not to Sinbad. 

They were probably 5 feet apart. Sinbad simply sat and stared at her. Oatmeal squirmed, trying to run over to him. Hubby did not want her to do so, however, believing that Sinbad should be the one to initiate. 

After several minutes of this, hubby decided to put her back in the bathroom, but to leave the door cracked open. The instant this was done, Sinbad ran over to the door, pawed at it and clicked the same series of clicks he does at Tempest. Oatmeal however stayed back. We thought we would open the door if she approached, but she didn't. Just when I had finally convinced hubby we should take her out again since Sinbad clearly wanted to interact now, Sinbad realized there were treats (that we'd brought out in the beginning to provide good vibes for them). 

At this point, he left Oatmeal's door, and ran up to share his treats with Tempest.

Seemed to go well, though I wish hubby had allowed a bit more interaction.

There was only 1 hiss, at the very beginning when hubby was holding Oatmeal above Sinbad's head as we hadn't expected him to come over so quickly since he'd been lounging in the office. But just the one - once hubby sat down and put her in his lap, Sinbad did not hiss again. No growling, no fleeing, just Sinbad watching Oatmeal struggling to run to him. 

I think more interaction is fine at this point, hubby refuses. So I said I would report the interaction here and ask advice of the peanut gallery. 

Should we drop them in the same room next time and see how it goes? Or repeat this a few times and wait until Sinbad approaches?

I meant to take pictures, but hubby took so long after our errands that I forgot. 

Sounds like it went beautifully I'd say they're definitely ready to just be put down in a room and observed :nod: This looks like it may go down in TCS history as the quickest integration ever :lol3:

I love that Sinbad's doing his 'Tempest routine' with Oatie - wonderful, wonderful signs :lovegrin2

Have you got any further on a name for her yet?

Yeah, we can't do anything by halves, can we. 

Honestly last night went so much better than I even dared to hope. Part of why hubby is fretting so much is we're unable to do the separated by the gate step due to the annoying design of our house - the bathroom door and the library doors are too small to fit a gate, and the only other rooms with doorways are the bedroom and office which would guarantee an introduction failure if we blocked Sinbad from entering. Tempest is in the only room that can be gated off.

We started transitioning Oatmeal to raw - she's now eating canned food for the first time. And OMG it was adorable. She was so overcome when I brought her the dish that she buried her face in it! And then she opened her mouth as wide as she could and tried to eat everything all in one bite. She wound up happily licking cat food off her face and paws rather than from the dish because she got it all over her face in her excitement. 

Aww - such a sweet little girl :heart3::heart2::heart3: She must really love that wet food.....I can't wait to hear (or even better see ix: ) what she makes of her first taste of raw food ..... :9:


Hoping the next face to face meeting goes well

   I am a little nervous about saying it at this stage but I really do have a good feeling about this.      

It's no wonder hubby is nervous and wanting to take things slowly: as long as they are closely supervised, and things in place for distraction and intervention if necessary it does sound like they are all intesested and ready to check each other out.    It is funny to hear how Sinbad is responding to being charged similarly to how he has been doing with Tempest.  

Looking forward to the next intallment.  

Second face to face meeting went as well as the first. This time Sinbad almost  got up to go see her. He stared for a while, then jumped off the ottoman and circled around the coffee table for a closer look. 

No hisses, no growls, no hostility or fear from either of them.

It is of note that as he was circling the table, his tail was up. Once she was back in her room, he got some playtime and is currently lounging contently on his ottoman.

All in all it went very well once again, so hubby will allow Oatmeal free reign to leave his lap and explore next time.

SO glad things are progressing so well Can't wait to hear what happens when they finally get to be free in the same room :cross:

Probably will happen later tonight.

The really funny thing is that Sinbad seems to be requesting we bring her out. I don't think it's so much that he wants to see her though, as if she comes out, daddy will play with him!! Such an enterprising boy he is.

 

Sinbad! You really are FAR too clever for your own good, my boy! :lol3:

He picks up on reward associations very quickly. Makes medicine giving pretty easy, comparatively. All it takes is 2 or 3 repetitions and he knows X action = Y reward.

Currently he knows that if I go in and spend time with Oatmeal, it means he gets cuddles when I come out. And if hubby takes her out, it means he gets playtime.

It's amazing how quickly his whining stopped once he got that pattern down.   

In regards to naming, hubby is still being a pill on that. Current favorite is Mekkhala. I'm not sure if his favorites change by the day or the hour. But I wish he'd stop hemming and hawing so she can have a real name already.