Question about adding a new cat

I think this is the right forum...

I have a question about adding a new cat to my household. I had 2 female cats and one of them was diagnosed with diabetes. After putting up with her urinating outside of her litterbox for about a year, my wife and I had to get her put to sleep. That was about 4 months ago.

Our remaining cat has been very vocal and needy for attention and we're sure she is missing her friend. We went to our local animal shelter and found a cat that is just adorable. We want to get him but I have questions before we do.

The cat that we want to get is a male. He has yet to be neutered and we don't know how old he is since he is a stray. He is full grown. Our first question is, what are the chances that he will spray to mark his territory even after we get him neutered? I wouldn't think of it as a problem but because our other cat soiled a couple spots on our rugs, will the new cat spray the rugs to mark his territory? We used some of that enzyme pet cleaner on the spots but even though we can't smell it, the new cat might.

My second question is about getting him neutered and declawed. Should we give him to the vet the same day we get him from the shelter? I thought it might be a little hard on him to deal with surgery and a new home to live in.

Other questions that come up are, should we get a male to go along with the female? Or would 2 females work better? Maybe we should get a kitten just to be on the safe side?

What we don't want to do is bring this good looking and seemingly affectionate cat home, have it spray all over the house, then take it back to the shelter. Then it goes back as cat that sprays the house and then no one would want it.

Any advice would be great!!!! Thanks!

Tim

IMO, if you plan to get another cat and have him/her declawed, it is better your female remains alone.

You'll have a period of adjustment regardless of what new cat you decide to bring into the household. I have 2 males, both neutered, and neither has ever sprayed. But there are no guarantees with marking territory or animal behavior, especially since you noted that you had a cat that did not use the litter box.

Please if you get a new cat do not throw them together. Patients and slowly is the key. Also your cat now will be like hay this is mine go I love more then 1.

There is a great article about introdusing cats. Please read it and follow it to the letter. No one can predict if the male will spray or not. It is an individual thing from one cat to another. Even some females will spray.

As for declawing, it is a huge hot button here. We do not beleive in removing the kitties claws as there are many other options you can do. The declawing surgery takes off the toe to the first knuckle of each toe. Many cats die from infection and on occasion uncontrollable bleeding from the amputated toes.

Thank you for doing research before bringing home the new kitty. Make sure to read the article and let us know what you have decided.

Welcome to TCS! I'm glad you have come here for advice.
I have a male and a female and they get along famously. My male has never sprayed, even before we got him neutered he was no problem.
You could ask the shelter about his behaviour at the moment and if he has sprayed whilst being there.
I personally do not agree with declawing, along with a lot of people here. Before you decide to do this you should see if he actually has a problem with his claws i.e clawing carpets, furniture etc. If not then removing his claws is 100% unnecessary. If he does scratch, there are other alternatives, such as soft paws or a scratch post.
Good look with your search for a new cat. As has already been said there is no way of knowing how a new cat will behave and it doesn't matter what the cat 'looks' like there could be a million problems or none. If you introduce the cats properly and have plenty of cat trees/scratch posts around I'm sure you will be fine.
By the way, I believe declawing is illegal here in the UK so that just shows you how inhumane it can be.

Thanks for all the advice!

I didn't know declawing was such a bad thing. My last cat was wonderful. She had her claws but only used them on her scratching post. And sometimes on the rug by the front door when it was looking at her funny. I just don't want our current cat who has no claws to be attacked by one who does. I guess you can't truely know for sure.

The behavior of the new cat is one of the reasons why we were looking at him. In the cage right next to him the next cat was going crazy. Meowing and hissing and trying to reach other cats through the cage. The cat we were looking at (named Al by the workers) didn't flinch one bit. He was probably used to it. We opened Al's cage and he came right out to us, let us pick him up and everything.

Like I said before, my wife and I just went though about a year of diabeties, urinary track infections that took longer to treat then it did for them to come back, enormous amount of litter box cleaning, and a lot of soiled carpet.

I guess I have to make a decision. Thatnks for the advice and I'll let you know how everything works out.

Clawed and declawed cats can live together without problems. When they "fight" they use the back feet not the front ones. If you are really concerned about your declawed cat, adopt another declawed cat - otherwise don't go and declaw another.

Its not removing the claw - its removing the JOINT - like if you took the top joint off your own finger. Older cats that are declawed can sometimes have litter box problems (not using it or wetting other places) or they resort to more fear biting and hiding.

You need to get ALL the odor out of the places your other cat wet because a new cat will probably find them and use them. Try Nature's Miricle cleaner or other cat urine remover. You can find the spots by using a black light on the carpet.

Introduce them slowly and one trick is to put some baby cornstarch powder on both cats (rub it in) and they will smell the same to each other.

I would get him neutered as soon as possible, they recover very quickley from neutering, it is a minor surgery. Some have no idea anything happened at all! Does the shelter you are getting him from not do it? Most shelters do I thought...I would think that an unneutered adult male cat will spray to cover up the spots that were previously peed on. Natures Miracle is a wonderful product to soak the pee spots in. Another thing is that it takes a month or so for the male hormones or whatever to competely leave his system so he may still display some tomcat behaviors right after being neutered. Is your female cat spayed?