Handhold!! (Lighthearted)

[Jayinthetub]

I feel so dramatic typing this but I am so stressed. We brought a kitten home on Friday to be a friend for our 3yo boy cat. All going well so far and today they “met” face to face for the first time after scent swapping and being able to see each other through a glass door and then a playpen. It all went well really. Boy cat mainly watched and new kitty (10wk old boy) was the only one who hissed. If anything the kitten looked like the boss trotting after boy cat. They had 10 mins without big incident then boy cat ran out of the door.

All good but I can’t stop stressing that we might have spoiled boy cat’s previously lovely life. I’m panicking about them never getting on and sad that boy cat may wonder if he’s not good enough for us…I know I’m being dramatic!! Talk me down and tell me it’ll be okay!

It will be OK. There's always nonsense when they first meet but they will settle down. We have a new cat who is tiny and after a week of being here she thinks she is the boss of the cats. Our large males are just ignoring her unless she gets too stroppy and then they hurl abuse back.

We have a huge lovely ginger boy who spent 99% of his life sunbathing or eating and we brought him home a very lively rescue a few years ago. Introductions were tense, particularly when newcat learnt to open all the doors by himself…. Pretty sure GingerCat would tell us we ruined his life but the reality is he has been taught to play properly by NewCat, is slimmer, fitter and has much more natural cat behaviour, rather than behaving simply like he’s DH’s baby (yes, he liked to be carried round the house!).

Sometimes we have hissy paws but it’s never serious, usually quite funny as GingerCat is usually totally overreacting to NewCat wanting to play! NewCat is a darling and deserved a home after 6 months in rescue being overlooked for health problems.

Feliway Friends makes a big difference- we can always tell when it’s run out as there will be some kind of tussle!

Thank you both - this is reassuring. They’ve had 3 supervised contacts and Boy cat keeps coming back for more so I can only presume he’s vaguely interested. Still no big hissing so think it’s going okay. I just need to relax about it!!