I have a kitten who is roughly the age of the McMaos, maybe a week older. I also have 2 older cats, a 7 year old and a 14 year old (my Miz Poo clone). The kitten has had free reign of the house for about a week and a half now.
Boundaries between the kitten and the 14 year old are well established — the 14 year old is a hisser/growler/spitter, and the kitten has learned to keep his distance.
The problem is with the 7 year old (Tashi). The kitten follows her around like a shadow, always poking at her and trying to jump on her. Tashi has started growling and hissing more, but the kitten isn’t really getting the hint and it’s stressing Tashi out. Poor girl feels like she has to hide all the time.
Any suggestions for getting the kitten to back off a bit? I’m hoping Tashi will start to be more aggressive and assert herself and that the kitten will start to get into a normal routine, but in the meantime Tashi looks like she needs a valium. If I’m home I can mediate a bit, but I’m out of the house at least 3 days a week.
Help, oh guru of kitty integration!
When you originally introduced the kitten to the other cats, did you do it gradually, or did you just kind of let him have the run of the house? Because I’m thinking that you might want to go back a few steps and keep the kitten contained in a room by himself and introduce him slowly. You also might want to try Feliway (I don’t know that it really makes a lot of difference in our house, but some people swear by it), and possibly also some Rescue Remedy for Tashi might help chill her out a bit. Other than that, I’m kind of at a loss, so I’m tossing this out for others to chime in on!
Spanky looks SO SOFT and fluffy. Is he?
and
Spanky, as you all probably know is my favorite. He looks so soft. Is he a lap cat? Actually I prefer a side cat. Meaning I like to have a sweet kitty cat laying next to me on the couch.
Spanky has very silky fur which makes him a pleasure to pet. I also think he has the prettiest eyes, they’re such a lovely sea green.
He’s not a lap cat at all, though every once in a while if you’re snoozing on the couch he’ll settle in between your legs so that you’re stuck in one position for the duration of your nap, whether you like it or not. Most of the time he prefers to sit next to you, and if you’re not paying enough attention to him, he’ll touch his cold nose to your hand or leg – or any exposed skin, really – until you give in.
I loved Gus and his floof, I wonder if he is still as floofy?
I suspect, given the amount of ear floof he had, he’s probably still just as floofy. Here’s a shot of him when he was less of a wee kitten, and it cracks me up because of the ear floof:
Pancho has the Mark of Zorro in his ear!
and
Somehow I’ve forgotten about Pancho….maybe you could refresh my memory your Friday post? I’ve never had a solid white cat! No idea why not, except that all my cats have been strays, and a white cat just never wandered into my path. In my neighborhood most cats are either black or grey tabbies.
Pancho was one of Los Gatitos, a litter of white cats (their page is here). They were only with us very briefly – July 15th – 23rd, 2010 – and were given Spanish names because their date of birth was guesstimated to be May 5th, Cinco de Mayo. Pancho had two green eyes, his brother Hermano had two blue eyes (he wasn’t deaf, as some blue-eyed white cats are), their sister Evita had green eyes, and Sofia had one blue and one green eye.
The kittens had numbers written inside their ears at the vet’s office so they wouldn’t be mixed up, and Pancho was number two, which explains the Harry Potter lightning bolt inside his ear!
We have only seen one white cat come through here – yesterday, Fred looked out the side door, and said “We don’t know that cat, do we?” I looked, and there was a white cat casually laying under the truck. When I opened the door, the cat looked over, got up, and moseyed off. I suspect he belongs to someone in the neighborhood, but if he shows up again, I’ll try to get a picture (right before we trap him and whisk him off to the vet for testing and spaying/ neutering!)
Robyn, have you seen this? Woman With 700 Cats Says “I’m Not Crazy, What I Do Is Crazy”
Could be your future ;-p
Oh no no no, I’m perfectly happy to be a foster home, NOT an actual shelter!
That said, I cannot wait to see that special!
Wow, the Spices have hit that long, lanky stage! When did that happen? And Clove is turning from the cutest little ball of fluff into just the loveliest girl. Want!
I think it pretty much happened overnight, as they always seem to. I swear, I watch them and watch them, saying “They’re going to hit their lanky stage any moment now!”, but then I blink and they’re all of a sudden long and lanky! I need to keep a video camera on them at all times to capture the moment of lankiness-onset, obviously!
A suggestion for your camera – assuming it has a memory card – do you remove it and put it into the computer, rather than hooking the camera to the computer?
A while ago I took a class from National Geographic photographers and they stressed *very strongly* to move the memory card from the camera to the computer when transferring files.
Also, after moving all the files from the card to the computer, they also stressed that *reformatting* the memory card, in the camera only, erases all tid bits of leftover data when one erases/deletes the files. (End of suggestions. ->^..^<- )
I do have a card reader for my memory card and look at the pictures that way (mostly because I hate using up the battery while looking through the pictures!) I also reformat the memory card in the camera, though I don’t reformat it every time I erase pictures, more like once a week or so.
The issue I was having getting the pictures off my camera is that SOMEONE chewed through the cord to the memory card reader. I don’t know who, but I have my long and lanky suspicions!
Does Cori still have her sweet little meep eep eep eep eep! meep! meow? I kind of… you know… melted into a puddle when the video featuring it was posted before.
She doesn’t actually meow very often these days, but I’ll see if I can’t get another video of her doing so. She’s got more of a husky meow, now that she’s a big girl.
Just wanted to say that I might be inexperienced, but I don’t recall ever seeing a shoe box with the lid attached. Is that because I do all my shopping at discount stores and on ebay? My two love ‘traditional’ shoeboxes, the tighter the better, but I bet my big guy would love one of those with the attached lid.
That shoe box is actually one that a friend sent me some cool stuff in. I can’t tell what kind of shoes came in it, but a Google search showed me that they’re called “flip lid shoeboxes”, and the first couple of links are about how to wrap them. It’s still the most popular box in the house, and if Jake or Elwood isn’t in it, then one of the little girls is. Who knew it’d end up such a hit?
You have had Corbie checked for FIV, haven’t you? I had a beautiful shaded silver Persian who was diagnosed with FIV at several months of age. She kept getting ear infections. The vet was fairly certain she got FIV from her mother.
All Challenger’s House cats are tested for FIV and Feline Leukemia. Corbie and his brothers all initially tested FIV positive because their mother was FIV positive. They were tested when we first got them (around five weeks, I think), then again at four months, when they were a very faint positive. They finally tested negative at (I think) six months, and Corbie’s been tested again since then, just to be safe. He was definitely negative.
On a side note to newish readers, Corbie and his brothers (collectively known as The Bookworms) are half brothers to the litter known as The Wonkas (they had the same mother). The Wonkas initially tested FIV positive, too, and then eventually tested negative once the antibodies had left their systems.
That poor mother cat (who was absolutely feral) produced the best babies – I was absolutely in love with all the Wonkas AND all of the Bookworms, and I still miss all the ones who went on to forever homes.
(Okay, wait. I guess I’m always in love with ALL my fosters, aren’t I!)
Do y’all remember last week when I posted this picture of the pigs:
and said: Is it just me, or does this look like a Charlie’s Angels pose?
Well, Sofia ran with that concept!
Crack. Me. UP!
Thanks, Sofia!!!
“I see what you’re doing, and I’m appalled. APPALLED, I SAY. Stop it right now!”
Clove reminds me very much of Fergus Simon in this picture.
Nap time in the sun!
Until Cori comes along and has to be put in her place.
Ferocious creatures.
Clove is pretty sure she’s the boss, now.
Sisters snoozing in the kitchen.
Now! Winner of The Most Beautiful Cat Ever! As judged and awarded by the completely impartial ME! I bet you will be SO SURPRISED!
That’s right, it’s Corbie! I know you’re shocked. You shouldn’t be. I mean, look at that gorgeous boy!
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Previously
2010: He is the nosiest cat in the house, and that’s saying something!
2009: No entry.
2008: Five awesome toys for $4, and it’s like donating to a no-kill shelter.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Thank you so much for sharing my link about the kitten needing a home. I haven’t had any takers yet, but I hope people will help spread the word! 🙂
Dear Tashi owner. I too went through the same thing. I had 2 cats prior to bringing in Emma. Emma is the world’s most subordinate cat. If there is 1000 cats in the room with her, she is at the bottom of the totum pole. The eldest two passed on from old age (each was 17). I later got a kitten for Emma. Well, same thing. The kitten was (and still is) more dominate than she is. Emma seems just as miserable as Tashi does. She can be sleeping and gets suddenly pounced on and bit in the neck. I am sure it was just all fun and games for the kitten…but not for her. 2 1/2 yrs went by and it was still happening and the younger one just RULED her. I got a kitten…he LOVES the kitten and 90% of his attention is toward her and they play like crazy. So now, Emma has 90% spa time and 10% misery. Yes, I did a slow introduction, etc. I think it is just personalities. The newest kitten is curious about Emma, but her hissing and such causes the baby to give her a wide berth.
Anyone else have a suggestion…I’m willing to listen. I doubt Tashi’s owner wants a 4th cat. LOL
Thanks for posting my question! I did do a gradual introduction. He actually was completely segregated for almost 3 weeks, and then it was supervised integration for another couple of weeks before we dared to leave him out while we weren’t home.
GD, thanks for the feedback! I definitely don’t want a 4th cat… I didn’t particularly want a 3rd right now, but he showed up in our yard and we couldn’t find another home for him, so he stays!
I have never heard of Rescue Remedy, and I think I may be giving it a try.
One of my cats had a bad reaction to Feliway – he went crazy attacking for about 5 minutes when the mister ran out each month – even when also prozac’ed out.
On the pouncing stuff – the only thing that might help is to design a special space for the punching-bag cat that she can avoid him – maybe high up on a shelf or in small enclosed box or a room the kitten doesn’t go to. It might be more tolerable if she can avoid it. The only other advice is to burn off the kitten’s energy with toys yourself so that he has less energy and wait for him to grow out of it.
Once I had a match of an 15 year old cat and a not mean, but kitteny new kitten. He eventually grew out of the pouncy months and she was a lot happier.
My world makes sense now that I’m reminded of Corbie’s extraordinary handsomeness!! Yay!!!
Hugs to all the kitties – gorgeous as ever!!
Robyn’s Angels just cracked me up!! LOL!!!! Take care
x
Corbie looks so much like my dearly departed Brittanie Lee Farnsworth! She passed away on June 4th and it broke my heart. We were fortunate to have Brittie from the time she was just 4 weeks old to a whopping 14 years old! She was healthy, happily grouchy, and wonderful until the very end.
I hate to say this, but the best way to solve the kitten following the older cat and driving them nuts problem, is you guessed it: another kitten. This is why I always try to get two kittens at once and/or at least try to keep the kitten in a different room with an older cat I know to be tolerant of babies.
If you have two kittens, for a day or two they may hiss at each other but after that they will become “litter mates” and spend a lot more time beating up and playing with each other, than hopelessly following an older cat who comes to hate them.
Of course, once in awhile, both kittens will gang up on the older cat and pounce; but even if the older cat is very mean, the kittens can pout together and then race off for new adventures.
Please consider this solution if you have room in your home at all for another kitten (or cat up to about 1 year of age, still playful). I don’t really know of anything else that nearly always seems to work, and if you’ve got a wide age spread, if both kittens stay in good health will be age mates into middle and old aged together.
If you really, really can’t get another kitten, try the enclosed room (and maybe even visits inside a cat carrier to the older kitty’s territory). But seriously this problem sounds more like a young kitten desperate for an older cat to copy, follow and play with; which means the kitten just isn’t going to stop and the older cat may just become mean. Sometimes, the older cat just gives up and says “oh all right, I’ll play with you, you little fluff-ball” but when they don’t, you can be setting yourself up for five to fifteen years of feline hostility.
Hope that helps,
Melodi
As judged by the completely impartial….. no, no, you’re biased! Corbie is UNDENIABLY extremely gorgeous, but as a real, utterly, absolutely impartial judge, I have to say my beautiful old boy, Barnabas, was the most handsome, gorgeous, adorable and Magnificent cat of all time; past, future and present. But please tell gorgeous Corbie that his Auntie Attila reckons him to be somewhere around the 4th most gorgeous cat ever (after B and my present 2).
Glad we’ve cleared that up 😉
as for kitten intergration and Tashi… Never under estimate the power of giving permission. Let Tashi know it is perfectly OK to put the kitten in it’s place, and that it could be Tashi’s job to help you train the kitten. Praise Tashi all over the place, and remove the kitten when you can, gently scolding the kitten when you do, so Tashi sees that you accept the order of the household and support it.
Cat vs Cat is a book about dealing with multi cat households and how you can keep the peace. LOTS of great suggestions and tips
I totally let Emma know that she could give him the smack down. I really think it is all in the cat’s personality. She just doesn’t have it in her. He, on the other hand, is a spit-fire. He is 2.5 yrs old and still has not out grown the joys of pouncing her. I think sometimes it is what it is. Sorry all.
Re. the cord chewage — “long and lanky suspicions”… hahahaha!! That totally hit my funny bone, and I laughed out loud (out LOUD) at work!! 🙂