Good morning all catlovers. I joined your forum today in hope of finding some advice. I have read and read threads here but I am still not sure what would be the best course of action and I do hope that one or more of you will give your opinion, that would help us a lot.
I'm not sure how much info I need to give so pls bear with me.
We have 3 cats - 1 tom and 2 girls. The cats as a group are very benign, they are a bit more shy than the normal cats and not boisterous, very good natured but not overly trusting, just towards my husband and myself. The 2 girls are sisters, Spitz and Sprinkle, about 7YO, daughters of cat mum Yeshe who very sadly died last year, and although there is the odd bit of rivalry it's quite rare and they get on v. well together. Yeshe was the matron of the house, guarding it from a chair next to the front door, a lovely maternal kind of cat. When she passed away we could tell that roles were reshuffled and each of her daughters in turn became the boss. Currently it's the smaller of the two girls. Our boy, Lennox, is a rescue, he's about 8 YO just starting to have the odd grey hair. He is neutered. He is the one we most worry about, both because of his mental makeup and because of his health.
Lennox has always been quite insecure. He comes up a lot for reassurance, usually to me. He likes to come to suckle in my armpit in the morning and before bed as well (he waits on top of the stairs until i go to bet). He's of smallish build, not a bruiser, he is slightly poorly in that 4 months ago he had a thrombus block the arterial tri-furcation and we woke up 1 day to find him completely paralysed from the back down. We fixed this with 100% natural remedies (if anyone needs advice on this I'm happy to oblige BTW). and he is now walking again and his tail is back up to the skies. But he kind of knows he is vulnerable. He won't really leave the house much at the moment and he will walk outside mainly if accompanied by my husband or myself. He's of an anxious and shy nature. He was like this when we rescued him - he had been raised in a house with 2 rottweilers and 3 smaller dogs where incredibly all the animals were fed at the same time unsupervised. He also has flea allergy and gut issues but other than that he is fine.
A strange tom cat has started to 'stalk' our house, he stands outside the front door or roams nearby calling out loud. He turned up 2 days ago. We know all the strays and owned cats in the area, he is new. He is not owned and not used to people (no eye contact at all, scared of any human movement).
It looks very much like if I leave the front door open he will run inside - he always runs up to the front door (if I'm at a distance) and sits nearby, calling out loud. He has met the other 3 cats although they do at the moment spend much more time indoors, as if (human analogy) they felt beleaguered. He has come to 'visit' 4-5 times every day since, he was here this morning first thing and has returned twice already.
We live in the south of the UK, climate is quite mild, although currently very cold, around the -3 to 0 degree celsius at night. There are plenty of people around us, very densely populated area, lots of houses, lots of cats.
So what do we do? Is it possible to even consider having a second male in the house? Is that even an option? if it were we would be open to taking him in if it is necessary and if it is an option. But our own Lennox needs to be safe. He is not a good fighter - but he will always fight if he has to. We know this from seeing him fight and also see him backed in a corner on occasions or pinned down by other toms. We can't risk him being intimidated or scared, because it is his continued stress causing the congestive heart failure type condition that brought on the blocked trifurcation in the first place (together with using dry food, which he now does not get anymore). So we want to protect our own cats and make sure they feel safe and loved. We are also in the process of adopting 2 children which will join our home not before AUG-15. This also will cause upheaval for our animal population (3 cats 4 dogs) as well as limit the amount of time we have at our disposal to help out in a tricky introduction, if it should stretch for a longer time.
Please give any advice you feel able to give. I work with severe chronic illness and cancer patients and I may not be able to respond in a timely fashion all the time, that's not by choice though, I will try to log in and view any replies regularly.
I'm not sure how much info I need to give so pls bear with me.
We have 3 cats - 1 tom and 2 girls. The cats as a group are very benign, they are a bit more shy than the normal cats and not boisterous, very good natured but not overly trusting, just towards my husband and myself. The 2 girls are sisters, Spitz and Sprinkle, about 7YO, daughters of cat mum Yeshe who very sadly died last year, and although there is the odd bit of rivalry it's quite rare and they get on v. well together. Yeshe was the matron of the house, guarding it from a chair next to the front door, a lovely maternal kind of cat. When she passed away we could tell that roles were reshuffled and each of her daughters in turn became the boss. Currently it's the smaller of the two girls. Our boy, Lennox, is a rescue, he's about 8 YO just starting to have the odd grey hair. He is neutered. He is the one we most worry about, both because of his mental makeup and because of his health.
Lennox has always been quite insecure. He comes up a lot for reassurance, usually to me. He likes to come to suckle in my armpit in the morning and before bed as well (he waits on top of the stairs until i go to bet). He's of smallish build, not a bruiser, he is slightly poorly in that 4 months ago he had a thrombus block the arterial tri-furcation and we woke up 1 day to find him completely paralysed from the back down. We fixed this with 100% natural remedies (if anyone needs advice on this I'm happy to oblige BTW). and he is now walking again and his tail is back up to the skies. But he kind of knows he is vulnerable. He won't really leave the house much at the moment and he will walk outside mainly if accompanied by my husband or myself. He's of an anxious and shy nature. He was like this when we rescued him - he had been raised in a house with 2 rottweilers and 3 smaller dogs where incredibly all the animals were fed at the same time unsupervised. He also has flea allergy and gut issues but other than that he is fine.
A strange tom cat has started to 'stalk' our house, he stands outside the front door or roams nearby calling out loud. He turned up 2 days ago. We know all the strays and owned cats in the area, he is new. He is not owned and not used to people (no eye contact at all, scared of any human movement).
It looks very much like if I leave the front door open he will run inside - he always runs up to the front door (if I'm at a distance) and sits nearby, calling out loud. He has met the other 3 cats although they do at the moment spend much more time indoors, as if (human analogy) they felt beleaguered. He has come to 'visit' 4-5 times every day since, he was here this morning first thing and has returned twice already.
We live in the south of the UK, climate is quite mild, although currently very cold, around the -3 to 0 degree celsius at night. There are plenty of people around us, very densely populated area, lots of houses, lots of cats.
So what do we do? Is it possible to even consider having a second male in the house? Is that even an option? if it were we would be open to taking him in if it is necessary and if it is an option. But our own Lennox needs to be safe. He is not a good fighter - but he will always fight if he has to. We know this from seeing him fight and also see him backed in a corner on occasions or pinned down by other toms. We can't risk him being intimidated or scared, because it is his continued stress causing the congestive heart failure type condition that brought on the blocked trifurcation in the first place (together with using dry food, which he now does not get anymore). So we want to protect our own cats and make sure they feel safe and loved. We are also in the process of adopting 2 children which will join our home not before AUG-15. This also will cause upheaval for our animal population (3 cats 4 dogs) as well as limit the amount of time we have at our disposal to help out in a tricky introduction, if it should stretch for a longer time.
Please give any advice you feel able to give. I work with severe chronic illness and cancer patients and I may not be able to respond in a timely fashion all the time, that's not by choice though, I will try to log in and view any replies regularly.
