Hello everyone - I have been lurking here for sometime. There is so much information here that I have yet feel complelled to post because almost every answer I have needed, I have found. Such a good community here.
I'd like to ask for help on a concern of mine. This is going to be somewhat long as I want to provide as many details as possible. Sorry in advance.
About 1.5 months ago, I adopted a 7 year old Himalayan cat from a family. The family was ridding of her because they had 6 dogs and Sydney (her name) was completely terrifed and stressed all the time. The owner told me she spent almost all of her days under the bed hiding and would only come out at night, when the dogs were put outside. She learned that routine. Sydney also lived with a cat who she got along with, but never got exceptionally social as she hid all the time and the other cat was very tolerant of the dogs.
When I met Sydney, she wasn't very shy. She was tolerant of me holding her and looking at her nails, teeth, etc. I wanted to see how she did with being handled as her long coats requires daily brushing and clipping her nails is a must. She did very well and purred up a storm. She showed curosity in me and I let her do her thing. I agreed to take her. The ride home was rougly one hour to which Sydney was completely tramuatized. I felt horrible. She elinimated all over herself, panted the entire way home, meowed and cried. She had saliva drooling from her mouth and she was a complete mess. I felt so badly and wondered if I had done something terrible. The minute I got home, I had to take her into the bathroom and bathe her as she had urine all over her. This made her freak out a little more. Finally, after she was clean - I put her into our spare bedroom I had prepared for her. He own water bowl, food bowl, litter box, cat toys/scratchers galore, etc. I figured she would bolt and hide, but instead she seemed to completely forget her trauma and scoped it out and purred as he realized that she was okay.
Long story short, that was over 1.5 months ago. She lived in that room by herself for about 2 weeks. Post vet visit, on week three, as I have another cat (Apollo), I started to trade blankets and trade scents. They weren't allowed to see each other but knew that the other one existed. I shared grooming tools as well. Apollo would hang out up by the closed door from time to time and meow or just sit there staring, waiting for it to magically open. I think she knew it too because when he would be outside sitting there, she would go to the door and smell. There wouldn't be any signs of aggression.
Well after a few nights of that, I started to let them see one another. I let Sydney walk around the house and locked Apollo in her room so they could scope it out. Syndey was fine upstairs but REFUSED to come downstairs. She wasn't having it and would only venture into the top floor which is where her room is. Apollo, on the other hand, couldn't care less about Sydney. He sniffed around and just laid down and took a nap.
Finally, I allowed them to start both having free reign. Sydney walks around upstairs when she gets confident enough to do so. She watches doors like a hawk and is startled really easily. She is what I describe as being really neurotic. She is very careful and I think she is waiting for a dog to walk upstairs or something. When she sees Apollo, she starts hissing and growling. I think she has spit at him as well. He responds by ignoring her. He doesn't growl, hiss, spit or anything. He just looks at her, and looks away. He will take a nap, eat some food, whatever. He doesn't get closer to her, but he doesn't run from he either. When she sees Apollo she will hide or will be hesitant about coming into a room with him. She looks like she is scared. They haven't fought or anything. Sydney just gets vocal and eventually runs into hiding when she sees him. Apollo spends a good deal of time downstairs. She will not come downstairs at all. I have tried bringing her down, but she generally just runs back up and I think by doing that I will make it worse so I stopped.
I'm really fearful she is going to end up spending all her time upstairs and hiding under her bed for the most part. She spends a good deal of time under there and it's been over a month. She also is fairly aggressive towards Apollo who does nothing to really cause her to be mean. I don't interfere with it, I let them work it out, but no attacks or fights have happened for me to do so.
What should I do - should I encourage her to come downstairs? Is she unhappy in my home - does she need more time? I'm just very fearful she will not acclimate and I want her to be happy. She lived with another cat and did well with him (per the previous owner) so I am wondering why she's wigging out at Apollo. Is there anything else I can do to help calm her down? My patience is there for her, but I'm just worried she's unhappy or her anxiety won't go away.
I'd like to ask for help on a concern of mine. This is going to be somewhat long as I want to provide as many details as possible. Sorry in advance.
About 1.5 months ago, I adopted a 7 year old Himalayan cat from a family. The family was ridding of her because they had 6 dogs and Sydney (her name) was completely terrifed and stressed all the time. The owner told me she spent almost all of her days under the bed hiding and would only come out at night, when the dogs were put outside. She learned that routine. Sydney also lived with a cat who she got along with, but never got exceptionally social as she hid all the time and the other cat was very tolerant of the dogs.
When I met Sydney, she wasn't very shy. She was tolerant of me holding her and looking at her nails, teeth, etc. I wanted to see how she did with being handled as her long coats requires daily brushing and clipping her nails is a must. She did very well and purred up a storm. She showed curosity in me and I let her do her thing. I agreed to take her. The ride home was rougly one hour to which Sydney was completely tramuatized. I felt horrible. She elinimated all over herself, panted the entire way home, meowed and cried. She had saliva drooling from her mouth and she was a complete mess. I felt so badly and wondered if I had done something terrible. The minute I got home, I had to take her into the bathroom and bathe her as she had urine all over her. This made her freak out a little more. Finally, after she was clean - I put her into our spare bedroom I had prepared for her. He own water bowl, food bowl, litter box, cat toys/scratchers galore, etc. I figured she would bolt and hide, but instead she seemed to completely forget her trauma and scoped it out and purred as he realized that she was okay.
Long story short, that was over 1.5 months ago. She lived in that room by herself for about 2 weeks. Post vet visit, on week three, as I have another cat (Apollo), I started to trade blankets and trade scents. They weren't allowed to see each other but knew that the other one existed. I shared grooming tools as well. Apollo would hang out up by the closed door from time to time and meow or just sit there staring, waiting for it to magically open. I think she knew it too because when he would be outside sitting there, she would go to the door and smell. There wouldn't be any signs of aggression.
Well after a few nights of that, I started to let them see one another. I let Sydney walk around the house and locked Apollo in her room so they could scope it out. Syndey was fine upstairs but REFUSED to come downstairs. She wasn't having it and would only venture into the top floor which is where her room is. Apollo, on the other hand, couldn't care less about Sydney. He sniffed around and just laid down and took a nap.
Finally, I allowed them to start both having free reign. Sydney walks around upstairs when she gets confident enough to do so. She watches doors like a hawk and is startled really easily. She is what I describe as being really neurotic. She is very careful and I think she is waiting for a dog to walk upstairs or something. When she sees Apollo, she starts hissing and growling. I think she has spit at him as well. He responds by ignoring her. He doesn't growl, hiss, spit or anything. He just looks at her, and looks away. He will take a nap, eat some food, whatever. He doesn't get closer to her, but he doesn't run from he either. When she sees Apollo she will hide or will be hesitant about coming into a room with him. She looks like she is scared. They haven't fought or anything. Sydney just gets vocal and eventually runs into hiding when she sees him. Apollo spends a good deal of time downstairs. She will not come downstairs at all. I have tried bringing her down, but she generally just runs back up and I think by doing that I will make it worse so I stopped.
I'm really fearful she is going to end up spending all her time upstairs and hiding under her bed for the most part. She spends a good deal of time under there and it's been over a month. She also is fairly aggressive towards Apollo who does nothing to really cause her to be mean. I don't interfere with it, I let them work it out, but no attacks or fights have happened for me to do so.
What should I do - should I encourage her to come downstairs? Is she unhappy in my home - does she need more time? I'm just very fearful she will not acclimate and I want her to be happy. She lived with another cat and did well with him (per the previous owner) so I am wondering why she's wigging out at Apollo. Is there anything else I can do to help calm her down? My patience is there for her, but I'm just worried she's unhappy or her anxiety won't go away.
