should I give up and return cat? :-(

[curlygiraffe]

18 days ago I adopted a half siamese rescue cat, he's two and neutered. I also have a 2.5yo ds and a 11yo neutered male mog.

The sanctuary said rescue cat was friendly, good with other cats and children. However, rescue cat is scared of ds and hides/runs off when he's around. I encourage ds to use his quiet voice, but inevitably ds does giggle/shriek at times, so rescue cat retreats to his room.

As a consequence, rescue cat is spending almost all of his day alone (other cat growls on sight, do taking introduction slowly...). I had hoped that rescue cat would enjoy socialising with ds and I, as I'm home a lot and only work a few hours per week. When ds is in bed, I give an hour undivided to rescue cat and then existing mog, but it seems precious little for a sociable siamese :-(

Rescue cat has started going in the garden which.he loves, he comes back when I call him, purrs, is very vocal etc.

However he does seem to spray in a couple days of places in the house, the urine isn't visible on the wall and there's only a very faint aroma...it does bother me.

Baring in mind rescue cat is afraid of ds and ds is not going to become super sensitive to siamese needs for a couple of years, I'm really stressed about how I can integrate and provide a happy home for rescue cat? Mog is not scared of ds. I'm a single parent, so no other adult to help integrate...

[Fluffycloudland77]

18 days isn't long & siamese is a very highly strung breed.

Is his tray clean? Ours backs up to the curtains if his trays aren't clean.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Purrings good, we left ours one night to get married & he wouldn't purr at all the next day.

[curlygiraffe]

Thanks, good point about the tray, I do clean it frequently but it would probably be a good idea to put a spare in his room in case his gets full...

[stealthsquiggle]

It has taken 3 months for one of our two rescue cats to make the transition from cowering-in-corner cat to soppy lap cat - and his sister hasn't done it yet (she has stopped cowering, but still won't be picked up or socialise much) - and they are common or garden mogs with opposable thumb extra toes , not Siamese.

So, in answer to your question, no, I wouldn't give up on him yet.

[Beckamaw]

Have you tried Feliway?
The plug-in worked a treat with our nervous Norwegian Forest Cat.

[MrsRonBurgundy]

18 days isn't much of a chance for the poor thing to settle in. It took my rescue a good 3 or 4 months to settle in and even though, could be spooked a bit by people rushing around her.
Give it time I'd say