Welcome, Cass.

So, on the way home this weekend, we were all talking about possibly adding a member of the family. Jared has taken the kids to see the kittens at the pet store, and well, after checking Craigslist today, we drove to Durham to pick out a kitten from a litter of 6.

We debated her name on the way home, and suddenly Elliott said, “Cassiopeia!” Of course he would pick a constellation (ha!), but then Rowen said, “Cassie!” And I said, “Cass!” and there we had it.

She’s a 7 week old grey and white striped tabby, and she climbed into my lap and promptly fell asleep in my hand. Already she’s a snuggler, and I am pretty smitten by her.

We are taking the introduction to Jane slowly, having freaked ourselves out online about introductions of a kitten to a resident cat. Jane stayed warily across the room for most of it, and hissed a couple of times, but that’s it. Cass is staying in a separate room tonight, and we’re hoping that Jane just eventually accepts her as part of the family.

We’ve toyed with the idea of getting a second cat. The kids were SO excited. I am not sure if I’m ready for the transition to a two-pet family, so we’ll see. But the fact that she just LOVED on me, sure melts my heart to pieces. :)

Any advice? Have you introduced a kitten to a resident cat? What worked, didn’t work? Jane is a pretty laid-back cat, so we are really hoping. :)

Comments

[Julie]

I use to volunteer for a shelter and also introduced a second cat to our long time resident cat. They recommended giving the new cat their own room and own space (a bathroom, a guest room etc.). Wait for the cat to get settled about a week. The cats will sniff and greet through the door to start and that is good and safe. Then have the cats switch territories for a few hours. Let the resident cat check out the kittens room and let the kitten check out the house. then gradually start leaving the door open for short periods of time until they are accustomed to each other. We did this and it worked for us. They don't love each other, but they have an "understanding". Congrats! Can't wait to see all the adorable pictures and LOs.

[Gretchen]

Separate rooms for the first few days. When we did this, by the end of day 2, we swapped rooms - moved the resident cat into the kitten room for a couple of hours and then let the kitten roam the house. By the end of day 3, they were in the same room (supervised) and by the end of the week with exposures like that, it was all good. :-) Having 2 cats, clean up duties will multiply (and not by 2. They seem to like to "compete" for lack of better word.) We ended up investing in a litter robot. This thing makes clean up a breeze. You don't have to buy trays for the other types - just dumps into a costco 10 gallon trash bag. http://www.litter-robot.com/ Once we got it going, we both couldn't believe we waited so long. :-) It's a great machine. :)

[Terebene]

We did the separate room thing, too. Depends on the cats. Some will become friends, some will just cope. She is adorable! Enjoy her.

[Jackie]

Well, we had the same situation and I must say little miss kitty was a bit bossy for the 3year-old cat's taste. They pretty much fought all of the time. The kitten then went missing after one year and the older one missed her. Go figure. She was always so hungry that he let her eat out of his bowl. I guess it kinda depends on the cat. It'll work out!

[Stefanie]

We have just introduced a 4th (Siamese boy) into the family and there was some hissing and spitting but they all get on fine now. It helps that the weather is so cold they have to snuggle up. I would say just keep giving Jane lots of love and treats...reminding her that she is "top" cat and that you still love her too.

[Lora]

She looks just like my baby Yoko, (4yr old now but always my baby). She's a Mary Cat...see the M on her forehead. I had a 4 yr. old grumpy fluffy cat when I brought Yoko home when she was just 12 hrs. old. I kept them apart of course, until she could walk but they just naturally decided the alpha beta status that animals all do. They sit together and sometimes sleep in the same room, but they have their own bedrooms they sleep in and just share the house during the day. Animals have a way of working things out. Just give Jane equal amounts of attention and "mommy" time and they will be fine. Oh, we have two seperate cat boxes in different areas of the house so there is no territorial issues over that. Enjoy your beautiful kitten. I can't wait to see your scrapbook pages of Cass!!!

[Jenn A.]

What a cutie! Somehow two cats is a LOT more cleanup...other than that it only took my kitties a week or two to tolerate each other. They were both adults (we each had one before we married) so it might be easier introducing a kitten to an adult...good luck!
Jenn A.

[wendy]

i concur with the separate room for the first few days where they can sniff each other under the door. that worked well for us too.

she's darling jes congrats!

[marianne]

Hello jessica!
I have posted a photo of Boris (my 8 weeks kitten)today. its in the frame up gallery. Its wonderful to have such energy and love in the house brought by an adorable animal!! I"m enyoing your lessons,learning a lot. Thank you very much!!

[Susanna]

Guess you heard about the separate room thing, huh? We brought in a 4 week old kitten to a home with two existing cats. We kept him separate for a few days and then separate when they were unsupervised.

It took a couple of weeks for the hissing to stop, but it all worked out fine. We love our kitten and it was really fun to have a new little family member.

[LivE]

no cat advice... but just wanted to say... YAY! Lizzie (on your inner wrist) meets kitty! heehee! :D

[Heather G]

Congratulations! Ditto about the keeping them separate and making the introduction slow. They will work it out in their own time. Some introductions take longer and some go smoothly from the start. We found that making sure they have their own litter box and own dishes for food has really helped them get along. Less they have to compete over, the happier they seem to be.

We currently have a mamma and litter of 6 newborns with us and our other 3 cats are tolerating it being separated but definitely want attention too. Don't forget Jane even though Cass is melting your heart. We have found that if I hold one of them and my husband holds another and we stay a good distance apart from one another but focus is on the other, they seem to be more secure in being around each other. Don't get them too close too quickly or you will be the one with the battle marks but just making them feel secure while seeing the other seems to help for us.

[Jessica]

Congratulations!!! First of all, from experience I have found that two cats are better than one. Even if they act like they hate each other--there is a companionship that I have found they need.
As other comments have stated, you are doing the right thing by keeping Cass in a seperate room for now. Our last one, we kept seperated for about a week and then all was good.
Enjoy your new "baby"!

[Trude]

What a cutie pie!! Love the name too. :) Our cats always acted like they couldn't stand each other, but then would willingly share the bed without a problem. ;) Sometimes they would still hiss at each other, but it was never anything serious.

[Corie in Indy]

We have three cats (and two dogs!), and we have been through four pet introductions total. Each time, we just let each animal go and let the other(s) figure the new being out on his/her own. Each time was a success. The cats were particularly skeptical about the other cats, but given a few days of living together, they all settled in beautifully. It was easy, without any torturous locking away of one cat or the other. Cats will naturally keep their distances from each other until they're ready to check each other out. Sure, we've had our hissy fits, but all in all, they were all smooth transitions! Try not to sweat too much over it! Good luck!

[Nicky from Canada]

What a cutie - they will adjust as all animals do. Give them both lots of love - main ingredient.
Just wanted to let you know I am loving the class - the free editing and also paid for the 1st one - love them both. Not sure that I will get anything posted, but just wanted you to know it is enjoyable.

[Tiffany]

I introduced a new kitten last October. The separate rooms thing works and your cats will tell you when it is time to relax on that. The hardest part for me was to watch the kitten want to play with the adult cat. Kittens play is really more like play fighting, biting at ears, hiding and pouncing at any opportunity. I could tell that my adult cat really just tolerated this and didn't enjoy and want to play along. I was afraid that this would ruin their relationship. But, not that the kitten is 11 months old, he has started to calm down and I guess the adult cat is feeling more comfortable with him, because she will now sometimes play fight back. I guess she just understood that this is what kittens do and she allowed it. Now the kitten has just started to groom the adult cat and I love listening to the purring when this happens. I guess my point is that is may take time before they really start to accept each other, but wait and it should happen. Enjoy you new bundle of joy!!!

[Janna]

Last October, we went to a local pumpkin patch and came home with 2 pumpkins and a kitten (that we named "Punkin"). 3 weeks later, our church had "family day" at the same farm. Just as we were leaving, our oldest child approached his dad carrying another kitten and saying, "Look, Daddy! It's Punkin's sister! Can we pleeeaaasssseee take her home? She misses her!" Well, Daddy caved, and "Patches" joined the family that also already included a 2 year old kitty, Lucky. Lucky had adapted fairly well to Punkin, but when Patches came along, she thought she should mark a few things (with urine!!) to be sure everyone knew who owned the place. I truly hope that does not happen in your house. I seriously thought we were going to have to change her name to "Unlucky" and make her live outside or with another family or something. A trip to the vet...lots of reading online...now we use "Feliway". It's a synthetic pheremone that smells like the scent from kitty's cheeks. Apparently it's a pleasant pheremone, that people can't smell, that is calming to cats and encourages them not to mark territory. Don't use it in the litter box. Use it in the areas where you don't want your cat to pee. It comes in spray to spray specific spots (and must be resprayed daily because it wears off) or in little oil lamps that plug into outlets. Put one in a certain room that gets marked. It stopped bad behavior at our house. Found some really great stuff for clean up if you ever need that. It's called "Nature's Miracle" and is sold in pet stores in the cat section. Works very, very well, if you also buy the special blacklight that makes biological fluids show up like on CSI. Use the light to find the mess, clean it with the Nature's Miracle. You won't know the mess was ever there. Use Feliway, the mess won't come back as long as you consistently use it. I wish I had known about Feliway before we added the kittens. I would have started using it before they came home to calm Lucky before she met them. Maybe she would not have escalated to marking territory and we could have stopped feliway. Sorry that was long. Hopefully things will go more smoothly in your home.

[Janice]

She is adorable! Just be sure to have her, AS WELL AS the new kitten, tested for FIV and FIP before putting them together. This is a very deadly disease and is very contagious. More than likely neither will have it, but why take the chance. It only takes a quick blood test to find out. You can do this when you get the kitties vaccinated.

[Tammy]

You've got a great start. Next, have them switch places. Put the old kitty in the room where the kitten was and the kitten in the other part of the house. This will allow the cat to smell everything and get information. There will be some of what will look like fighting to you. Once they are together the older one will simply have to let the kitten know whose boss. It will be fine, especially since the new cat is a girl. :)

[Joy]

No words of advice....no cats at my house. Now when you have a dog question or a miniature horse question...I could try to answer but will likely not do a good job there either, despite having 3 of both :)

I just wanted to say that Cass is adorable and I wish you the best of luck with her!

[Lee]

Best of luck & good health and happiness to all family members!
Here's a link:
http://is.gd/1COEp
;o)
- Lee

[Deborah]

Soooo cute! Good for you, adopting. We adopted two kittens, litter-mates, a male and a female. At the time we had two geriatric cats. One, the male, just ignored the new addition. The other, Leah, who was at the end of her life, took to the kittens right away, as though they were the babies she'd never had! My kittens were orphans, bottle-fed, and never knew a momma cat, so they loved Leah. It was SO sweet to see. They'd cuddle and groom each other. Leah died 6 months later; I'm so glad she got to experience motherhood, and my kittens learned a lot from her; to this day the little female has some of Leah's personality traits. Animals are truly amazing, given the chance!

[Tanya]

so cute!! congrats on the newest member of your family.

[Julee]

Jessica, I wanted to say a huge thank you for you photoshop editing and frames class. I have just finished (thankfully it was self-paced). I learned so much from you and your classes ... it feels good to have something new in my arsenal of scrapbooking tools. I really loved the collage part. I have played with photoshop before and I new the basics, however I always messed up on the clipping tool. Your class taught me what I was doing wrong and a TON of other stuff I can not wait to use!!! I will absolutly be taking more of your classes in the future. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you a ton.

[Misty]

No advice, but wanted to congratulate you on your new addition. We have a Cassandra (aka Cassie) tortiseshell furball at our house and she rules the roost. We have been toying with introducing a playmate for her, but are hesitant for the same reasons you listed. Good luck!