New cat vs Adult cat

[chloechance]

So l have a 6.5 year old female who lived w my now deceased 15 yr old cat who passed in nov. I wouldnt say they ever were bonded but she tried to play w him he didnt care much for her.
I decided to get a 6 mos old kitten 2 weeks ago. He had a mild uri so he stayed in extra room for 5 days. I swapped toys and blankets. Let my older cat sniff him behind door.
He is so sweet & doesnt bother her. Never has hissed at her. When we finally did a face to face she went after him full his growl attack mode. So we scaled back got a mesh pet play pen let her see him through that. Well about 4 days ago we let him free. Its not too bad. She still hisses if he comes near and runs after him but l am unsure if we are in a hurt him phase, setting boundary phase or play phase.
I keep intervening before she can get him. He always runs a bit away but never hides. So l feel like if he was really scared he run & hide. He always ends up back instigating her soon after. And by that just coming near her.

I am afraid she may swat him w claws or bite him but l also worry l am causing more tension by jumping in each time.

I cant read the language and l wanna let some of it play out but feeling uneasy.

Pic below of my two cats

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[rubysmama]

Awww... what a couple of beautiful kitties.

As for their introduction, things don't sound too bad. She certainly doesn't appear to be in an aggressive looking stance in your picture. More like a curious, or "what are you doing here?" look.

Some hissing is certainly fine, as that's how cats communicate. Her chasing him and him running is normal. Him not hiding, and him quickly coming back to re-instigate certainly sounds like play, not fear.

Your older cat may certainly try to discipline him with hisses and swats, but it's bloodshed, or fur flying fight, that would be considered serious.

They may not be ready to be left alone together, without a human nearby, but it sounds like they're doing ok.

If you haven't seen them yet, here's a TCS article on How To Introduce A Kitten To An Older Cat | TheCatSite plus the main introduction one: How To Successfully Introduce Cats: The Ultimate Guide – TheCatSite Articles

Also Are My Cats Fighting Or Playing? | TheCatSite

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I can't think of a thing to add to rubysmama 's post. She covered everything I would have said, other than for you to take some deep breaths and relax. So far, this is going well. IF your resident cat were really serious about doing damage, her body would be tense and held low, and her ears flat back against her head. She would approach in this position, and it would almost certainly be accompanied by that horrible low, moaning growl that cats do so well.

I LOVE that photo. She is VERY interested, but not fixated, and he's just...cute as hell. Not the least afraid of her. Y'all are fine so far!

 

[ArtNJ]

Hissing only when the kitten comes near is good. If an adult is really distressed, they hiss and charge/swat at the mere presence of the kitten. If the adult doesn't even swat him, and its just noises, that is just an old person shouting at a young one to get off their lawn. A stray swat or two is more or less the same message as growling. If its chasing with non-stop chain swatting, that is maybe a different thing, but a few swats dont mean much. So it really sounds like you can give them a little more leeway to see what will happen.

Your totally right that you can trust the kittens judgment once they start physically interacting. The kitten will know whether to be scared or not, and if the kitten only runs away for a little bit and comes back quick, tries to initiate play, you can indeed trust that.