Introducing Freshly Neutered Feral Black Cat to Household

sonny4638

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We finally captured a wonderful 6 yr. old intact male black kitty in our neighborhood, a veteran of many fights that tested FIV positive. All shots and treatments have been given. It is now one week and BK has been in a small bathroom recovering from his alien abduction. He is eating well, very shy but responds most of the time to gentle petting, accepts treats and is using a litter box that we empty 4 times a day. We love him so much and want him to have a life inside with one other rescued female cat.

My question is, how soon should we move him to a bedroom separate from our other cat that has more room? We have read many introduction articles about going slow etc. and proper methods. We are still a little unclear about when we could enlarge his space.

I might add that BK has at least 4 neighbors who have been feeding him and can pet him. Two have even picked him up for short periods. He is such a beautiful sweet boy and we just want to make his new life as pleasant as possible.
 

molly92

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Thank you for giving this cat the home and care he deserves!

It all depends on his comfort level and your comfort level when to move onto the next step. As he gets more confident and curious about the world beyond the bathroom door, then you can probably move him into a bedroom. However, his intact male hormones can still be in his system after getting fixed for a few to several weeks, and you may be more comfortable keeping him in the bathroom longer if he's spraying and/or his urine still smells strongly.

Food and play are going to be very helpful tools to help him bond and get more comfortable with you. I'm so happy this poor kitty is getting such a loving home!
 
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sonny4638

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Thanks so much for your comments Molly92. The strong smell is there for sure, but he hasn't sprayed since the neutering fortunately. He just radiates the smell and we were forewarned about that. Here he is minutes before capture. We will move cautiously forward!
 

hbunny

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BK has been in a small bathroom recovering from his alien abduction
I can't help laughing at this....I'm going through the same thing, but I'm introducing my newly neutered 2 year old male to a neutered, very territorial, asinine, 12 year old male. 

We said the same thing about Shortstack...he probably thinks aliens abducted him, stuffed him in a box, did anal probing, and the next thing he knew he woke up missing his family jewels!!  With a bad hangover! 
 It took me a year and a half to get to that point, and we did a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am on him before he knew what was going on. 

But, oddly enough, no protest from him.  Now he has no desire to go outside, he has decided he likes this living inside thing.  If I open the door, he looks out, then runs to the living room and gets on the couch!  I too thank you for taking him in.  You may have a long road ahead of you!  Mine are now on week 5 of site swapping, but then again, I have my asinine baby Wurp who doesn't want this intruder in his house.  So we are having to take it on his terms, not ours.  Hopefully yours will go smoother and faster than ours.  Wurp accepts females better than males, neutered or not, although I'm sure the hormones still lingering in Shortstack's system--and his smell---are influencing how Wurp feels about him.

The pee smell got MUCH better after the first week was over.  I swear it seemed like it got worse before it got better.  But it is much, much better now.  I'm just sure that Wurp with his sense of super-smell interprets that it is an intruding, intact male though. 

So, we wait.  We give them equal time out roaming the house in its entirety, and equal time in "their" bedrooms, that they spend looking out the windows, bird-watching, or snoozing.  We have a cat jungle-gym thing in Shortstack's room, and Wurp has a table in front of each window in his room.  Wurp stays in our room, but only because that was his room of choice anyway for years.  They are currently stress-free and we are just waiting on Wurp to stop plotting murder through the door!

Good luck---and thanks for blessing that sweet face with a good home!
 
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