News of the non-newsy type - mostly about cats

[lexin]

No news I can give you on the job front, things continue to grind on in a grindy sort of way.

I do, however, have a new cat.

It is thus: a friend of a friend was looking for someone to take on a cat of hers. She started the year with four cats. One, the eldest and grande dame of the household, Pippo, died. This left three cats, Pixel, Squeakerton and Polar, none of whom were happy without Pippo. Pixel was being bullied by Polar and Squeakerton was acting out (peeing where he shouldn’t and so on) so she decided to try to rehome Pixel, and Squeakerton if she could find anyone suitable.

I said I’d take Pixel. This was in June. The FOAF was going to South America in August, so said she would wait until she came back to pass Pixel over. August came and went, and I got in touch with her, and she said she’d got flu, so could I wait. I waited. September came and went, as did most of October.

Finally, she said she was ready to pass on Pixel and even then it took a little while to arrange a suitable weekend to bring her down from Norfolk to London.

Pixel spent the first two weeks here living at the back of my wardrobe and only coming out to eat, drink, pee and poop. In the last ten days or so, she’s come out into the bedroom and now sleeps either on my bed, on me or on the chair I’ve sprayed catnip all over. But she won’t come into the rest of the flat, and if Smokey goes into the bedroom, Pixel hisses and spits at her. Smokey just looks confused, but does do that fur-all-out thing that cats do – her tail looks like a bottle brush and she looks twice her normal size, and hisses, but doesn’t spit. Every other day they have a yowly disagreement, but separate without damage to either party.

Sometimes Pixel will growl at nothing – no sign of Smokey, but she sits under a chair and has a growl to herself.

I’m not sure what to do now – I’ve bought Feliway Friends and put it in Pixel’s room. Smokey has ordinary Feliway in the living room.

I want them to co-exist, if not peacefully, without fighting or growling. Any suggestions?

Comments

[marcelo]

Yay new cat! (But I'm as useless regarding inter-cat diplomacy as, well, as my cat *g*.)

[lexin]

She is very sweet, and loves a cuddle.

[marcelo]

Aww. She's very pretty, too.

[lexin]

She really is a sweetie.

[anotherslashfan]

This is a weird recommendation but if you can, try and catch the reality TV show "My Cat from Hell", their advice seems very sound. There are some short clips on Youtube. It's not exactly great TV but it could still help.

[lexin]

Oh, yes, I'm familiar with Jackson Galaxy but hadn't thought of him. Will try and see if he has anything to offer.

[catalenamara]

Congratulations on the new cat. My experience has been it takes up to six weeks for cats to get acquainted with each other. You're about halfway through that process now, and it's similar to experiences I've had. YMMV, of course, and unfortunate some cats never get along. But they're not fighting and the behaviour you describe seems typical to me. Maybe they'll never be best friends, but I anticipate they'll shortly be able to co-exist in the same rooms. Also, new cats often take quite some time before they'll leave the first room they are introduced to.

[lexin]

Thanks for the suggestions, it's useful to know I'm not alone.

[dancing_serpent]

Seconding everything catalenamara said. Also, it can take up to six weeks until you notice the Feliway working. How many litter boxes do you have for them? Because that can add to the stress, as well.

But, for comparison, I have two eight year old cats, sisters from the same litter. They don't like each other very much. They had screaming fights every day, sometimes with tiny injuries. And it made them sick - every six months, one or the other suffered from cystitis. My vet gave me the following advice: Buy Feliway Friends, put up more litter boxes - one per cat and then one extra - and place them in different rooms/places all around the flat, and feed them special "Urinary Calm" food.

I've been doing this for about 1,5 years now, and it seems to help. They haven't been sick since (big yay!), and they're still not liking each other very much. They do growl at each other every day, but they can tolerate being in the same room together now, or even sitting about two metres apart from each other.

I'd say, give it time. It's early days, and they still can get used to each other or even become friends.

[lexin]

I have three litter boxes, one in Pixel's room, one in the hall and one in the bathroom, which is the one that Smokey uses. Neither of them seem to use the one in the hall, but I have hopes.

Glad to hear there is still hope for them, they've been together not quite four weeks.

[chelseagirl]

It may take awhile. We have five in a one bedroom, which is not ideal, but my husband does animal rescue and it sort of happened. Some of them like each other more than others do, but they all co-exist; it can take some serious time, though.

[lexin]

Thanks for the information - five in a one bedroom flat? That is amazing.