Kitten harasses older cat

About 3 months ago, my husband found a 5-6 week old kitten at the local airport.  We took her home, got her tested for Felv and FIV, vaccinated and spayed.  We have a resident cat who is 7 years old and lived happily with her littermate until 2 years ago when we unfortunately had to put her littermate to sleep.  We went through the whole introduction process and have felt comfortable leaving them alone together for quite some time now.  Sometimes they actually groom each other and walk right up to each other and touch noses and sleep close to each other. Our kitten, Bitsy, is very rambunctious and always wants to play.  My older girl, Megan, has no interest in playing with her.  Now that Bitsy is a little older and not afraid of Megan anymore, Megan's hissing doesn't seem to phase her.  Now whenever Megan moves and Bitsy is in the mood to play, she runs after Megan which results in my poor old girl hissing and retreating back to the top of her cat condo.  What can I do to train the kitten to leave the older cat alone and quit harassing her.  I'm sure she just wants to play.  I do play with her and I try to distract her with a toy when she starts running after Megan but I think she just really wants to play and rough house with another cat.  Please don't suggest we get another kitten.  I've already run that idea by my husband who is against it.

I think your best option is to engage Bitsy in lots of interactive play. Really wear her out a couple of times a day. That should reduce her enthusiasm for Megan stalking, at the very least. Harness training her and taking her for walks might also help - all the stimulation of a different environment will be much more tiring than being in the house. I'd also seriously look at getting more cat furniture in - really make use of vertical space. You're effectively increasing the size of their territory, as well as giving the opportunity to expend energy climbing around. Self play puzzle toys are worth looking at too - both the 'rollercoaster' type with balls running in a fixed track and the ones you hide food/treats in can use up physical and mental energy.

Lastly - theres always clicker training. You can teach Bitsy tricks, or train her to navigate a home made mini obstacle course. Any kind of training is mentally and physically tiring. The tireder you make her, the less energy she'll have to torment Megan. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but that's how kittens are if you have just one.

Hang in there. There will be a way through this.

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Thanks for the reply.  Bitsy seems to never run out of energy.  I have 2 cat condos and they run all over my counter tops as well so they have lots of vertical space.  I will definitely get more games for her and start clicker training with her.  As far as leash training her, I want her to be an indoor cat only as we live kinda out in the country.  Do you think if I start taking her outside, she'll always wanna be outside and start bolting out the door whenever it opens? 

As far as I know, leash training doesn't make cats bolt for the door all the time...though you may get nagged to take her out (kind of like a dog might) :lol3: