Hey all, yesterday I picked up a shy, ten-year-old foster cat, Max, who was not doing well in his previous foster home. It was a cat house with multiple cats, and he was definitely near the bottom of the cat social ladder and losing weight. I have fostered a feral kitten before, so am attempting to follow the same steps; he's in my small bathroom with everything he needs plus some toys and a scratching post I just put in. He hid behind my toilet yesterday for a good long while until I coaxed him out with canned food. Eventually, he sat in my lap and snuggled next to me on the floor mat. This was completely unexpected because he tended to hide a lot at his old foster home except when his foster mom brought in canned food.
Anyway, last night he was scratching on my door jamb -which jolts the door in its socket and is loud- and meowing. He was clawing like he was trying to get out, rather than mark. I live in an apartment complex and am always worried about waking up neighbors. I ignored him -it was intermittent- and finally went to sleep. This morning he's doing some more of the same. I've put a cloth bag on the inside door handle to try and make it harder to scratch, and propped a chair against the door on the outside to stop it jolting. All of this works somewhat. I will be getting some double-sided tape for the door jamb today.
The reason I can't let him out of the bathroom yet: Luna, my resident cat. She hisses whenever she sees him through the door. Luna did this with my former foster kitten (Theo) as well, but through lots of baby-gate exposure, I was able to let them be together for supervised playtime and she handled it well at that point, except when he got to constantly tackling her. Then she got irritated, but tried to get away rather than dominate him.
I thought about letting Max into the bedroom today and keeping Luna in the rest of the apartment, but I worry then that his escape attempts will be even worse at night...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Anyway, last night he was scratching on my door jamb -which jolts the door in its socket and is loud- and meowing. He was clawing like he was trying to get out, rather than mark. I live in an apartment complex and am always worried about waking up neighbors. I ignored him -it was intermittent- and finally went to sleep. This morning he's doing some more of the same. I've put a cloth bag on the inside door handle to try and make it harder to scratch, and propped a chair against the door on the outside to stop it jolting. All of this works somewhat. I will be getting some double-sided tape for the door jamb today.
The reason I can't let him out of the bathroom yet: Luna, my resident cat. She hisses whenever she sees him through the door. Luna did this with my former foster kitten (Theo) as well, but through lots of baby-gate exposure, I was able to let them be together for supervised playtime and she handled it well at that point, except when he got to constantly tackling her. Then she got irritated, but tried to get away rather than dominate him.
I thought about letting Max into the bedroom today and keeping Luna in the rest of the apartment, but I worry then that his escape attempts will be even worse at night...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!