The Red Thing has a new housemate. One of my friends went through an ugly divorce and needed to place a cat. So, we now have a small, rotund, blue tabby. As the tradition in my household is to give each cat a moderately insulting nickname, and as she has the general size, striping, and roundness of a loaf of marble rye bread, she shall henceforth be known as the Bread Loaf.
Right now I've got the Loaf in the master bedroom, and Red has my office (where he prefers to sleep anyhow) and the rest of the house. I've got a Feliway diffuser running in the bedroom. The Loaf hid under the bed for the first 24 hours; after that she became quite interested in human attention. I go in to read with her, cuddle her, and play with her for an hour or so in the evening. The rest of the human time is still Red's and the dogs'.
I've slowly been working on introducing the cats. (I'm leaving dog introductions for later; I've got a baby gate preventing them from getting upstairs.) Once the Loaf and Red started showing curiosity about what was behind the closed bedroom door I opened the door and lay in the hall between the two rooms. The Loaf was pretty nervous. She first stood in the middle of the bedroom, hissing. The Red Thing seems mostly curious. He just looks at her and casually wanders back to my office when she tells him off. The pattern has pretty much repeated, with less hissing each time. Today there was no hissing at all when Red peeked in, and the Loaf even came to look into the office while Red was asleep.
I'm wondering if I should have the cats switch rooms, so that the Loaf doesn't start thinking of the bedroom as her room and try to defend it against Red. I'm also wondering if I should add another Feliway diffuser in my office. Anything else I should consider? I want to spare Red as much confrontation as possible, since he's toothless and arthritic.
Right now I've got the Loaf in the master bedroom, and Red has my office (where he prefers to sleep anyhow) and the rest of the house. I've got a Feliway diffuser running in the bedroom. The Loaf hid under the bed for the first 24 hours; after that she became quite interested in human attention. I go in to read with her, cuddle her, and play with her for an hour or so in the evening. The rest of the human time is still Red's and the dogs'.
I've slowly been working on introducing the cats. (I'm leaving dog introductions for later; I've got a baby gate preventing them from getting upstairs.) Once the Loaf and Red started showing curiosity about what was behind the closed bedroom door I opened the door and lay in the hall between the two rooms. The Loaf was pretty nervous. She first stood in the middle of the bedroom, hissing. The Red Thing seems mostly curious. He just looks at her and casually wanders back to my office when she tells him off. The pattern has pretty much repeated, with less hissing each time. Today there was no hissing at all when Red peeked in, and the Loaf even came to look into the office while Red was asleep.
I'm wondering if I should have the cats switch rooms, so that the Loaf doesn't start thinking of the bedroom as her room and try to defend it against Red. I'm also wondering if I should add another Feliway diffuser in my office. Anything else I should consider? I want to spare Red as much confrontation as possible, since he's toothless and arthritic.
