Help me please with my cat

[Jinglebellsarenearlyhere]

Posted yesterday but situation has got worse. We are introducing a new cat into our house and the old cat was not reacting well to the introductions and was running away into the garden and refusing to come back in. She has now disappeared.

Assuming she returns what can I do to help her accept the new cat - the new cat is not aggressive, is about the same age as her but is male.

Where to start, when introducing pets it's easier to do so with a kitten that said adults aren't impossible. You need to take a room and make it the new cats room.

Keep the cat in that room, swap scents around by switching toys and blankets between the two cats. Eventually the resident cat will start to be interested in the door of the room. This can take weeks, it depends on the cats.

Once things seem to be going well put the new cat in a carrier in their room and open the door to the resident cat. You'll be able to judge how things are going by looking for aggressive behaviour (hissing). If your lucky it might not go too badly, if there is lots of hissing then take the resident cat out again and repeat the scent switching stage.

Eventually your resident cat is going to be a bit nicer when doing this meet and greet (new cat being totally safe in the carrier). When this happens put the resident cat in a carrier in the main house and allow the new cat to look around.

Eventually you'll get to a point where you can allow them to meet for the first time properly.

Thanks Siaire. We have done all of that but new cat still just runs away at smell, sight or sound of new cat.

If old cat keeps running away it's very difficult to introduce new cat!!!!

Siaire has given you excellent advice.
How long have you had the new cat? I always keep the new cat exclusively in the room for 2 weeks, then have another 2 weeks where it only leaves the room under escort.
Cat society is very complex and I would say it takes around 12 months for an adult cat to settle into a household fully where another adult cat already lives. If the new cat is a rescue cat with any kind of dodgy past it could eb as much as 18 months.

Wow lonecat, that is a long time. Feel rather let down by rescue centre as having done research we rely a four month old ish would be less threatiniNg to new cat but they said that wasn't right and and adult/adolescent would be fine.

It's been two weeks, old cat only comes in when new cat is in its own room. New cat is totally unbothered by old cat.

I just feel so sorry for old cat, and new cat for being shut away.

Jingle you just need to stick with it and it will come right. I have integrated a very nervous tiny little female who had been abused in to a household with a super assertive slightly aggressive male. They now coexist happily.
Two weeks is nothing, cats have a super developed etiquette ( think Dowager Countess level) that needs to be worked through before they can coexist. This will begin to give you some idea, the whole website is an excellent resource for cats.

7 weeks ago I introduced two new kittens to our home, following the death of my beloved Morpheus, Maine Coon love of my life. We have a 14 yr old Torty, and she never liked Morph so I wasn't expecting it to be easy...

and it hasn't been!

We kept the kittens in one bedroom for a week.. then Obie scaled the gate. Portia had smelled them, seen them thro the gate and appeared unbothered.. but when they came downstairs she a) freaked b) sulked and refused point blank to come in.

She spent 4 weeks in the garden, under my sprouts, eating outside, sleeping outside :(

Then, I let the kittens into our (enclosed) garden, fearing she would go for good. Instead she was mightily relieved.. came in for food. She hissed at them and seemed very scared so we fed her high on the kitchen work surface. At first she ran in, ate and ran out. THEN she started to come in, hide upstairs. Then she slapped Obie about a bit til he learned his place (Ophie is submissive and crouched if Portia walked past so less of a threat)

Finally she can eat in the same room and will slope upstairs to sleep in DS2s bedroom. She doesn't like them.. there will be no cosiness, but she has accepted they are here and no real threat; unless they come near her catnip in the garden...she protects her drug stash and hits them if they come near

It takes time for many many cats, to accept a new cat. Portia will now tolerate being fed Dreamies near them, and occasionally sniffs them before a quick hiss. But she is less scared, less bothered than she was.. but it's 7 weeks so far and I suspect will take years before she really feels they are ok.

Hang in there.. they have to find their own pecking order.