Getting a kitten as a friend for our 7 year old cat after losing two others

[DonnaE3567]

We've had a heartbreaking few years with our cats - started off with 3 kittens in 2016. Brother and a sister and another rescue male. Brother died when he was 3 (we think he was run over). "Step" brother died of cancer 6 months ago.😪So we now have a lone 7 year old female and are worried she is lonely. She is half Siamese so quite vocal anyway but the meowing and crying has got much worse recently. We feel she would benefit from a friend .. and I would love another male kitty. I'm thinking of a kitten as I think she may accept this better than an adult. And just one kitten ... I'm thinking if we got two it might defeat the object as they'd play with each other and she may feel "left out". What do you kitty experts think? x

I’d still get two kittens. There’s quite a gap in maturity between a six year old cat and a kitten and however lonely your cat is, she may not have the energy or patience to be the main focus of a boisterous kitten. If you get two they may follow her around a bit, but she won’t be so obliged to ‘play’ and the kittens won’t be left lonely if she walks away.

(No professional knowledge, obvs, just long observation!)

Sorry - seven year old!

I think you either need to get two kittens or no kittens. It wouldn't be fair on your girl to suddenly have to put up with a kitten pouncing on her and playing with her constantly.

While seven obviously isn't ancient, it's old enough to not really be interested in a kitten bouncing around the place. We got an (unplanned) semi-feral kitten in May and our 8yo boy, while very tolerant, really wasn't interested in playing with him. They get on fine but he will give him a firm smack if he tries to play too much and wouldn't be happy if it was just the two of them, I don't think. Luckily we also have a 3yo who is much happier to be pounced on and to zoom around the house with him

We rescued a very young kitten; we already had an older cat. They loathe each other and it is cat wars every evening. Luckily it was DHs idea so I can loudly Make No Comment when it's all kicking off.

Many years ago I was down to one cat and ended up getting three kittens. It worked perfectly as the two boy kittens played together and the girl kitten became bonded with my old boy. Just saying. 😹

My elder cat died three years ago and younger cat was lonely. I adopted an adult cat, three years younger than her. Younger cat (now elder cat) was six years old and a playful lunatic (still is now she's almost nine) and may well have adapted easily to having a kitten around, but it wasn't feasible. Besides, it's easier for kittens to be adopted than adult cats. Fortunately the three year old I adopted fitted in well - they're zonked out on my bed right now.

God no.

firstly Siamese. Very demanding of attention. Territorial breed.

we tried years ago. It was so bad we had to rehome the new kitten. They seemed to bond but the spraying and stress behaviour was intolerable.

if they don’t get on what will you do?