Fostering Question

It can take a number of weeks to introduce cats and kittens together successfully. At a year old, your existing cat is still an older juvenile (full, filled-out maturity happens at two years of age).

It also depends whether your existing cat is indoors-only. The following instructions are for indoor-only cats. You have to be extremely careful with cats that have outdoor access, because your home-cat, if the introductions are badly managed, will often piss off and not come back if an interloper takes over their space.

There's a knack to introducing cats. First, choose a safe space in the house for "the interloper" (as your cat will call the new cat). This needs to be somewhere that your cat doesn't already consider to be hers. For instance, if you keep your cat's litter tray and her food bowl in a tiled space like the bathroom, don't make the same bathroom into the interloper's core space. Choose a room or area of the house that your cat isn't too attached to, can avoid if she wishes, and that she doesn't have to pass to get to somewhere that's important to her.

Also, don't choose your bedroom.

Into the interloper's safe space, you need to put a litter tray, bedding, toys and food and water bowls. DO NOT let your existing cat into that space. (Cats, especially well-socialised cats, assume that all new cool things introduced into the house are for them. If you set up a cool new space for the interloper, and your cat gets into it, she'll think it's for her and she'll get pissed off when you throw her out of it.)

When you bring the interloper home from the vet/sanctuary/pound, keep him/her separate from your existing cat for a few days. Allow the interloper to get settled in their new space, so they become attached to it, use the litter tray there and realise this is where the food and toys are, and this is where they should run to if they feel threatened.

You can allow the interloper and your existing cat to sniff each other under the door and don't be surprised if there is some hissing and spitting - that's completely normal. Don't be tempted to show them each other through cracks in the door - in my experience, that can build up a tension between the animals. Ever seen two dogs who'll go at it on either side of a garden gate? Sort of like that. Let them sniff each other, but don't sit there with the door open an inch and them freaking at each other through the gap.

For first face to face introductions, move both cats into a neutral space - don't put home-cat into the interloper's safe space. Try the hallway outside the safe space, or the living room.

The first face to face introduction is near-guaranteed to go badly.

DO NOT admonish your kitty for hissing or spitting at the interloper. If you bring home a kitten, it will be very unusual for your cat to do it serious harm, but your cat will hiss, spit and even swat the interloper (especially the first time they get face to face, if the interloper pushes forwards to introduce themselves, they'll usually get a smack in the head from home-cat).

If things get too heated, remove your cat - pick her up, and stroking her and making soothing noises, take her to another room where you spend a bit of time with her.

For a successful introduction, your cat needs to feel reinforced as top kitty - so while you obviously don't allow her to smack the bejesus out of the interloper, you don't roar at your cat and throw her out if she responds with suspicious aggression to the interloper. Constantly reassure home-cat, stroking her, and try distracting her with treats. If the interloper wants to run back to the safe space, let him/her.

Depending how the first introductions go, how relaxed you are and how well you manage to uphold your own cats' pecking order dynamic, successful introductions can take as little as three or four days, before everyone is sleeping together in a big purring heap, or it can take six months before the cats are affectionate to each other (they'll stop fighting long before that, and exist in a state of brittle tolerance where they pointedly ignore each other).

I have tried using feliway plug-ins, which are an expensive plug-in scent dispenser filled with synthetic cat feel-good pheromones, and I can honestly say that properly managing your cats' personal spaces and their first few meetings is worth 100 feliway plug-ins.