Kitten a good companion for old cat?

I recently moved into a new apt and my roommate has a very old cat (~16 years old), but she's very spunky and loves attention. She still plays and loves to chase and swat at ribbons and lately she's absolutely fallen in love with me (she's normally a very timid cat, but she gives me that "hey!" meow whenever I'm around and she'll sleep on or next to me whenever I take naps, and she's never done that with my roommate before). She's also amazingly human, for example when we come home late and left her all alone the whole day, she'll give us this "you suck" meow and demand attention or playtime by patting with her paw on the carpet on the area she wants us to come to. Lately she's been doing really strange things to get our attention, and waking us up at 3 am wanting to play, and we were wondering if getting her a companion would do her good. We know she doesn't get along with adult cats at all, so we were wondering if she'd do better with a kitten (though by the time we go through slowly introducing them starting with a well worn blanket, and then feeding on top of the blanket, etc, she'll probably be full grown by then). We're wondering if she'd even take a kitten in and start raising it as her own. Would this be a good idea?

I doubt that the cat will start raising a new kitten as her own. If she does't get along well with adult cats, my guess would be that the same will happen with a kitten.

One thing to keep in mind is that the introduction process itself will be stressful for her, and I'm not sure it's a good idea at her age.

I am concerned with behavior changes at such an age. When was the last time she's been to the vet and had a complete checkup (including blood word)? Once any medical problems/issues are ruled out, there are plenty of things you can do to enrich her life and environment and provide her with proper stimuli.

Make sure your cat has plenty of exercise space. You may want to consider adding a cat tree or a cat gym (see our sponsors below for some good cat furniture suppliers), or maybe even get her outdoors safely within a cat enclosure. Cat toys are another thing to look into.

Cats and night time craziness

I agree with Anne. The only time that I've seen young kittens fit in with a senior is when you get 2 kittens - they play with each other and leave the oldster alone. Even that causes some level of stress with the senior, but it's better that than having a young kitten jump all over her.

I would never advise anyone with a senior cat to introduce a single kitten - the kitten will be too playful for the senior cat. The youngest cat I have fostered is 9 months old (except the mum and kittens) and my (then) 10 year old cat was incredibly fed up with her wanting to play all the time, and the youngster was fed up with only having me to play with, it isn't as good as another cat. ARe you sure she want's to play at 3am? I too would be tempted to get a full check up including senior panel done just to rule out any health issues.

Originally Posted by Anne

I doubt that the cat will start raising a new kitten as her own. If she does't get along well with adult cats, my guess would be that the same will happen with a kitten.

One thing to keep in mind is that the introduction process itself will be stressful for her, and I'm not sure it's a good idea at her age.

I am concerned with behavior changes at such an age. When was the last time she's been to the vet and had a complete checkup (including blood word)? Once any medical problems/issues are ruled out, there are plenty of things you can do to enrich her life and environment and provide her with proper stimuli.

Make sure your cat has plenty of exercise space. You may want to consider adding a cat tree or a cat gym (see our sponsors below for some good cat furniture suppliers), or maybe even get her outdoors safely within a cat enclosure. Cat toys are another thing to look into.

Cats and night time craziness

Click to expand...

She's actually had a full bloodwork and check up done just a month or so ago. She's been having tumors on her chin area that have been removed (2 so far), so my roommate got a biopsy and bloodwork done to see if anything else was wrong. Bioposy sort of confirmed our fears that it was a tumor (metastatic too, kind that spreads), but bloodwork came out fine and even the vet was surprised. She does puke occasionally (~once a month), but I think it's because she gets hairballs.

When we first moved in just 2 weeks ago, her cat was having the zooms every other minute. It was pretty funny to watch. She'd start up running so fast she'd leave skid marks in the carpet, and she'd go from her little closet (we gave her the utility closet near the bathroom, put her litter box in there), and run into the living room, pause a minute and run like nuts to the bed room and come back again, and maybe take a break for a nibble and drink.

Thanks for all the info too, I'll relay to my roommate. I'm pretty sure she wants to play, she'll come over, paw at me, or meow in my ear, or just start attacking/wrestling with my feet under the blanket. If I get up, she'll sort of lead me to where her ribbons and her sock pillow are and start rolling around and pawing at the ribbons. I just wished she did it more to her room mate than to me all the time. Haha, I guess her cat's become too human to play with other cats now. I think we'll try doing the meat baby food after playing, she used to be a mouser and might be getting itch to hunt a mouse.

Bless her. Do be aware though that cancer doesn't normally show on blood tests, so the bloodwork will only show how the organs are functioning, nothing else. I would be wary of introducing another cat if she isn't 100% healthy, as it could stress her and make her worse.

Well she might accept a kitten, but if she doesn't like adult cats, the kitten will not stay a kitten. Then you might have problems by that time.

Accept the fact that your 16 yr cat has been an only cat for a long time and it might be more stress on her to bring another kitten in. When its her time to leave and you want another cat, then go out and adopt 2 so they can keep each other company.

If you get a kitten and she hates it, what will you do with the kitten?

In my recent experience, getting another cat/kitten all depends on the temperment of the older kitty. I will say I am going through an extremely difficult time right now because of doing this very thing to my two older cats (15 and 16.5). Unplanned, I brought home a very energtic stray 1 year old two months ago. The oldest kitty had been ill for quite some time and we knew we would not have long with him. We had to say goodbye to him just this past week and it has been absolutely gut wrenching. Despite his sickness, he did not get too upset about the new arrival. He couldn't really play or interact with her, but his spirit toward us and his long-time companion remained the same. It was only in his last few days, did he become very irritated with the new girl (but we kept them seperated at that point).

But the situation with the fairly healthy 15 year old (a fiesty calico) is very different. She has been very unhappy and is now also grieving for her big brother (they were never extremely close but she misses him more than I would have ever guessed). I can't tell you the pain I am feeling over this situation. Not only did my beloved first pet pass away, but his sister is in so much pain as we are (and I will ask for all of your advice on how to help my calico's grieve in another thread). Given this, I don't think my big boy suffered because of the new arrival and if he had been the only cat in the household, I would not feel so guilty about bringing the new one in. In my opinion, his good-natured temperment and easy going manner was a big plus.

Your older kitty sounds like it could adapt, but keep in mind it might be painful for a while. However, if she gets any more ill, I wouldn't recommend it.

Good luck,

Mokitty ("Mo" was my big boy's name)

Oh haha, she's not my cat, but I think the cat took ownership of me. She formed another small lump on her jaw which we're keeping an eye on, and the biopsy does say that the tumor that was removed was a secondary site and not the primary, so she does still have a cancer somewhere. The amazing thing is, I think she's getting more energetic by the day. Yesterday we sort of constructed a cat toy with a piece of string, a scrunchee, a piece of pink ribbon and she went nuts for it. She was running, jumping, pouncing, rolling, bunny kicking, if you didn't know, you'd probably think she was just a kitten (which incidentally is her name haha). We fed her a little chicken baby food too, but I think it just gave her more incentive to play. This morning she dragged the toy into my room and started doing laps around my bedroll, haha.

I'll probably hold off on getting a kitten, since Kitten pretty much occupies my room most of the time now and complains if we lock her out. I was going to use my room for the new kitten's "break in" period if I were to get one but seems like I can't now. It's too bad I don't have another friend with a kitten that I could borrow for a few minutes just to see what kind of reaction I'd get out of Kitten.

I still do visit the humane society now and again to see if I could find that perfect one (curious and playful pure black abby or oriental cat on the smaller side would be perfect). If I do find that perfect one I'd probably bring her home, and then I'd have to kick Kitten out of my room, and if war does break out between the cats I'll probably just move out earlier (I'm staying just temporarily). But right now we're more worried about the new lump on Kitten's than anything else.