5 days in, introducing a cat to resident dog and cat

[stabbypokey]

Hello, my cat is a 12 year old cross breed moggie. The resident cat is a Savannah cat (who is outside all day and in at night and a dog.

My cat is quite happy pottering about upstairs, she is eating, playing and pooing. The two cats have growled at each other through the closed bedroom door. So far so good.

Our plan was in the daytime when the Big cat is outside, we shut the dog in a room so that she explores the downstairs. She immediately explored all the upstairs rooms.

She will go halfway down the stairs but no further. Do we continue with this plan or get both cats to eat at opposite sides of the bedroom door first, then a mesh covering the door, before we encourage her to explore an animal free ground floor?

The advice I had from CPS prior to getting my second cat was to go way slower than that. So completely separate ie. With 2 doors between them for a couple of weeks, then as you've described for a couple of weeks, then a bit of crossing over territories eg. Carrying on into the area of the other, etc, and smelling the other's area, to meeting in the area you had set out originally as no-cat's-land etc. Takes a good 2-3 months.
That said, my two still compete/fight for my attention so what do I know

I get terrified when I bring a new cat into the house. My latest rescue, I only have 2 cats, absolutely detests my other cat and I cannot get them to at least tolerate each other, so they have to live separately. This has been going on for 2 years now. I'd love to get a rescue dog, but I just can't face the thought of any more issues in the house! Having said that, my DN has just adopted a lovely old fella from Battersea and, so far, he and her Dcat are rubbing along nicely. She put a lot of work into getting it right, so hopefully, it'll continue that way.