Help! I'm at my wit's end. (This is a long story. Scroll down for the short version!)
I have a 10-year-old spayed female calico, Karma, who has been living as an only cat for a little over a year. My boyfriend moved in around 3.5 months ago, bringing his 12-year-old spayed female cat, Kitty, into the house. Our house has a main floor and a large basement that are separated by a door, so we initially set up the basement as Kitty's space, and let Karma have the main floor. We followed all the usual cat introduction steps— feeding time near the closed door, exchanging smells with socks and blankets, gradually letting them see each other through a gate while eating, and investing in multiple Feliway diffusers. There was some hissing and growling on Karma's end, but this was continuing to improve. In time, we transferred Kitty to our second bedroom (so that she could be closer to our main living area), and we continued the steps there. Eventually, we progressed to having the cats out together with no barrier.
When they were out together, Kitty showed no aggression, she was just curious and wanted to play. She would playfully stalk and surprise Karma, then when Karma inevitably hissed and swatted at her, she would retreat, looking afraid, but she would keep coming back for more. Karma was happy to ignore Kitty at first, so long as she was left alone. But once she realized that Kitty would react to her with fear, she started to bully her. She wouldn't go out of her way to attack, but if Kitty was within a few feet of her, she would walk directly toward her just to hiss and swat, as if to preemptively say "Don't even think of coming near me!". Eventually, this dynamic seemed to settle down a little—Kitty started learning to leave Karma alone, Karma's aggression became less frequent, and they were cohabiting successfully (or so it seemed) for over a month.
Since the cats were tolerating each other fairly well, we didn't think it would be an issue when we left for a week-long vacation. We had a close friend take care of them daily while we were gone, and he reported no problems. However, when we got back, we noticed that Kitty seemed more afraid of Karma than before, and she didn't seem interested in food if Karma was nearby (this was a big red flag, as she is normally very food-motivated). Not long after this, we started to discover cat pee in multiple places—sometimes on blankets and other objects, but also just in puddles on the floor. It wasn't clear yet which cat was responsible, but we did daily checks, and thoroughly cleaned any spots we found. I suspected it was Kitty, because I had never known Karma to pee outside the litter box before, even when in stressful situations in the past.
In the couple weeks that followed, all hell broke loose. It became clear that Kitty was the culprit when she began doing it right in front of us, multiple times— on cushions on the floor, on rugs, and once even on our bed when we were still in it(!). It wasn't always clear whether this was peeing or spraying... on one hand, it was horizontal rather than vertical, but each time it was preceded by backing up to the object, kneading, and flicking her tail. We didn't notice any aggression between the cats leading up to these events. At this point, she had peed on several of my favorite things, so we decided to separate the cats again until we could figure out what was wrong. We moved Kitty back to the basement. At first, we continued to find pee on the floor, so we considered taking her to the vet to check for a UTI. But after a few days of separation, the inappropriate peeing abruptly stopped. We kept them separated for close to a month (eventually transferring Kitty to the second bedroom once more), and it never started up again.
A few days ago, we finally tried to start re-introducing them. We've been swapping their scents again, and yesterday we tried leaving Kitty's door open for an hour or so with a gate in place. Karma approached the gate and hissed at her briefly, but for the most part left her alone. Unfortunately, it seems like even this small amount of contact was too much for Kitty. This morning we discovered that she had pushed her bedding off of the chair and onto the floor, then peed on it— her first time peeing inappropriately in a month.
How do I continue introducing them, when it seems like even the slightest contact stresses Kitty out to the point that she pees on things? Since she moved in, she's spent more time confined than not, and I feel terrible about this, but I don't know how to continue integrating her when it means we have to clean up cat pee on a daily basis.
TL; DR:
Started introducing boyfriend's cat (Kitty, 12 yrs) to resident cat (Karma, 10 yrs) almost 4 months ago. We kept them separated at first, then followed usual intro process over several weeks, eventually getting to a place where they tolerated (but avoided) each other. Karma is defensive and swats/hisses at Kitty if she gets close, Kitty is playful but submissive and fearful. After we went on vacation for a week, it appeared that this progress had gone away. Kitty seemed more afraid of Karma than usual, and started spraying and inappropriately peeing on a daily basis, sometimes right in front of us. We separated them again for almost a month, and had no trouble with peeing We just started trying to re-introduce them, but it seems that any contact is causing Kitty to pee on things again. How can I continue introducing them?
I have a 10-year-old spayed female calico, Karma, who has been living as an only cat for a little over a year. My boyfriend moved in around 3.5 months ago, bringing his 12-year-old spayed female cat, Kitty, into the house. Our house has a main floor and a large basement that are separated by a door, so we initially set up the basement as Kitty's space, and let Karma have the main floor. We followed all the usual cat introduction steps— feeding time near the closed door, exchanging smells with socks and blankets, gradually letting them see each other through a gate while eating, and investing in multiple Feliway diffusers. There was some hissing and growling on Karma's end, but this was continuing to improve. In time, we transferred Kitty to our second bedroom (so that she could be closer to our main living area), and we continued the steps there. Eventually, we progressed to having the cats out together with no barrier.
When they were out together, Kitty showed no aggression, she was just curious and wanted to play. She would playfully stalk and surprise Karma, then when Karma inevitably hissed and swatted at her, she would retreat, looking afraid, but she would keep coming back for more. Karma was happy to ignore Kitty at first, so long as she was left alone. But once she realized that Kitty would react to her with fear, she started to bully her. She wouldn't go out of her way to attack, but if Kitty was within a few feet of her, she would walk directly toward her just to hiss and swat, as if to preemptively say "Don't even think of coming near me!". Eventually, this dynamic seemed to settle down a little—Kitty started learning to leave Karma alone, Karma's aggression became less frequent, and they were cohabiting successfully (or so it seemed) for over a month.
Since the cats were tolerating each other fairly well, we didn't think it would be an issue when we left for a week-long vacation. We had a close friend take care of them daily while we were gone, and he reported no problems. However, when we got back, we noticed that Kitty seemed more afraid of Karma than before, and she didn't seem interested in food if Karma was nearby (this was a big red flag, as she is normally very food-motivated). Not long after this, we started to discover cat pee in multiple places—sometimes on blankets and other objects, but also just in puddles on the floor. It wasn't clear yet which cat was responsible, but we did daily checks, and thoroughly cleaned any spots we found. I suspected it was Kitty, because I had never known Karma to pee outside the litter box before, even when in stressful situations in the past.
In the couple weeks that followed, all hell broke loose. It became clear that Kitty was the culprit when she began doing it right in front of us, multiple times— on cushions on the floor, on rugs, and once even on our bed when we were still in it(!). It wasn't always clear whether this was peeing or spraying... on one hand, it was horizontal rather than vertical, but each time it was preceded by backing up to the object, kneading, and flicking her tail. We didn't notice any aggression between the cats leading up to these events. At this point, she had peed on several of my favorite things, so we decided to separate the cats again until we could figure out what was wrong. We moved Kitty back to the basement. At first, we continued to find pee on the floor, so we considered taking her to the vet to check for a UTI. But after a few days of separation, the inappropriate peeing abruptly stopped. We kept them separated for close to a month (eventually transferring Kitty to the second bedroom once more), and it never started up again.
A few days ago, we finally tried to start re-introducing them. We've been swapping their scents again, and yesterday we tried leaving Kitty's door open for an hour or so with a gate in place. Karma approached the gate and hissed at her briefly, but for the most part left her alone. Unfortunately, it seems like even this small amount of contact was too much for Kitty. This morning we discovered that she had pushed her bedding off of the chair and onto the floor, then peed on it— her first time peeing inappropriately in a month.
How do I continue introducing them, when it seems like even the slightest contact stresses Kitty out to the point that she pees on things? Since she moved in, she's spent more time confined than not, and I feel terrible about this, but I don't know how to continue integrating her when it means we have to clean up cat pee on a daily basis.
TL; DR:
Started introducing boyfriend's cat (Kitty, 12 yrs) to resident cat (Karma, 10 yrs) almost 4 months ago. We kept them separated at first, then followed usual intro process over several weeks, eventually getting to a place where they tolerated (but avoided) each other. Karma is defensive and swats/hisses at Kitty if she gets close, Kitty is playful but submissive and fearful. After we went on vacation for a week, it appeared that this progress had gone away. Kitty seemed more afraid of Karma than usual, and started spraying and inappropriately peeing on a daily basis, sometimes right in front of us. We separated them again for almost a month, and had no trouble with peeing We just started trying to re-introduce them, but it seems that any contact is causing Kitty to pee on things again. How can I continue introducing them?
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