Hi there. Background info, then my question, I am coming up on three weeks of having a new cat in my home. He was a stray who adopted us by coming to live in our planter outside. After much soul searching we decided to offer him a home. We have one cat, I adopted her when she was about 18 months old and she has been the only cat since then. There was a brief period of time that my brother lived with us and had his pit bull. My cat and the dog loved each other. So, back to the cat story. The vet estimates Shadow to be about 9 months old. I think he lived outside the whole time and when he started coming around he was starving. He got a clean bill of health and was neutered...thankfully he had not developed a spraying habit because that has not been an issue at all. I've read books and numerous online articles about introducing cats and have been trying to do things the right way. being patient has been my problem. We did the seclusion, then the scent swapping, then some treat meet and greets through a crack in the door. Scent swapping was uneventful. Nobody was particularly put out by the others scent. My resident cat, Sugar Bear, did a lot of growling and hissing at first during the treats but then settled down. I decided to give a shot at doing a true introduction. No fighting ensued, a lot of hissing and growling from Sugar Bear, and Shadow alternated between being watchful, slightly defensive and then cowering and submissive and avoiding eye contact. My worry came from him trying to find a way to get behind Sugar Bear. I wasn't sure if that was him getting ready to attack or what. Kept the meetings short and neither cat seemed overly bothered afterwards, but I was a mess. I've decided to back up and go slower just to see if there is a little better reaction because I really want this to work. I already love the little guy I've taken in and I adore my big girl (oh, incidently she weighs in at 14.8lbs and he is around 9...he was 8.6 at the vets office but he's been eating regularly and has put on some weight.). My real question is this because there is no crystal ball so no one can really tell me that it's all gonna be ok which is what I really want to hear 
, Twice, only twice in two weeks, during our treat meet and greets, Shadow has gotten a little aggressive with us. Once he totally pounced and once he bit my foot, both times it was after Sugar Bear was a little hissy. That's it, he laid down right next to me afterwards, and let me pet him. Any ideas? Was he just scared? After reading so many posts I realize that this is a long process and that is incredibly daunting to me, but I'm going to give this a valiant effort. This seems really rambling and I'm sorry, but thanks for any insight.
, Twice, only twice in two weeks, during our treat meet and greets, Shadow has gotten a little aggressive with us. Once he totally pounced and once he bit my foot, both times it was after Sugar Bear was a little hissy. That's it, he laid down right next to me afterwards, and let me pet him. Any ideas? Was he just scared? After reading so many posts I realize that this is a long process and that is incredibly daunting to me, but I'm going to give this a valiant effort. This seems really rambling and I'm sorry, but thanks for any insight.
