- Joined
- Aug 28, 2014
- Messages
- 18
- Purraise
- 6
I thought I'd chronicle the integration and introduction process of Nugget to our household. Nugget is approximately 3 months old and was rescued at age 7-8 weeks from a farm where he lived with his mom and siblings, all semi feral. We adopted him from a shelter where he had been isolated from his siblings in order to be socialized better. He had already come a long way when we took him home, but still has a lot to learn. He is the new baby brother of our 2 year old girl, Truffles whom we've had since she was 4 months. Truffles is an extremely timid cat who took several months to feel comfortable in our apartment, yet she is a very patient and tolerant cat - we have never seen her hiss, she will go and hide if she's afraid but she hardly is afraid anymore and will let us pet her belly forever, lift her up, kiss her and cuddle her as much as we want pretty much. They're indoor cats and have access to a large enclosed balcony. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment.
Day 0: Adoption.
We arrive at the shelter where we have an appointment. We come with an open mind that any cat younger than two years, preferably male, that is curious and seems to have a balanced personality will be a possibility for adoption. We end up bringing home Nugget after petting him, holding him, observing him. He is frightened of us but clearly very curious. We are told that he will have special needs, that his social skills with humans aren't fully developed but that he has already come a long way from when he was rescued.
We bring him home, and in the carrier on the way he is carefully observing everything. Occasionally he will hiss at us if we're looking him straight in the eyes, even if we're blinking softly and slowly. At home I put him into his ready safe room and leave again immediately after putting out some food for him in front of the pet carrier. We cook dinner, eat and 1 hour later I check back in the room and see that he has eaten and left the carrier and is hiding under the desk. He hisses when we come near. I sit in the room for some hours that night, talking and watching some TV on my computer. Just before going to bed I manage to make him come out and eat a little more about 1 meter away from me while I'm sitting on the floor. Great!
I give Truffles the towel from the transport box to sniff, and she does so with much curiosity and no bad behavior.
Day 1: Oh, well…
The first day is tough. I go in the safe room to have breakfast and sit there. Some dry food has been left out over night but is uneaten, Nugget has peed and pooped in his litter box, so I'm happy seeing that. He is still hiding under the desk, behind a filing cabinet that I already now regret leaving in here.
After having spent some time in the room I attempt to feed Nugget. He hisses at me as I sit down on the floor and even spits at me, which quite frankly scares me a little. As he calms down, I try to offer some wet food on a spoon, but as I extend my arm slowly towards him he swats my hand, and gives me a couple of deep scratches - I leave the room as I can tell my frustration scares him even more. It feels very discouraging that he can be so scared of ME; loving, caring, quiet, … oversized, dangerous, human me.
So later that afternoon I decide that it's time to break out the baby food. Even placing the bowl a meter from him makes him hiss, so I put it down and retreat. He just won't come out, no matter how sweet my voice is, slow my blinks are, how far I move away or how intensely I ignore him. A little later I grab a string toy, and begin playing around with it. This definitely catches him attention, and he grows increasingly curious. In the end he comes out to eat. But I'm nowhere near as close to him as the previous night. After he has eaten I sit back down in the chair and watch some more TV. Suddenly, he is sitting on his little bum 1meter from me, watching the computer screen. He goes back to his hiding spot shortly after and continues to watch me.
By now, Truffles is already fully aware that a new cat is in the house, and has set up camp in front of the door to the safe room where she will scratch the door and meow. stressing out Nugget somewhat. I solve this by putting down tin foil in front of the door on Truffles' side.
Lessons learned:
- Food must be withheld for when a human is present. Even kibble.
- I should have minimized the amount of hiding spots in preparing the safe room. Nugget needs to have his space and everything is still very new, but being completely hidden will not speed up things for him, and he's at an age where socializing will only get harder by the day.
- I need to keep my distance a little longer and wait for him to give me a sign he's ready for more.
Day 2: Getting better.
Most of day 2 I'm out of the house. In the morning I try feeding him baby food before leaving, but although I spend 45 minutes with him sitting on the floor he refuses to come out and eat. This pretty much repeats itself in the late afternoon when I come home again. It is not until 22.30 in the evening that my boyfriend and I get him to come out and eat - he is clearly hungry by now. By now we have also removed the filing cabinet out of the room. He comes out and eats 40 cm from my boyfriend, then jumps up into the top of the cat tree which is now his 'safe zone' after the filing cabinet has gone. He still hisses at us if we near him too fast or too soon and touching him is completely out of the question - he's very wary of us. He's still using the litter box like a pro, though.
Day 3. Now we're talking!
So, this is when we start to see some real progress. Nugget has become more comfortable in his safe room by now, but will still hiss. He is now residing in the top floor of the cat tree, putting him face-to-face with me as the tree is about my height. The top floor is a semi open cave, and he is very comfortable up there and difficult to get down. In fact he just won't come down from it. So I figure I'm gonna come to him in stead as the hissing is becoming less angry.
In the afternoon I begin my strategy. Armed with baby food, a spoon and dreamies (snacks) I go over to stand 1,5 meter from him. I begin throwing dreamies snacks into his little cave. In the beginning he's just scared of the snacks that he is being attacked by, but after a while he can't resist and begins eating. As soon as he is eating them I will take a small, slow step towards him. The strategy is working, as long as he is eating he doesn't worry about me. I keep doing this until I'm right next to him in the cat tree, then I carefully offer snacks to him which he VERY carefully eats out of my hand. I then break out the baby food, offering some on a spoon. He hisses but then eats. After feeding him a couple of spoons I dip my finger in the jar and offer it to him - and he licks it off!!! I continue to feed him like this for 10 minutes. SUCCESS!!! He is still not at all ready to be touched, but this is still amazing progress.
Day 4. The ball is just rolling.
For the breakfast session with Nugget, I repeat yesterday's ritual of throwing some snacks to distract him while I come closer with the baby food. He hisses at the spoon the first two times I offer it, but then eats and only hisses if I have to step away and come back. He continues to eat off my finger and definitely has an appetite. I spend about an hour with him in the morning like this.
In the afternoon, Truffles gets to me with her curiosity, and I pick her up and carry her in his room so she can catch a glimpse of him and vice versa.
Unsure of what to expect I let them see each other, with Truffles sitting in my arms. Surprisingly, nothing happens at first. No hissing, no growling. Then, something very much does happen. Little Nugget jumps out of his cave and onto the open platform level below the cave on the tree (mid-chest level), very interested in Truffles. As they are both very quiet and curious, I put Truffles down on the floor, not really sure of what to expect from this encounter, but just thrilled that Nugget has come down and everyone is on their best behavior. They sniff each other, and Truffles trill at him. Nugget even jumps one level further down (mid-thigh level) and from here they can safely sniff each other and get close while still being separated. I can tell that Truffles is more afraid than Nugget is, so even though she puts her front paws up I'm confident that she's staying down. All through the encounter I feed both of them delicious snacks, and I notice that Nugget is much easier to be around for me when Truffles is there. After 10 minutes I take Truffles out again and Nugget goes back up into the cave.
That evening we decide to let them have a supervised encounter once more. It goes amazingly well: While I'm letting Nugget eat baby food off my finger, my boyfriend brings Truffles in the safe room once again, armed with favorite snacks for her, plus some string toys. Once more, Nugget decides to come down to investigate Truffles, but this time he plops all the way onto the floor. The encounter takes about 30 minutes, still no hissing or growling. Truffles does swat at Nugget, but Nugget is too curious and kittenish to be deterred by this and gladly follows her around. The cycle of this encounter is like: sniff, look, sniff, swat, escalate a little by Truffles following Nugget around (walking, not running) and swat at him once, twice, thrice, hardest the last time, and then retreat and ignore and have a snack while she just observes him. All in all its very quiet. We do notice some fun things in Nugget, for instance he begins purring when he's close to Truffles, and he will try to imitate her trilling/chirping noises although thats clearly not his natural way of being vocal. When she swats at him, he will lie down and swat back. Nugget is clearly more comfortable with Truffles around, to the extent that I get him to come onto my lap while I'm feeding him baby food and am allowed to pet him for the first time. I get to pet him for about 5 minutes while he is eating on my lap, then he goes and checks out Truffles again. We play a little with a string toy and then the session is over.
Day 5. More of that, please!
In the morning we decide to do another encounter after I've fed Nugget half a jar of baby food. He is, surprise, lounging in his little cave in the top of the tree when I come in, but as I quietly approach him he is not hissing at me any more. I feed him a spoon of baby food, and then give him a little on my finger. After this, I want to only feed him if he comes further out, down, closer, whatever you want to call it. I go to the other end of the room and sit down on the carpet where he was on my lap being fed and petted last night and what do you know - He comes over, with caution, licks the food off my finger and follows my hand onto my lap as I lead him up. I let him eat for a couple of minutes before I begin petting him and voila, everything goes great.
Now we let Truffles in again. At first Nugget retreats a little, but soon they're back in the same mode as last night - explore, swat, retreat, observe, snack. This encounter goes on for about an hour, and as the time passes, we notice that the swatting is getting more and more playful for Truffles - her body language relaxes and she actually throws herself on the floor in front of Nugget and rolls and play-swats at him a couple of times (see video 2). They also play games of hide and seek running around a large IKEA expedit bookshelf that is used as a room divider. Nugget is also comfortable enough to be very playful with us now while Truffles will observe him. Mean while, we're having a ball watching these two! We take Truffles back out and I end the session by more feeding and petting Nugget on my lap.
I included a couple of short videos of the two of them - this is from their second encounter this morning, and there's still some … acclimatizing that has to be done :-) But I feel that they're doing very well and have no doubts they will go on to become very good friends. The swatting/stalking that you see Truffles (black kitty) doing here is about as bad as it gets between them, so we're very happy with this beginning, especially as it encourages Nugget to be closer and more comfortable with us. In the first video I'm giggling like a psycho, so sorry about that ;-)
I will keep this thread updated daily for anyone interested in following :-)
Anne
Day 0: Adoption.
We arrive at the shelter where we have an appointment. We come with an open mind that any cat younger than two years, preferably male, that is curious and seems to have a balanced personality will be a possibility for adoption. We end up bringing home Nugget after petting him, holding him, observing him. He is frightened of us but clearly very curious. We are told that he will have special needs, that his social skills with humans aren't fully developed but that he has already come a long way from when he was rescued.
We bring him home, and in the carrier on the way he is carefully observing everything. Occasionally he will hiss at us if we're looking him straight in the eyes, even if we're blinking softly and slowly. At home I put him into his ready safe room and leave again immediately after putting out some food for him in front of the pet carrier. We cook dinner, eat and 1 hour later I check back in the room and see that he has eaten and left the carrier and is hiding under the desk. He hisses when we come near. I sit in the room for some hours that night, talking and watching some TV on my computer. Just before going to bed I manage to make him come out and eat a little more about 1 meter away from me while I'm sitting on the floor. Great!
I give Truffles the towel from the transport box to sniff, and she does so with much curiosity and no bad behavior.
Day 1: Oh, well…
The first day is tough. I go in the safe room to have breakfast and sit there. Some dry food has been left out over night but is uneaten, Nugget has peed and pooped in his litter box, so I'm happy seeing that. He is still hiding under the desk, behind a filing cabinet that I already now regret leaving in here.
So later that afternoon I decide that it's time to break out the baby food. Even placing the bowl a meter from him makes him hiss, so I put it down and retreat. He just won't come out, no matter how sweet my voice is, slow my blinks are, how far I move away or how intensely I ignore him. A little later I grab a string toy, and begin playing around with it. This definitely catches him attention, and he grows increasingly curious. In the end he comes out to eat. But I'm nowhere near as close to him as the previous night. After he has eaten I sit back down in the chair and watch some more TV. Suddenly, he is sitting on his little bum 1meter from me, watching the computer screen. He goes back to his hiding spot shortly after and continues to watch me.
By now, Truffles is already fully aware that a new cat is in the house, and has set up camp in front of the door to the safe room where she will scratch the door and meow. stressing out Nugget somewhat. I solve this by putting down tin foil in front of the door on Truffles' side.
Lessons learned:
- Food must be withheld for when a human is present. Even kibble.
- I should have minimized the amount of hiding spots in preparing the safe room. Nugget needs to have his space and everything is still very new, but being completely hidden will not speed up things for him, and he's at an age where socializing will only get harder by the day.
- I need to keep my distance a little longer and wait for him to give me a sign he's ready for more.
Day 2: Getting better.
Most of day 2 I'm out of the house. In the morning I try feeding him baby food before leaving, but although I spend 45 minutes with him sitting on the floor he refuses to come out and eat. This pretty much repeats itself in the late afternoon when I come home again. It is not until 22.30 in the evening that my boyfriend and I get him to come out and eat - he is clearly hungry by now. By now we have also removed the filing cabinet out of the room. He comes out and eats 40 cm from my boyfriend, then jumps up into the top of the cat tree which is now his 'safe zone' after the filing cabinet has gone. He still hisses at us if we near him too fast or too soon and touching him is completely out of the question - he's very wary of us. He's still using the litter box like a pro, though.
Day 3. Now we're talking!
So, this is when we start to see some real progress. Nugget has become more comfortable in his safe room by now, but will still hiss. He is now residing in the top floor of the cat tree, putting him face-to-face with me as the tree is about my height. The top floor is a semi open cave, and he is very comfortable up there and difficult to get down. In fact he just won't come down from it. So I figure I'm gonna come to him in stead as the hissing is becoming less angry.
In the afternoon I begin my strategy. Armed with baby food, a spoon and dreamies (snacks) I go over to stand 1,5 meter from him. I begin throwing dreamies snacks into his little cave. In the beginning he's just scared of the snacks that he is being attacked by, but after a while he can't resist and begins eating. As soon as he is eating them I will take a small, slow step towards him. The strategy is working, as long as he is eating he doesn't worry about me. I keep doing this until I'm right next to him in the cat tree, then I carefully offer snacks to him which he VERY carefully eats out of my hand. I then break out the baby food, offering some on a spoon. He hisses but then eats. After feeding him a couple of spoons I dip my finger in the jar and offer it to him - and he licks it off!!! I continue to feed him like this for 10 minutes. SUCCESS!!! He is still not at all ready to be touched, but this is still amazing progress.
Day 4. The ball is just rolling.
For the breakfast session with Nugget, I repeat yesterday's ritual of throwing some snacks to distract him while I come closer with the baby food. He hisses at the spoon the first two times I offer it, but then eats and only hisses if I have to step away and come back. He continues to eat off my finger and definitely has an appetite. I spend about an hour with him in the morning like this.
In the afternoon, Truffles gets to me with her curiosity, and I pick her up and carry her in his room so she can catch a glimpse of him and vice versa.
That evening we decide to let them have a supervised encounter once more. It goes amazingly well: While I'm letting Nugget eat baby food off my finger, my boyfriend brings Truffles in the safe room once again, armed with favorite snacks for her, plus some string toys. Once more, Nugget decides to come down to investigate Truffles, but this time he plops all the way onto the floor. The encounter takes about 30 minutes, still no hissing or growling. Truffles does swat at Nugget, but Nugget is too curious and kittenish to be deterred by this and gladly follows her around. The cycle of this encounter is like: sniff, look, sniff, swat, escalate a little by Truffles following Nugget around (walking, not running) and swat at him once, twice, thrice, hardest the last time, and then retreat and ignore and have a snack while she just observes him. All in all its very quiet. We do notice some fun things in Nugget, for instance he begins purring when he's close to Truffles, and he will try to imitate her trilling/chirping noises although thats clearly not his natural way of being vocal. When she swats at him, he will lie down and swat back. Nugget is clearly more comfortable with Truffles around, to the extent that I get him to come onto my lap while I'm feeding him baby food and am allowed to pet him for the first time. I get to pet him for about 5 minutes while he is eating on my lap, then he goes and checks out Truffles again. We play a little with a string toy and then the session is over.
Day 5. More of that, please!
In the morning we decide to do another encounter after I've fed Nugget half a jar of baby food. He is, surprise, lounging in his little cave in the top of the tree when I come in, but as I quietly approach him he is not hissing at me any more. I feed him a spoon of baby food, and then give him a little on my finger. After this, I want to only feed him if he comes further out, down, closer, whatever you want to call it. I go to the other end of the room and sit down on the carpet where he was on my lap being fed and petted last night and what do you know - He comes over, with caution, licks the food off my finger and follows my hand onto my lap as I lead him up. I let him eat for a couple of minutes before I begin petting him and voila, everything goes great.
I included a couple of short videos of the two of them - this is from their second encounter this morning, and there's still some … acclimatizing that has to be done :-) But I feel that they're doing very well and have no doubts they will go on to become very good friends. The swatting/stalking that you see Truffles (black kitty) doing here is about as bad as it gets between them, so we're very happy with this beginning, especially as it encourages Nugget to be closer and more comfortable with us. In the first video I'm giggling like a psycho, so sorry about that ;-)
I will keep this thread updated daily for anyone interested in following :-)
Anne
