Adding another cat to the house...

Good morning everyone!

I currently have one cat that I adopted from a shelter about a year ago. He has been absolutely fantastic. A wonderful companion and has never caused any real trouble other than scratching furniture a bit which we've worked out.

The reason I'm writing is that I work a lot and my cat spends a lot of time alone. I've debated getting another cat to keep him company. However I don't want the introduction of another cat to place my existing cat in a defensive posture or feeling as if he's no longer the head cat in the house.

I've thought about getting a young kitty but I wonder if my cat would just boss the little guy around so much that life for the new cat wouldn't be good. However, if I go with an older cat I worry that my cat will feel threatned or like he's no longer the big man on campus.

Perhaps I'm totally over thinking this but has anyone gone through this? Any recommendations?

Thanks!
Gary

I just recently introduced a new kitten to my 1 year old queen kitty of the house. At first things were rough. But once Phenom relaized she wasn't being rpeplaced she was fine with it. I recommend a kitten and keeping it seperate for atleast a week or 2 unless its under your supervision. Also the vanilla trick works well. If things start getting rough with the intros seperate them. Hissing and swatting is to be expected but if they get into a full on fight and fur is flying then seperate them immediately. Peole here swear by Feliway plugs to. Luckily I didn't need them though! Good Luck!

I also got a kitten so Zoe would have a friend...I was worried that Zoe would boss Cosmo around but umm he actually tends not to leave her alone He likes to wrestle and he holds his own. They get along pretty good though. They just play and lick each other...I did seperate them two for about 2 weeks and slowly started introducing them..I think it took a few more weeks before Cosmo was allowed out when we weren't home.

Oh and I also asked the vet if they thought Zoe would mind a friend and they said that since we got a boy she would probably get along well. So I dunno if it's better to get the opposite of what you have now. I know people on here have quite a few of the same so not sure if that matters.