Help..

[rainbowslollipops]

My friend gave me her cat due to personal circumstances and he's a good cat. No neutered but he's 2 yrs old he came here today. My sister called yesterday to tell me her friend has a female spayed 2yr old cat who needs a home for free too. I know with kittens its best to get 2 but these are older cats. Should I give this female cat a home too?

I'd get the make nuetured!!! Then introduce to eachother. Two cats are no more trouble than one and its company.

Obviously supervise introduction though. There's a chance they won't get on but there's a good chance they will. People often own three or four cats with no trouble

Your call, rainbows, but it might work out. You need to get the existing boy neutered, though, so it would be best to have that done first and give him some time to re-adjust.

That wouldn't be a problem getting him neutered. But I guess by doing that it also prevents the chance of him getting domineering?

It might help although he's a solid two year old now. It's generally good practice anyway, especially if he gets out of the house.

Saying that he lived with a 12 year old female cat for about a year and they got on.

They both have to get on - but you're right, it's half of the battle if you know that he's had cat friends before. (The girls are usually dominant.) A link was posted last night. Let me find it for you.

Here you go - Lovethesea posted it.

\link{http://www.cats.org.uk/glasgow/news/introducing-a-new-cat-to-a-resident-cat\introducing cats}

I'm afraid there is no way of knowing how cats will get on with each other. They are unpredictable and for reasons I can't quite fathom they will make close friendships with a random cat but hold life long vendettas against a cat they've lived with for years.
I've always had issues with introducing cats but that is possibly due to having a very domineering alpha female causing friction. Plenty of people have harmonous multi-cat households so you can only try.

Cozies link is excellent. Cats have very complex social interactions and I feel it is summed up by a piece of research that says that dogs have 15 individual sounds whereas cats have 40,000. Often I think they are more complex than humans!

My sister brought over a cat similar age to the one I got yesterday so I now have 2. She is a spayed female and she's settled so quickly. She's been eating, toiletting, drinking, she's found a place to sleep, she's said hello to dd and she's very friendly. The male however spent from 11am yesterday - 2am this morning behind a chair. 2am he decides to come out and found dd and i upstairs, he started meowing so I got up to see him and let him know where we were and he met the female. She growled at him and he meowed at her but that was all. Got up this morning to find the male cat behind the chair again

His nose is out of joint.

That was quick - are you going to get him neutered fast?

Oh - and do you have just one tray indoors?

Oh yes. He's 2yrs old and not neutered so I'm afraid for me even if he was the only cat, he's still going to be neutered. He arrived only in his cat carrier. No bowls, no tray, no food, no litter. So I sent my partner to the shops to pick some stuff up. The female came with her own bowls tray and food and litter.

There are 2 trays.

I think it will probably be OK from the sound of it - although you'll probably be best to put him in a separate room when he gets back from the vet. Poor lad, arriving with nothing.

It's a good idea to let them take things at their own pace at the moment so if he wants to sit behind the chair that's up to him. If there's any spats looming, then separate rooms and gradual re-introduction. You'll find links to guidance on introduction in a couple of threads on the board.

Good luck.

I was pissed off he didn't arrive with anything I thought that would have helped settle him having his own things brought with him.

Lordy - one of the links is actually on this thread for you. I need more coffee!