Next Dilemma

Joey came in the house today.  He's been a pet and used to a house judging by the way he calmly walked around and explored and even played with me inside.  He even curled up on the chesterfield and went to sleep.  A year ago when he first showed up outside we could not get near him though he did allow us to see him.

The dilemma is, we already have 5 cats in the house, all former ferals live trapped outside, and they don't get along.  The most timid (and the biggest, the big sissy) has a working relationship with the oldest who is 18 and vigorously defends her territory.  They get to enjoy the whole house mornings and nights at bedtime.  The mother and two of her four tiny babies we brought in two years ago get the house afternoons, stay in my laundry/sewing room the rest of the time.  The mother and one of these will fight my oldest who does not back down and they torment the big sissy who hides in fear.  

I just don't know how we are going to mesh Joey into this cat household.  Joey doesn't seem to be a fighter, he gets along with another feral outside.  Because Joey is a neutered male like the big sissy maybe my oldest will tolerate him but I'm sure Momma cat won't.  And of course we are in love with Joey and would like him to be inside at least at night.  Joey has met all the cats except the big sissy when he spent a lot of his time sitting on the outside of a window ledge while they sat right beside him on the inside of the window ledge.  But it won't be the same without the window and screen between them.

Oh, and Joey loves the dog and so does the big sissy.  Funny huh?  People talk about cats and dogs and it's the cat on cat interaction I'm most worried about.  All  the cats seem to actually like, if not love, the dog.

I don't have any idea's beyond seeing how it goes when they meet face to face. If he's happy coming in can you section him off in a room on his own to the do the slow introduction technique? It might go fairly quickly given they've all been seeing each other through the window for a while now.

Sorry I'm no help, I just wanted to wish you luck.

EAch of the five was put into a secure room at first but I don;t have any more secure rooms that are not really isolated from the rest of the house and the ones I used before are still in use.  We built sturdy wire mesh screen doors for some rooms for this purpose.  One kitten, now two years old and probably the same age as Joey, is less aggressive than her sister and Mum so I might try him with her first.

There was a cat fight outside, there is most nights, and we'd really like to bring Joey inside, at least for the night.  Another really wild feral, a grey tabby Tom, comes in for leftover food, poor thing, and lots of screeching goes on.  Joey is healing from small wounds on his ear, nose, throat and back of his head from one time the Tom jumped him in plain view of the OH in the middle of the day.  OH chased the Tom off.  Joey seems ok thismorning and we really don't know who the partners in these fights are. we don't think it is Joey.

Wow - you have gone way above and beyond to help these cats.  Kudos to you!

Can you get a large dog crate to isolate Joey for a week or so?  He may need to be isolated to make sure he doesn't have any germs the others haven't met yet.  No sense in spreading a cold around.

But the crate will also protect him from intrusions by the other cats, too, until they get used to the idea he's going to be their house mate.

Not sure of your situation but it sounds like you might need an addition on the house soon.     (just kidding!) 

I do have a dog crate but I have no where to put it that one set of cats or the other could not come right up to it and try to fight through it.  As for disease, the inside ones are vaccinated and if Joey has something they've all been sitting side by side on opposite sides of the window screen, so if they haven't caught something from him by now I guess they are ok.

OK, that's good about them meeting him.  I have a friend who puts the crate on a big table, so the other cats can't reach it.  You could also cover the crate.  That would also give him some security.