Curious introduction

Hullo!,

Finally after beating the bush for some time, we got our second cat yesterday.

We got to the Municipal shelter of Plano and asked for a cat that is used to other cats and very playful because Akodo (our resident cat) is hyperactive and like to play a lot. The volunteers at the shelter recommended us Soshi and we fell in love with him.

Now he's in his room, but what is making me curious is that Akodo is not very interested. He definitely knows something is happening in the closed room, but it does not look like he has tried to search for the new smell, he just lays a few feet from the door facing it, but does not meow at it or anything.

Is that normal? Would it be safe to start switching aromas soon?

How exciting!  Hope everything goes well for you here and that Akodo and your new cat get along well.  

I would think scent swapping could start as soon as you want, and can even start before you move a cat.  It might be a positive thing that Akodo isn't reacting strongly at this point so start touching with items to cross over their scents, stroking them in their own spaces and then going to the other cat and visa versa, and see how it goes.  

Today we tried swapping aromas and again Akodo did not react. he sniffed at the cloth and then just turned away.

Curious, we let them see each other opening the door just half an inch. One of us was at each side of the door. Akodo tried to run into the room but when he saw Soshi he backed up and hissed a bit, but no flattened ears or bushy tail or any other sign of fear/anger.

Soshi on the other hand at first backed up into the wall (he always does that when we enter the room, but a second later started begging for pets. When he saw Akodo, he went to him and when he hissed he just backed up with ears straight front and big eyes.

After thefirst impression, both tried to get closer with some caution though we did not let them. Akodo that this big round eyes and such a cute face that reminded me of Puss In Boots and Soshi was pretty curious.

Given the current results, we will let them see each other again in the same format.

I don't know if being worried or excited for the quick progress

To me this sounds promising.  Perhaps try the feeding on either side of the door as well as the scent swapping in between sightings as this might help reduce anxieties too.

Well, we jumped straight to the visual contact phase. Now the door is an inch and half open always, stuck to neither cat can move it.

Akodo hisses and growls a bit any time that Soshi is too close. Soshi does not look afaird, though he's taken base under the window on the other side of the room.

Unless we're there they do not seem to interact much. Any time any of us enters the room Soshi runs to us begging for pets and Akodo comes curious, and as long as Soshi does not make direct visual contact Akodo looks pretty calm

One thing that has happened is that now Akodo is constantly looking at the door or trough the crack. He even has started eating facing the door and at times eh just lies a few feet from it.

Today I put the feeding bowls each one feet away from the door. They can look each other while eating, but cannot reach the other's plate. Nothing special happened.

We also tied two toys to the extremes of a leather cord and passed it under the door, so if one plays with its toys the other toy moves. We're hoping that they will start interacting more.

I'm tempted to create a controlled closer encounter, because it LOOKS safe to do so... do I trust my hunch?

I'd probably try and resist the closer contact a while as Akodo sounds a little defensive to me for now, keeping watch.   I like the idea of adding in the play cord as well as the feeding getting them closer.  Nice one. 

Ooppsss.... just saw your post, and Soshi and Akodo have been in the same room for the last 2 hours. Soshi was meowing so sadly that we caved in

Soshi spent the hirst 20 minutes exploring the living room, with Akodo keeping an eye on him a few feet apart. if Soshi came too close he would hiss and growl and Soshi would move apart.

After a while; Akodo started to come closer to Soshi, though only when he was not looking at him. Id Soshi turned around Akodo would hiss and move apart again.

We put soshi back in his room for their for their dinner time. But Soshi started meowing begging to be left out again so afater they ate we let them be together again.

Akodo was again trying to get closer to Soshi, and we has not bothered at all when Soshi sniffed his bolw (he did not touch the food)

Right now they are apart. Soshi exploring and Akodo watching him. He just growled/meowed at Soshi when he got too close too my husband, but he did not reach Soshi, he did not even tried and Soshi just blinked at him. And curiosuly inmedialty after that Soshi has climber into my husband's torso and Akodo is just looking lying on the floor.

He's not in a pouncing pose, backlegs to the side and chin to the floor.

Thing are not looking that bad.  We're still keeping them apart while we sleep and while we're not at home (any of us). They will have some time to rest from each other becasue I travel from Monday to Thursday so they won't be having any closer contact until Next Friday.

OK, we just had to put Soshi back into his room, things were heating up more than we liked. Akodo had cornered Soshi a couple of times, though he just did not let him out of some areas. But just now he tries to start what we think was a fight. He chased Soshi hissing  and growling and tried to swipe at him a couple of times.

So now Soshi is meowing begging to let him out, Akodo watching just on the other side of the door for a minute and moved back into the living room. They're getting tomorrow of rest.

It sounds like things didn't go too badly while they were together so a few more days getting used to scents and being able to see each other a little should let things settle.  It will be interesting to see how things are once you are back home again and start to work on sharing space more closely again.  Hope the week goes well.

Well, I'm (mostly back)

The past week was quite interesting. My hubby woke up on Tuesday to find that Akodo had managed to remove the weights that we had used to stuck the door and has spend th night with Soshi. So from then he just left the doors open, given that nothing had happened.

At first they were pretty distant with each other. They would stay on different sides of the same room, and whenever one would try to get closer the other would just meow and walk away. But Akodo's playfun nature was not to be denied and after a few days he would run to Soshi, swat him gently and ran away, probably trying to get Soshi to chase him.

Soshi still is cautious of playing with akodo, but now he would "hide" in a corner and swat at Akodo when he walks by close. Still still is the most cuddly of the pair. But Akodo is getting cuddlier each day, probably because he's learning that we like that, as we like to play with him.

Even with all that, my husband to great care on separating them when eating, given that as far as we knew Soshi needed special food. To our surpirse, Akodo loves Soshi sensitive food and we found that Akodo was very hungry becasue Soshi was eating his wet food apart of his own grain, that we had put in tall place that Akodo could not reach.

Both are using both litter boxes indistinctively and we have not found signs of stomach problems, so today we just fed both a mix of grains from both foods. After that we're swtiching again to mostly wet but we just want that smelly sensitive food gone.

It was funny when Akodo smelled the grain mix he looked at us like saying "You polluted my nice food!"

So now the only thing left is trying to get them to play more together, which I think will happen in its own time. And find a food that both will like.

They will have to settle with each other for now then. I broke my ankle so I'm on bed rest until who knows when.

Well after a month of acclimatisation, I can call this a success.

They're playing with each other, chasing and pouncing all around the house. The eat each others food and they even use the same litter box.

We had to put bells on them after Soshi made a disappearance act (he fell behind the water heater and did not call for help), but that is going to be just temporary, I read that long exposure to bell can make them deaf.

Yay!!

    Yay for Soshi and Acodo.           Playing and pouncing about the house sounds good, and sharing food and litter trays makes it even better.    Very happy for you, it must be a huge relief, and great to see them both happy.   Thank you for the update.

Xisare said:

Well after a month of acclimatisation, I can call this a success.

They're playing with each other, chasing and pouncing all around the house. The eat each others food and they even use the same litter box.

We had to put bells on them after Soshi made a disappearance act (he fell behind the water heater and did not call for help), but that is going to be just temporary, I read that long exposure to bell can make them deaf.

Yay!!

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Long exposure to bells on the collars has no affect whatsoever on their ears. Where did you hear that? My late kitty Lotto wore his collar and bell for almost 20 years. Please don't worry. They can wear them for the rest of their lives quite comfortably and you and they will always no where each kitty is.

Really? I've just heard it from every cat owner I've met before, good to know that it is not always the case