“What are we going to do with this cat?” I thought.
The cat in question was a dainty, little tiger-striped female, Baby Cakes, that belonged to my mother-in-law, who had just broken her hip. After surgery and rehab, she would move into assisted living. No cats allowed.
We had no doubt that we would take “Baby” in, but we had plenty of doubt about how our current, not-so-dainty, male, tiger-striped cat, Peeper, would handle this change in his living situation. We knew this much—this introduction would take some time.
Our instincts proved correct.
“Time,” agreed Annika Shoemaker, of Trapped and Tipped cat rescue when asked about the best way to introduce a new cat into a household with a resident cat.
“And that’s the biggest problem,” she said. “People want everyone to, all of a sudden, just be this happy family.”
How much time?
“They need two weeks for their GPS to reset from wherever they’re coming from,” she continued. “So, they’re not only going to have to learn your cat, but they’re going to learn you, your home, your smells, your routine.”
Shoemaker recommends bringing a cat into a “safe room,” a place where the cat can feel secure and begin to learn the home, before they are introduced to the current furry resident.
To begin acclimating the cats to each other, Shoemaker recommends scent swapping. Each cat should have contact with a blanket, then the blankets are switched. This gives each cat a scent introduction before they lay eyes on one another.
With Baby and Peeper, we had one cat on the first floor of our bi-level and the other cat on the second floor, then swapped.
“Let the cat out to kind of get the lay of the land without the other cats,” Shoemaker said. “So, they can get their bearings before my cat is running up to them, because that’s overwhelming.”
Next, allow the cats to meet underneath a door or behind a baby gate. Try and make it a positive experience by playing with or feeding the cats while this is happening.
It’s going well “if they seem curious, they’re not hissing or growling,” said Amanda Shafer, a cat rescue colleague of Shoemaker’s with over 10 years’ experience.
If one of the cats demonstrates a negative behavior, or runs away, they just aren’t ready.
“Then you go back and go slower,” Shoemaker said.
Rule of Threes
Based on Shoemaker and Shafer’s recommendations, I pushed Baby and Peeper’s introduction a bit, allowing them to be face-to-face at about a week. Things went well with no concerning behaviors. Shafer pointed out that some cats will be fine with a quicker introduction.
“Just listen to the cats, because you are still learning the [new] cat’s behaviors,” Shafer said. “I’ve had cats where it looks like they are going to attack, but really they’re just trying to be friends. So, you need to learn the cat too.”
Shoemaker talked about the “threes” rule: three days, three weeks, three months.
“Three days to calm down. Three weeks, they’re starting to look and learning your routine. Then three months is when they feel like they are actually at home and they’re settling,” she said.
If an owner has questions about the new addition, the rescue is a fantastic resource.
“The foster typically knows pretty well how that cat’s going to act, because they’ve already put the time into figuring that out,” Shoemaker said.
If your cat came into the home through someone who found a litter under their porch, or maybe you found the kittens under your porch, the safe room is even more important. The health history of these animals is unknown, and strays can carry an array of harmful diseases that could be transmitted to your current cat, such as ringworm or the deadly feline distemper. Shafer does not advise bringing a stray into a home with another cat in residence, but instead going through a rescue.
Also, it’s not always advisable to add another cat into your home.
“I’ve had people adopt because they want a single cat. That’s all they want,” Shoemaker said. “Then three years later, they would like a second. I’m like, ‘You adopted that particular cat because you wanted one cat. She did not do well with other cats here. Then she’s not going to do it now.’”
And occasionally, the situation just doesn’t succeed.
“Sometimes, it just won’t work. Maybe it’s not in the best interests of that cat to stay in that home,” Shoemaker said. “I would rather that cat come back to me, and I’ll get it in the right place.”
Baby Cakes and Peeper seem to have found the right place. Their introduction produced no cat fights, and they live together harmoniously.
When trying to create a multi-cat household, more time for that feline relationship is better than moving too fast.
“So, you let it [the introduction] go too long, it’s no issue,” Shoemaker said. “But if you try to rush that and there’s a bad interaction, that’s really hard to come back from.”
For more information on Trapped & Tipped, visit Annika Shoemaker’s Facebook page.
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