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- Aug 3, 2015
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I received great advice the last time I asked, so I am asking again for a friend of a friend what is the best way to handle the situation.
She has 3 cats (agea 12,10,11) and lives in a smaller apartment (bedroom, living room, kitchen, entry room). The 3 cats lived together in peace for 9.5 years in her apartment (although the older one was the boss and nobody was allowed to sit next to her). They are all females. When the older one was 11.5 years old it had a big operation and needed its piece for a month or two, so she kept her in the bedroom/kitchen all of the time (she made it like a little apartment) and kept the other two cats in the big living room with a cat window. She did the wrong thing and was worried about the younger ones hurting the older one when he got healthy and as time went on she kept living like this for 2.5 years.
Now she is moving to an apartment about twice as big as the one she currently lives in in October. She wants them to be together again when she moves.
The question she has is should she: A) Mix them together in the current smaller apartment (keep in mind the older one has become very territorial of the bedroom now), or should she mix them together only once she moves into the new apartment so they all have to deal with a new place + each other?
My thinking, which may be entirely wrong, is since the cats have never been in a car for 1 minutes (and the move will have them each in a separate cat carrier for 4.5 hours), is she should put them all together right after she arrives in the new apartment so the cats will probably be a bit exhausted from the car drive (I´m assuming a nervous cat becomes exhausted?) and being exhausted and concentrating on examining a new bigger place may make the cats not bother each other as much..
I also can say the two younger cats are not likely to fight, in fact one does his best to avoid any kind of confrontation, the other younger one is scared of the older one and does not want to fight at all. The older one likes too pretend she can fight but she doesn´t really want to either.
My friend is really concerned that one of them hurts the other, especially because she will not be home much the first few days while buying new things etc...I kind of think leaving the cats alone during the morning and afternoons for the first 3 days (and being home at night with them) may actually make them accept each other again more quickly without her making noise or being there.
Appreciate what you think of the above, my ideas and what she should do. Thanks.
She has 3 cats (agea 12,10,11) and lives in a smaller apartment (bedroom, living room, kitchen, entry room). The 3 cats lived together in peace for 9.5 years in her apartment (although the older one was the boss and nobody was allowed to sit next to her). They are all females. When the older one was 11.5 years old it had a big operation and needed its piece for a month or two, so she kept her in the bedroom/kitchen all of the time (she made it like a little apartment) and kept the other two cats in the big living room with a cat window. She did the wrong thing and was worried about the younger ones hurting the older one when he got healthy and as time went on she kept living like this for 2.5 years.
Now she is moving to an apartment about twice as big as the one she currently lives in in October. She wants them to be together again when she moves.
The question she has is should she: A) Mix them together in the current smaller apartment (keep in mind the older one has become very territorial of the bedroom now), or should she mix them together only once she moves into the new apartment so they all have to deal with a new place + each other?
My thinking, which may be entirely wrong, is since the cats have never been in a car for 1 minutes (and the move will have them each in a separate cat carrier for 4.5 hours), is she should put them all together right after she arrives in the new apartment so the cats will probably be a bit exhausted from the car drive (I´m assuming a nervous cat becomes exhausted?) and being exhausted and concentrating on examining a new bigger place may make the cats not bother each other as much..
I also can say the two younger cats are not likely to fight, in fact one does his best to avoid any kind of confrontation, the other younger one is scared of the older one and does not want to fight at all. The older one likes too pretend she can fight but she doesn´t really want to either.
My friend is really concerned that one of them hurts the other, especially because she will not be home much the first few days while buying new things etc...I kind of think leaving the cats alone during the morning and afternoons for the first 3 days (and being home at night with them) may actually make them accept each other again more quickly without her making noise or being there.
Appreciate what you think of the above, my ideas and what she should do. Thanks.