Adopted cat integration

[DaveyP]

Hello

This is my first post, I would appreciate any responses.

We have 3 cats:

Coco is a black female and came from Cats Protection. She is a feisty little one.

Barney is a very handsome tabby and white male stray we adopted at our last home after his former owner moved away and abandoned him. He is a lovely placid boy who loves to be around you.

Aphi is our newest addition. We went on holiday to Greece and were wandering around the village of Afytos in Halkidiki when we met her. She was heavily pregnant at the time and also suffering from worms, ear mites, fleas and was basically living under a bush. Aphi is a little grey and white cat. She is very small and has big ears, a wiry coat and a very spindly tail.. She is the loveliest, most affectionate cat you could ever meet. Her condition has improved so much since we first met her.

To cut a long story short we got Aphi sterilised and the unborn kittens terminated with the help of a local rescue charity. As she is so nice, we decided to adopt her and following her rabies jab and 28 day delay she arrived with us a week ago.

Aphi lived as part of a cat colony which probably numbered about 10 cats. As she had lived with other cats (probably related to her) we assumed she would be OK with our two.

We live in a 4 bedroom town house with 3 floors. Aphi is currently kept isolated in a spare bedroom. The other 2 are mostly downstairs in the lounge or in the garden sleeping under bushes - so they are fairly easy to keep apart. They can hear Aphi when she protests at being shut in her room and smell where she has been but it doesn't seem to be stressing them too much.

So far our attempts to introduce Aphi to Barney have failed. Barney is very tolerant of other cats and non aggressive. Aphi has got very aggressive towards Barney when we let Aphi come into our bedroom where Barney was already enjoying a fuss with us on our bed. Aphi bushed her tail up and chased Barney down 2 flights of stairs to our hall way. We suspect that Coco will go bananas when she sees Aphi as she is very territorial and intolerant of other cats.

We are aware that Aphi has only been with us for a week and that she has been through a lot of upheaval and is probably feeling very insecure but if anyone can give us any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

[Lilith]

Hi Davey and welcome. Good on yer for rescuing Aphi!

Sounds like there are going to be fireworks for a while, but it's early days yet and yes, Aphi will be insecure and also streetwise and as feisty, if not feistier, than Coco. The real advantage in this though is that she is accustomed to taking her place in a large cat community and they are communal creatures; she'll find her level although her instinct is of course to fight for the lean pickings she's known till she came to you.

I think the keywords are territory and supervision and to go on just as you are doing, introducing her to areas where your cats have prior claim, so that she doesn't get too big for her boots. Poor little girl, that sounds harsh but she's used to fighting her own corner and will have to get used to a world where ample food's provided, not quarrelled over or begged for, and where a cat can rely on a roof over its head as its right and not to be fought for...unfortunately sounds like she singled out poor Barney as a soft touch.

There will be other people on here with more experience than me about settling a new cat in but hope this helps for starters.

All the very best and do keep posting to say how they're getting on; Aphi's story is very heartwarming; again congrats

[bobbys girl]

Hello Davey, welcome to CC.

What a lovely thing you have done. I hope Aphi knows how lucky she is!

I agree with Lilith, it is early days yet. It sounds like you are doing the right things.

There are folks on here with a wealth of knowledge and I'm sure they will be along soon. I just wanted to say thank you and please keep in touch. Photo's would be nice!

Sue

[DaveyP]

Thanks for the comments.

Barney is indeed a soft touch We love him all the more for it..

We obviously have lots of pics - I will try and and upload some when I can get my head around how the site works...

[Cussypat1974]

Such a lovely story! That is one heck of a holiday souvenir to bring home eh? Lol

I have a mixed gang of feral and tame rescues. My gang are all pretty used to newcomers at this stage, but I follow the same method with every new arrival, and it has yet to fail me. I begin with the new one in the bathroom, in a cage (the large dog crates with room for bed, food and litter). This is done whether the cat is tame or feral.

After the cat has become used to ME, I start to let other friendly cats into the bathroom gradually, so they can meet but not fight. There are currently 32 cats here so I can pick and choose the least offensive ones depending on who is in the cage! Depending on reactions, I gradually let the new cat pit of the cage with the others while supervised. This then progresses to unsupervised mixing, still with the inoffensive cats. This entire process usually takes me a week, and then I gradually allow meetings with the cats who are more likey to be offensive to the new one, one at a time (so as not to overwhelm the new guy).

My situation is a bit different I realise, as my gang function as a colony and all get on very well together. Anu and Touchy will slap anyone who bothers them, but there are never any fights. The thing is.... If a stray or feral arrives in the garden here of its own accord, my cats will band together to see them off. I think they are just used to the bathroom being the place new colony members come from, magically lol!

[DaveyP]

Here are some pics of Aphi, Barney and Coco

Aphi 24th July

Aphi 24 July.JPG (119.47 KiB) Viewed 5694 times

Coco AKA Toothless

Coco AKA Toothless.JPG (95.26 KiB) Viewed 5694 times

Barney

Barnes on Chair.JPG (99.87 KiB) Viewed 5694 times

A heavily pregnant Aphi

Aphi Greece.JPG (170.27 KiB) Viewed 5694 times

Aphi's Street and some of her old gang

Aphi's Street.JPG (136.63 KiB) Viewed 5694 times

[Lilith]

Those are great pics - aren't Barney and Aphi similar! Only difference is his stripes!

Mind you, when my tomcat Finn (now sadly passed on) moved in, he was feral and starving and his (ginger) coat was unmarked; as he regained condition, he eventually got his stripes back - will be interesting to see if Aphi's coat does the same.

Lovely cats, paws crossed for the settling-in

[DaveyP]

Aphi is literally about half the size of Barney. The photos don't do the difference justice

I am curious to know what will happen to Aphi's coat in the winter - I would imagine where we live is a lot colder in Winter than where she comes from. Maybe we will need to a little coat for her

Today Aphi saw Barnes and tried to chase after him.

I also tried to carry Coco into the room where Aphi has been staying (Aphi was in another room at the time). I thought she might like to have a sniff around. Coco tensed up and struggled to get down and then promptly scuttled away to another bedroom.

We still have a long way to go.

[Alice]

I don't think you'll need to measure Aphi up for a coat - I think nature will help out by thickening up her own fur coat when it gets colder, and she'll find the warmest place she can to snuggle up indoors.

Lovely photos, and good luck with the integration.

[HollyJLancaster]

Hi, we have just been through the exact same thing with our cat, although we adopted a kitten rather than an adult cat we had to go through a period of intergrating them, in all it took about eight weeks to get them to the point where they could be together under casual supervision. We've had Tiki our kitten for just under five months now and we only just started leaving them together downstairs overnight unsupervised in the last four weeks and even then it depends on their mood as sometimes our older cat Boo just wants a bit of peace. Anyway, they might not work for you as you are dealing with adult cats but here are a few of the things we did -

Communal eating - we started feeding them both at the same time each day but in different rooms, after a day or two we moved the bowls closer to each other but still kept each one either side of a closed door so they could smell but not see each other. After a few days of doing this we started opening the door but moved the bowls far apart again so this time they could see each other and smell each other but were comfortably far apart. Food is a great distraction, we slowly moved the bowls closer to each other over several weeks. Now they happily eat next to each other and share a water and biscuit bowl quite peacefully.

Scent swapping - every night we used a clean soft towel to rub all over the kitten, especially around her cheeks as this is where they have strong scent glands, we would then use the towel to rub Boo so she would have the kittens smell on her as she was getting cuddles, she didn't like this at first but once she realised the towel meant fuss time she didn't mind the kitten smell.

Feliway - we brought a bottle of feliway room scent and used it for about a week, it made Boo very happy and relaxed and improved her mood so she was more tolerant of the kitten.

Limited visits - we started with about ten minutes of contact time per day once we had done all of the above for a few weeks, at first they were very hostile to each other but we just persevered and upped the time a little more each time. They had a few little tussles but we made sure to keep the balance between allowing Boo to assert herself as the dominant cat (Tiki had her ears boxed a few times) and making sure there were no serious injuries.

I hope all goes well with your intergration, there were so many times when I thought our two would never get along but now they're always together. Good luck!

[DaveyP]

Hello again

We have now had Aphi for nearly 4 weeks and integration is still a problem. She still acts very aggressively towards the other two cats.

Barney is pretty scared of her. Coco is more aggressive towards her. This morning Aphi saw Coco through the window in the lounge door and they were swiping at each other and caterwauling. Aphi is particularly vocal.

We still have to keep them separately. Our attempts at socialization have gone badly so far. Being a street cat, Aphi does not like being shut in her room and cries a lot (especially at night ). If you let her out she is fine and quiet and just wants to cuddle up close.

We found a forum post which suggests the aggression may be something to do with Aphi recently having been spayed. Would anyone have any similar experiences?

Barney and Coco are a bit stressed too - we are starting to wonder if we did the right thing..

[HollyJLancaster]

It may be completely unrelated but I'm wondering if they are finding it hard to adapt to Alphi because her scent keeps changing?

As a mother to recently born kittens when arriving she would have had a very strong smell which your other cats, especially Coco might have found threatening - as new mother cats are defensive of their young if she still smelt like her kittens Coco might feel like she could attack her. Then of course, if she has been neutered since her scent may have changed again - this could be what's upsetting them as they keep smelling different cat smells in their territory.

It must be hard though as even if you get to the bottom of it you may find that they just simply don't like each other. I hope you get it sorted out!

[Lilith]

Aww, still early days - but must be hell!

I agree with Holly about the alien scents when cats are being introduced, and Aphi's got the added handicap of living a wild life where she would automatically defend herself against all comers even though she was part of a cat community...

Really hope you, and she, and your other cats, can continue to cope and that your little 'savage' starts to learn to be civilised. It is a case of time and adjustment - easy to say I know and been there done that, wished I'd never taken certain cats on and in fact wished anyone would take them off my hands - but it HAS worked out in the end (again easy to say that!)

All paws here crossed for a successful integration

[DaveyP]

Thanks for the kind words.

At what point do you throw in the towel? It is still early days yet and we are not contemplating the possibility that they wont grow to like each other - we hope that they will at least tolerate each other. However, is there a rule of thumb in relation to a timescale when, if there is still hostility, it becomes clear that they will not get on with each other?

[Lilith]

Hi Davey - I'm sorry, but there really isn't a rule of thumb - they're all different and they all interact differently.

I have a four year old who came to me as an adolescent from a family who couldn't cope with her because she was - is - such a wildie that she wasn't socialisable (if there is such a word lol.) I've only recently been able to stroke her stomach and she'll still inflict GBH on me if she decides to. She can still cause trouble with my two elderly cats.

When I bred Siamese I had a girl who made herself obnoxious to a three-quarter Siamese, simply because SHE was a Brood Queen. She didn't 'brood', the little madam, and had to be neutered, but she and the crossbred feuded for a decade...until the Siamese became terminally ill and her erstwhile enemy looked after her tenderly and washed her...

You'll probably get other stories from people on here about how their cat population will be peaceful one day and chaotic the next. The only thing to do is stick it out...it may be worse for you than it is for the cats who have their own language and rules - but that's cold comfort I know. Sometimes the bottom line is, if they're not actually tearing each other to pieces, let them work it out themselves!

All the very very best and hope someone else on here can give better advice, again congrats on rescuing Aphi and really hope you manage to integrate and keep her, you have my sympathies!

Edit - Sorry, I've been worrying about this post - I feel as if I might not have given you much hope and would just like to add that there's every chance of them settling down together (although with the odd bout of fireworks; cats, like people, can have rows when living together, and then all is calm again, as I expect you've found with your other cats.) But at the moment it IS early days and it's being a rough ride. I HAVE known the unlikeliest cats agree to share a house and owner and to safely be left unsupervised. Sometimes things can just calm down of their own accord and you breathe a huge sigh of relief...

For some reason I can't access the other posts in this thread, so sorry if I'm repeating someone else's advice, but I've remembered a good tip I read on here about swapping the cats' blankets to accustom them to each other's scent, and also even wiping the cats with each other's blanket or something they've slept on.

Again, all the very best and do keep updating

[HollyJLancaster]

As mentioned above, it is really down to what you and your cats can cope with - our first attempt at intergrating was with our old male cat - we introduced our current older female into our house when he was 12 years old and had never had another cat for company. They hated each other whole heartedly for the first six months to the point where we had to give Boo the female up for four months to to foster carer to give them a break from each other. However they found they strangely missed each other and when they were reintroduced they became inseparable. Boo grieved when he passed away for several weeks. Our most recent introduction of a new female took about eight weeks so really there is no hard and fast rule. I find you know in your heart when you've got to the point that there's no chance of working and that's the time to look at alternatives.

[bobbys girl]

Hi Davey - sorry you are having problems. I can only agree with everything Lilith has said.

It is early days yet, and I would not give up hope that they will settle down and may even become friends.

In every family there is always 'one'! Ours is Gracie - she's not called 'Pickle Puss' for nothing. The boys are the best of friends and Willow and Purdy often sleep together. But when Grace walks in the room Willow tenses, ready for flight, Purdy gives Grace her best Clint Eastwood (go ahead cat, make my day) look, Tom looks at her as if to say 'don't make me come down there and box your ears' and Bob just shrugs his shoulders 'whatever'!

It has gone on for years - it's just the way things are in our house. As long as they have their space and an exit route planned everyone is fine. To my Dave, Gracie is a daddies girl and just wants to sleep on his knee. To everyone else she is your average pain in the bum!

I'm not saying for one minute that your family is heading in the same direction. But even if they are never the best of friends, as long as they have their own space they'll work things out.

You did a lovely thing - it will be OK.

[DaveyP]

Thanks for all the encouraging words.

On Saturday we thought that we were making a bit of progress. Aphi and Barney sat very close to each other in the garden. Coco and Aphi had a bit of a stand off in our lounge - they were about 4 feet apart and were growling softly at each other but they didn't fight.

We thought this was good.

Late on Saturday, Barney was strolling across the patio and Aphi decided to chase him upstairs and corner him under one of our beds.

On Sunday, Becky was at home with them (I was out for pretty much all the day). Aphi was curled up on the sofa with Becky, it was a hot day and the patio was open. Coco strolled in from the garden and walked past the sofa. .Aphi clocked her and immediately went bananas and jumped down and basically cornered her in the hallway.

Later on Sunday evening, Aphi had been in the lounge with us - we thought Barney was in the garden. We were wrong - he was in the top floor by the balcony door snoozing (one of his favourite spots). Aphi happened to go up there unsupervised, saw him (probably surprised him) and went for him again.

The problem we now have is that Barney and Coco are getting very stressed. Especially Barney. He is reluctant to come into house to have food as he things she will be there.

We feel we have opened a big can of worms by adopting her. She is a lovely little cat. She is very very affectionate and docile around humans. She just turns demonic when she sees the other two..

We have now had her for 4 weeks. We now really appreciate how easy living with the other two was..

[Lilith]

Oh Davey - one step forward and three back eh?

There ARE positive signs, like Aphi sitting near Barney - and I wouldn't give up just yet, but it sounds hellish.

Easy for me to say but - I feel you've still got a chance yet of getting them to settle down. All the very very best, give them a love from me and tell that Aphi she's to start behaving herself, little horror!

[DaveyP]

I thought I would write a quick update.

We seem to have made some progress this week.

Aphi can now be trusted not to go bananas when she sees the other 2 and we have been able to relax a bit and not have to stand on guard all the time.

Still early days - she still show signs of unpredictability and Barney is still very nervous of her. We are positively encouraged though

[Lilith]

Hey congrats - that's great news!

[HollyJLancaster]

Fantastic news - it's so nerve wracking when you feel like you constantly need to be on high alert in case they have a spat...hopefully this is a good sign that those days will soon be over!

[DaveyP]

A little update

All of our cats are getting on slightly better than before. There are still signs of aggression but they are becoming quite a bit less frequent.

It seems that Coco and Aphi don't really see eye to eye. Coco really should be an only cat. Aphi still will chase Barney but seems to be much more tolerant.

Aphi is a very affectionate little cat. She will try and sit on your lap as soon as you sit down. She doesn't do the normal cat thing of turning round 10 times before settling either, she just plonks herself down wherever she can. She is a lot fluffier than when we got her and looks much more healthy.

The major concern we have, apart from her ongoing spat with Coco is her appetite. She is the greediest cat I have ever known. She will eat and eat if she gets the chance. Sometimes she looks like a little barrel and not a great deal different from when she was pregnant. Although all the cats now eat together, she will finish every scrap in her bowl as if it is a race whereas Barney and Coco are more grazers. So they will pick a bit and then wander off - we have to be quick otherwise Aphi will pile in and finish theirs too. We assume that this is something to do with her being a street cat - anyone have any tips as to how we can address her raging appetite.

[Lilith]

Hey that's great to hear - yes, there will always be the odd difference of opinion in any cat community, just as in a human one, but if they can now be trusted to co-exist and behave, that's good going!

Ah, the feral appetite...the lad I mentioned earlier, Finn, took this to extremes. He'd been living rough all his life before he joined me, and he was a big chap who needed his food. Later I met someone from a nearby street who recognised him and said that he used to sit on their windowsill and scream for food. He was governed by his need for food; he would stuff and stuff until he vomited - and then go back for more. After neutering he still sprayed and had to be gently trained out of this, but the slightest criticism from me had him running to the biscuit dish - better stoke up in case he got thrown out! Poor chap! This slowed down by and by but I'm afraid he was always a definitely portly cat. I suppose I ought to have rationed the communal biscuit dish, but in a multi-cat household that's difficult.

I used to know a cat rescue worker who took in a whole tribe of ferals and was amazed at their hollow legs lol. It does slow down as they become more secure but I know from experience that it's hard to refuse them. Food is reassurance to an ex-feral. It may take Aphi some time to realise that she no longer needs to gorge on today's plenty so as to stoke up for a possibly meagre tomorrow; it's a primitive instinct. She does sound happy though!

Again very glad to know they are settling in so well

[Jacks]

Hi DaveyP,

Wonderful that you rescued this little girl and gave her the chance of a happy life!

Cat dynamics - phew. You really are doing very well. Considering your little street girl Aphi did not take kindly to finding residents not from her colony and Coco and Barney had never met a street girl before, it sounds like you are making real progress.

You are probably right that Coco doesn't really like other cats; Barney, being male and very quiet, didn't cause her any problems and was tolerated, Alphi - a mature female who has had a litter - is a challenge of her dominance. Safe to say they are unlikely ever to like each other, but they will tolerate and get used to the fact that they are resident. You'll probably find them choosing different times to frequent areas of the house, rather than spend too much time together.

My most recent cat (Phoebe) came to us as a 2 year old female who had been a mum too. She joined my family of 4 and integrated pretty well being a very sociable, confident and peaceable little lady. She was given a hard time by the resident dominant female, who used passive aggression and a few random whack (when least expected) to intimidate her new rival. This went on for 46 weeks (yes, I was counting!) until I had to take the newbie to the vet, strangely. When I brought her home Miss Dominance was actually pleased to see her, sniffed her nicely, and I've had no trouble since!!!

I also have an ex-stray boy who had been living wild for about 4-5 years and was too feral to be examined by the vet after being caught. He has tamed down hugely since neutering and is DEFINITELY under the thumb of the dominant female (we jokingly call her 'The Missus' as she regularly whacks him to keep him under her thumb. Our smallest girl was terrified of him though and he used to bully her, attacking her most unpleasantly (fisticuffs). We spent over a year keeping them in different areas of the house by a system of doors, and over this last 6 months have started to integrate. Things are getting better all the time. If she runs he sees her as prey and goes after (you'll see this with Alphi and Barney) - if she stands her ground and hisses at him, or ignores him, he backs off or ignores her. If he starts to look at her 'in that way' we distract him with fusses and active play - feathers on a string thingies like 'daBird'. He forgets to chase her; she forgets to be scared. Things are improving. I'm hoping within 2 years to be able to allow him out of the kitchen area at night - at the moment he has a cuddly bed in his 'area' and is separated from the others at night so that he doesn't attack the little one. Oddly new girl Phoebe loves him...

The other thing about him is his eating. As a stray, before he came in from the cold, he had thick, wiry hair (protection against the cold) and pigged every bit of food he could possible shove down that gullet. Not surprising when they don't know when the next meal will come of course... It's taken him time, but now he has calmed right down and although he's still got quite a belly (he got really fat when he first moved in) he's fit and happy and now eats normally - it takes them a time, but they get there!