Can cats visit other cats? Need help and advice please.

[Maisypaws]

My cat Maisy is 18 months old, she and I live alone together, but travel regularly to my mum’s house for weekends and holidays throughout the year.
If I go away, mum looks after her. Maisy is quite a timid cat, but this has been happening since she was a small kitten so she is comfortable in mum’s house and the set-up works well.

Years ago, my mum agreed to take in the cat of an elderly neighbour, if she fell ill or died. It seemed a distant possibility at the time as neighbour was hale and hearty.
Anyway, yesterday she had a fall and was rushed to hospital, so it may be that my mum will need to take Ginger (7 years old, female, also apparently a very shy and timid personality) sooner than we thought.

Is there any possibility that two cats could learn to tolerate each other, in a situation where one is always the visitor? I know there are never any guarantees and it will depend on the individual cats, but is it even fair to try this? I desperately hope that it could work, but I want to be realistic about the chances of success.

Thanks for reading

It wouldn't be fair on either cat to do this.

I think it's probably not going to work but you could probably take the cat around if they can be kept apart and have their own safe space.

It depends on the cat, my 13 year old ginger tom would instantly attack a strange cat but my ragdoll would immediately welcome a new friend!

Thanks both. I do worry that it might not be fair. But I also don’t want to put Maisy in a cattery. Difficult to know what to do.

Maisy gets along okay with one of the very placid cats on the estate, they hang around the garden together. She runs away from the ones that are more aggressive.

Apparently Ginger is also a timid cat, but I think this describes her behaviour with humans, I don’t know how she responds to other cats.

My mum’s house and garden are reasonably big, they could definitely avoid each other if they wanted to.

I got a cat sitter to come in morning and night to feed mine when I unexpectedly had to go away for a few days.

I asked around on fb local to find someone and she was brilliant.

Leave Maisy in her own environment with a pet sitter and let Ginger stay in her own home without the stress and fear of a strange cat coming and going.

Just sort out pet care when you're away like everyone else does?

Well my mum was the pet care! I will need to think of a back-up plan though, I agree.