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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

To add to my cat family or not?

4 replies

NameThisSong · 05/03/2025 14:41

I have two sisters, 8, adopted at 4 months the from Cats Protection.

They are very affectionate with me but could take or leave each other. They sleep on the bed beside me (on their own electric blanket!) and rarely go outside unless I do.

Cat 1 is lazy and super cuddly. She would be on my lap all day, every day if she could. She follows me everywhere, even sitting beside the bath. She's also opinionated and loud!

Cat 2 is more anxious about other people but still appears to adore me. She's hesitant about coming on my lap but will always sit beside me and taps my arm when she's like attention. She's still very playful and regularly gets the zoomies, hurtling in and out of her tunnels and trying hard to engage her sister in play, to no success!

I'm very tempted to get a male kitten. I think Cat 2 might appreciate a playmate (she had a friend before I moved house) and it might make her slightly less anxious generally. I'm also aware the girls are the same age and only going to get crotchetier with age so now is the moment.

However, the last thing I want to do is upset my girls.

How do you know? I'm disabled and home almost all the time. My cats are my world and I certainly have love for more.

To add to my cat family or not?
OP posts:
Fuddlefiend · 05/03/2025 14:46

If you can afford it and you think your two want them why not? Agree a male kitten/young cat would be the best bet. Could you try fostering to find one yours get on with?

NameThisSong · 05/03/2025 15:36

Fuddlefiend · 05/03/2025 14:46

If you can afford it and you think your two want them why not? Agree a male kitten/young cat would be the best bet. Could you try fostering to find one yours get on with?

I don't know if Cat 1 does? She's not very friendly to visiting cats in the garden (but who would be?!) and she's sooo clingy with me that I worry she might see it as competition.

I'm sure I can make a third work from practical perspectives, but I don't want to upset the girls.

OP posts:
SleepingisanArt · 05/03/2025 16:26

I'd say that they have been just 2 for so long that introducing a 3rd may not go well! Neighbours had a brother and sister from kittens - at age 6 they introduced a 3rd cat (another female). This caused the original female to move out of the house completely- she ate in the garden and slept in the shed. Her brother remained in the house and started spraying because he was stressed about his sister. After about a year they realised they'd made a mistake and rehomed the new cat (with another neighbour a few doors away). Things went back to how they were with the siblings happily living in the house.....

Toddlerteaplease · 06/03/2025 11:53

Cat 1 is lazy and super cuddly. She would be on my lap all day, every day if she could. She follows me everywhere, even sitting beside the bath. She's also opinionated and loud!

That must be the late Cheddar reincarnated. That's exactly what she was like. Paws up on the side of the bath.

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