Getting A New Rescue Cat, Excited!

[Broken11Girl]

Just that.
My second cat is coming home soon, hopefully on Wednesday.

So happy.
Feeling a bit emotional about Madam BrokenCat though, hope she'll react ok. Giving her lots of attention and love, reassured her she'll always be pfc.
Hoping they'll love each other.
Food bowls and toys bought for new addition...Mademoiselle? I'm sure she'll get her own nickname or six. Setting up a little safe corner for her with cardboard box with blanket, toys, scratcher etc.
She's 3, tortie and white, has had a bit of a terrible time in rescue but has happily been with her original rescuer someone well known who I shall not name for a bit and is apparently a lovely affectionate chilled cat.
Have shown her photo to Madam who looked...curious. Told her to welcome her new sister.
Eeeeeeeeek!

She's lovely! Namewise from your list I like Molly, Matilda or Heidi.

Isn't she Vino, thanks for name input.
She's really chilled now, hasn't hidden for ages, has made chirrup type noises at me and sat next to me on the sofa for a while. She likes looking out of the windows too.

Matilda gets my vote.

Hmmm Mademoiselle Madeline has a certain tongue twister ring to it...

She's a sweetie 😊.

I still chuckle about my DD’s first evening with her new rescue cat.
She put the carrier down on the kitchen floor and opened it. The cat shot out, dived behind the kitchen sink and disappeared inside the wall.
I received a panic-struck and sobbing phone call claiming that the new cat was dead - stuck inside the wall and “bound to have suffocated”.
When I stopped laughing, I explained cats are not that stupid or easily finished off, especially not a cat that had lived rough on the streets and had four different owners and a litter of feral kittens.
I told DD to leave food, water, litter tray and a toy, put the lights out and go to bed.
When she came down in the morning, the food was gone, the toy mouse shredded in pieces, and a neat turd lay coiled in the litter tray. No sign of the cat, who had retreated back inside the wall!
This went on for two or three days, before the cat finally deigned to put in an appearance - she is now hugely affectionate and happily settled. Although they did have to fit a childproof lock to stop her opening the fridge and pulling chicken breasts out...!

Ah, she looks lovely! Looks a lot like my recently adopted Luna.

We lost one of our kittens, Ruby, the other day. Eventually heard a faint noise from a chest of drawers. She had climbed up the back and into one of the drawers and was fast asleep!

Babdoc 😂
She's a sweetie Smooth, yes very similar. Excellent stealth hiding.
She's just gaining confidence by the hour. She's installed herself on the sofa next to me so far this evening. As it's going so well I might let her and Madam meet briefly later or tomorrow...Mademoiselle has been quite keen to get out of the room today, but I won't let her just yet.

She purred Mademoiselle is more and more at home.

Decided to call her Matilda.

Lovely name. It suits her. Purring is a great sign.

Did a brief introduction today. Cue stare-off and hissing. Then both ran away inopposite directions. Oh well, everyone is uninjured and still possesses all their fur so not bad really.

Had a few more brief introductions. Mademoiselle was very keen to get out, and had a few forays. They just had an encounter in the bedroom and neither hissed at all, just looked at each other. Pleased they seem to be getting used to each other.

Oh that sounds very promising.

Am a bit and emotionally exhausted.
I don't know what happened but they're back to hostilities. Really hissing and won't be together 😢

Have you tried feliway friends. I don't find normal feliway effective but it does seem to have made a difference with my pair. And I've got pet remedy upstairs. Paws crossed that they'll settle down.

It's still really early days. It often takes many weeks. As long as they're not physically attacking each other it's fine. You just need to hold your nerve.

Thanks both. Toddlertea I got some pet remedy the other day. It is indeed tcn, yep no physical fighting at all.
Progress of a sort is happening. Madam is basically regarding Mademoiselle with condescending disdain I was worried she was scared for a while, but she seems to have risen above it. I think going out of the living room was making Matilda overwhelmed and scared, which makes sense, so she was freaking out. She's back completely confined in the living room for now. She's not thrilled and is desperate to get out, but it's too much right now. She did make a dash for it and enjoyed climbing my freshly assembled new wardrobe but then freaked out. She's very sweet now with me.
I know I have to let them get on with it and not hover and over manage their relationship. Token hostilities and ignoring each other otherwise is pretty much how my sisters and I lived through our teenage years
Looking at cat trees online

Here's Mademoiselle the miscreant this evening

I'm glad to hear you sounding a bit more positive. It really does just take time.

I homed a sweet little cat to my mum at Christmas. My mum's existing cat had previously lived with another cat that had died, and the cat I homed to her loved other cats. But there was still quite a lot of non physical aggression to start with, followed by avoiding each other and occasional hissing. And that second stage lasted for months. Then around June the hissing stopped, and they just avoided each other. And now, in the last few weeks, they have become inseparable friends. So that was eight months. It really is a long game.

Unfortunately a lot of people give up way before that and decide that their cat will never accept another cat. In some cases that is true, but usually they just needed more time.

I was surprised to notice that Snorg was shadowing cheddar when she had her first trip outside. And my cleaner says that Snorg was never far from her when I was at work. I gave them both treats and Snorg tapped cheddar with a paw when she was trying to pig all the treats. Hopefully they are establishing their own dynamics!