Advice on considering cat number 2

[UpsyDaisysarmpit]

We have one cat already - a lovely 3 year old female who is sort of average size, and extremely docile and affectionate. We love her to bits. She was an adult rescue, as with our previous cats.
I wanted to ask for advice as we are wanting to potentially become a 2 cat family as we feel we have room in our lives, but want her to be ok with this.
Would we be more likely to be successful if we rescued a kitten this time? Male or female? And how have others successfully introduced a new cat?
Our DC are 9 and 12 and lovely cat servants already, completely doting on the existing cat and I am home most of the time.
Any advice welcome.

Do you know if she's lived with other cats before, or how she reacts to other cats she sees in the garden?

We did this. Our first cat was female, 3yo, the perfect cat as far as her temperament is concerned, and we adopted her at 18mo from a shelter. After much googling, I came across a few posts that agreed that if you're introducing a new cat to an existing female, you're better sticking with the same sex. I think the theory was that in feral cats males were more likely to be largely solitary but females were happier to coexist with other females (sort of like lions, I guess!). I don't know if there's any truth to it, but it's worked for us. We adopted a kitten at 10 weeks old - DCat1 wasn't too old to find a kitten a major irritation, and after a few days of careful introductions and giving DCat1 her own space away from the kitten, they got on much better. We're now 7 months in and they're brilliant - they play together, sleep near each other and we've never had a proper fight out of them, other than the kitten getting the odd warning hiss if she tried to push her luck with oldest. The upside to getting a kitten for us was that we didn't have the worry of upsetting two adults who were set in their ways - the kitten would always know DCat1 and would grow up knowing her boundaries.

We kept their litter trays in separate areas, and made sure that DCat1 had spaces away from the wee one and still got plenty of her usual attention.

I know nothing of her past other than she was pregnant and a stray. We have lots of cats in the local area and she's not aggressive. She was a bit cheeky to the cat next door at first, going right over to her, but now all 3 cats in a row coexist peacefully. Is this positive?

Thank you Bluthbanana - really helpful info...
Your older cat sounds a lot like ours!

Any other experiences very much welcomed!

Yes, getting along with neighbours' cats is a good sign!
Sounds like she'd be fine, and kittens are usually easier to introduce.

I have two boys and two girls and all get along well; in general females are a bit more territorial and neutered boys quite laid back but I think you'd be fine with either sex.

Introductions at the older cat's pace, don't force them to interact more than they want to. Expect the older cat to initially hiss and give the kitten some "whacks" with a paw to establish hierarchy. Use positive associations like treats and play to make their interactions fun and rewarding.

I have a cat who's just turned 9 and we found him as a kitten (he was feral), I've been thinking about a kitten for a while and last week finally adopted one. My cat hasn't really batted an eyelid at him he's walked in and sniffed him/looked up at him but other than that he hasn't taken much notice. I was really surprised by this as he's a bit wild so was expecting hissing the lot!!

But yes you should definitely do it, animals usually adapt to this type of thing pretty quickly x

The most important thing is never to crowd them.
Provided they’ve off enough personal space they are more likely to accept a newcomer.
Whether the two ever become BFs is less predictable, unfortunately.
However, cats are masters at avoiding confrontations.

We brought our new kitten home 2 weeks ago, and it’s going really well. DCat (3) wasn’t sure at first and there was a bit of hissing, but they play together a bit now. Just little games of chase. I got them separate bowls and litter trays but they just share.
DCat is enjoying DKitten’s new toys too.

I think it’s a great sign if your current cat gets on with the neighbour’s cat. One of our previous cats was vicious to any other cats, including his own sister. I would never have been able to introduce another cat into the household when we had him.

My current two cats love our neighbour’s cat on one side and are always with him. They used to be completely petrified of another neighbour’s cat who was half their size but a spunky little thing. They have had a few run-ins with her. Well the little cat they were so terrified of has now, for various reasons, come to live with us and they are all rubbing along nicely. They all have their own spots in the house and seem to respect each other’s spaces. My original cats are brothers so are quite tactile with each other but I have seen them being quite playful towards the new cat. I think she’s still a little suspicious of their intentions but it is all looking incredibly positive and I never thought in a million years we would be able to get these three cats in the same house together.

And we have just had a first. Lying on the sofa together 🎉

Thank you so much for all your input! It's lovely to hear how it can work.
icequeen01 that's adorable!

We have a new black and white cat neighbour in the last 6 months. Dcat has chased it away in the early days as it was sitting in our garden. She tends to studiously ignore now. One time in the early hours she hadn't come back yet, so I was there shaking the dry food, and black and white came over and tried to come in! I told him "Oh nooo! You aren't actually our cat! Sorry!" And he gave a confused look as though he was thinking "BUT!! - she shook the cat food and I want it!" . He makes me laugh, cheek of the devil. And we have another neighbour who every few months will sneak through the open door and help herself to the food in DCat's dish while she's out. If you catch her, she looks up as if to say YIKES! and legs it! So cheeky!

The advice I’ve read is get a different sexed cat.
We got a female kitten because our 3 year old boy is tremendously playful and active and we thought a playmate would be good for him. He’s very territorial so we kept them separated for 4 days, scent swapping, letting them see each other through glass doors, then through a cracked open door, then in the same room. It all went really well, they get on great. He still loves a play session with toys but loves scampering about with her.
Looked after my sister’s cat for 10 days, did the same thing. My boy took to her no problem, our girl hated her and took two days to get over it after she left. Expected our boy to be cranky, not her!
Your cat might find a kitten easier to have in her territory because she’ll be the senior cat: but not if she’s going to find the scampering and play fighting unenjoyable.

Thanks learieonthewildmoor,
She's always happy to play with us if we invite it so hopefully if she has space to go if she needs a break she will be ok.

We introduced a female kitten to our 4 yo Tortie - we were pretty sure she’d accept another cat as she got on OK with the neighbour’s cat.

There was a bit of hissing and grumping to begin with, but within a few days she’d accept the kitten clambering on to my lap at the same time. The Tortie was always the boss but the Siamese would fly to her defence when a bully cat appeared in the area.

They had separate beds available, but they always curled up together.

Awww ContinuityError that is lovely! I hope we have the same luck!