New Cat Stalking Resident Cat

blackeyes

So I'm looking for suggestions or ideas as to what else I can try. Here is the situation. We have a 6 year old cat who is just a lovely, affectionate lap cat who is more indoor than outdoor. She is quite needy in that she always has to be near you.

Recently we decided to help out a friend who had a very unhappy cat living with them, by giving the cat a home with us. That was 5 weeks ago. Now we did all the usual introductory things when introducing new cat to our resident cat. From feeding on opposite sides of doors, transferring scent, allowing them to see each other with being able to to get more than a paw around the door. You name it we've tried it. I even, rather skeptically, got a Feliway Difuser plugin as well.

The new cat is really lovely and is very comfortable around our house now. We have let the two cats, under supervision, interact with each other. The scenario didn't quite go according to plan, we expected our resident cat to bully and harass our new cat for awhile (both females, new one is 2 years old, tortie).

Instead its the other way around, our new cat as soon as she sees our other cat, starts stalking her and when she moves, the new cat pounces and several broken lamps later and a floor full of fur (no blood as yet), our resident cat is terrified and wont come out of our utility. Our new cat is strutting around like she owns the place. As soon as our other cat sees her she retreats to the utility and stays there. We have stopped any further stalk and pouncing by our new cat using a squirt gun of water so that is stopping the actual fighting.

This has been going on for 2 weeks now and well we don't know if we should give up now and try and rehome the new cat (sad as she is adorable). Or keep trying to see if they can co-exist. These things take time but if our resident cat wont even come out and face our new cat then how the hell do we get them to get along or tolerate each other!?

Any thoughts, suggestions very welcome at this point :-) I'm sure we are not the only cat lovers to come across this scenario.

Lauragoesmad

God, you really have tried.
The only other thing I can think to do is put the new cat in a cat box and let your cat have a sniff and give your resident cat lots of attention while she is sniffing at the crate.
Hope you have some luck with it!:)

clofty

Hi Blackeyes,

I feel your pain!! Our two don't get on and never have. Our bully boy used to harrass our girl cat on a daily basis and she was very scared of him to the point that she had a couple of bouts of cystitus from the stress.
However, things have calmed down a bit over time although he still gets his kicks from giving her the odd chase.
We now have seperate feeding areas, seperate litter trays and seperate sleeping areas (he has downstairs, she has upstairs) and they are only in the same room when supervised.
I know it sounds a bit drastic but anything for a bit of peace and quiet.
Your resident cat must feel very put out by it all as she was there first - Is she a nervous / jumpy cat generally?
I don't know whether the whole feed her first - give her more attention etc thing that people do with dogs would work on cats - it certainly didn't in my case.
Sorry I don't have any fast fixes for this one.

blackeyes

Thanks for your replies guys. I'm gonna try the cage option to see if our terrifed resident cat will approach the new one. At the moment we have to two living in separate rooms and they take turns having access around the house, that is when our resident cat plucks up the courage to wander out of our utility!
Its not a long term solution unfortunately so hopefully things will improve soon.

Tabitharose

I've found both rescue remedy and dr petals elixirs have worked well both when introducing a new cat to my home and with foster kitties I've had here

http://www.tortuerouge.co.uk/fears-d--214.html

http://www.rescueremedy.com/products/default.asp#remedy

rescue remedy is alot more readily available than dr petals.... it can take a long time for cats to settle - I'd also recommend having a look at the following for advice:

http://www.vickyhalls.net/

http://www.fabcats.org/

best of luck