Hey all! As some of you know, we recently added a one year old neutered male DMH to our household. Our resident cat is a 1.5 year old spayed DSH female.
For the past few days we've kept them almost entirely separated, with a few face to face meetings scattered throughout. Today we're letting them interact more.
Audrey, our resident cat, has made no move to attack him. As long as he leaves her alone she's cool as a cucumber. Once he gets too close, though, the growling and hissing start.
We realize that this is normal and aren't worried about her reaction. What we need advice on is what we should be doing with Marlon, the new cat. He is an absolute sweetheart, and wants nothing more than to play with Audrey. He hasn't displayed so much as a drop of aggression towards her.
However, he will gladly spend an hour lying several feet away from her and just watching her, which is very intimidating to Audrey. I don't think he means it as a dominance, thing, but I could certainly be wrong. Now he's started approaching her, sometimes even backing her into a corner as she tries to avoid him. Again, he's not aggressive at all, but she doesn't want anything to do with him.
So what should we do? Should we keep him in a separate room until she's ready to approach him instead of the other way around, or are they alright together so long as there's no risk of a fight (and there really doesn't seem to be, though they're still only together with supervision)?
For the past few days we've kept them almost entirely separated, with a few face to face meetings scattered throughout. Today we're letting them interact more.
Audrey, our resident cat, has made no move to attack him. As long as he leaves her alone she's cool as a cucumber. Once he gets too close, though, the growling and hissing start.
We realize that this is normal and aren't worried about her reaction. What we need advice on is what we should be doing with Marlon, the new cat. He is an absolute sweetheart, and wants nothing more than to play with Audrey. He hasn't displayed so much as a drop of aggression towards her.
However, he will gladly spend an hour lying several feet away from her and just watching her, which is very intimidating to Audrey. I don't think he means it as a dominance, thing, but I could certainly be wrong. Now he's started approaching her, sometimes even backing her into a corner as she tries to avoid him. Again, he's not aggressive at all, but she doesn't want anything to do with him.
So what should we do? Should we keep him in a separate room until she's ready to approach him instead of the other way around, or are they alright together so long as there's no risk of a fight (and there really doesn't seem to be, though they're still only together with supervision)?