My boyfriend is moving into my apartment in two weeks. It's a one bedroom, that's not super huge. I have a large dog and a cat, already. My boyfriend will be bringing his cat with him. The dog I'm not worried about because she's super chill and already met his cat. It's my cat that I'm not sure of. My cat is an un-neutered male that's pretty small. He weighs around 8lbs. He's active and energetic, but well behaved and follows commands like the dog. He comes outside with the dog. My cat was abandoned and I got him from the shelter last year when he was about a year old. I was told he was with another cat when they found him. My boyfriend's cat is much larger then my cat, fixed, inbred, and has never been outside the apartment he's lived in for three years. He lived with two other cats that my boy's ex will be taking. He's pretty mellow, but can be destructive at times. I have no idea how my cat will react to a new cat. He's friendly, but fiesty and plays by swatting at the dog. I'm concerned about my cat not reacting well and spraying the house, something he's never done before. Or the new cat destroying something. Or even worse a cat fight. I've always had dogs, and don't know much about cats. How do I introduce them? What can I do to make this transition as easy as possible for both cats? Thanks for any advice you can offer!
I don't exactly know what to say. But cats play the same way dogs play and dogs/cats interplay. So we have an intact female, she's tiny tiny, she is really playful with all dogs and cats. We have a huge garfield male cat who's neutered. And we have a medium sized female spayed, I guess you can say. The spayed female and the male don't like each other. Actually the girl is really interested in him and makes strange noises, he's afraid of her and if she comes to close he hisses. We always stay in a room with them and he can go under the bed if he likes or she can sit somewhere else, they all have options, she can even leave the room if she wants. The little one and garfield, had some tension at first, he seemed to be afraid of her, but since she didn't give a rat's shit about him, he got used to her and likes her now. So my advice is just to watch them, and if one is taking too much interest in another make it stop, but don't get panicky because that will make them freak out, stay calm, and don't kick one out, unless you absolutely must, because the longer they are close the easier they'll just get use to each other. So let them meet in a bedroom or a room that closes, while the two of you are there to supervise. My humble advice. eta: garfield is an outside cat 90% of the time; little itty bitty is 80-90% inside; the other cat is 98% inside.
our cats still don't really get along. One is a fixed male who is just mellow and sweet. The other is a fixed female who is not so mellow. She seems terrified of shadow, even though he wasn't interested in fighting with her until she hissed and batted at him. Now they tolerate each other pretty well, but we do have the occasoinal cat fight. I would suggest maybe if the other cat is unsure of dogs that you try to introduce the cats while the dog is outside. Dahli lives alomost 100% in our bedroom, shadow lives about 80% outside or in the rest of the house. Even though the dog is chill and not interested in the cat, just the sight of coco sends her into fits. Catnip sometimes mellows dahli out enough that shadow can walk near her without getting her defenses up, so maybe you could try that? If not just go slow and rememeber that they may not be buddies, but they will probably learn to tolerate each other. Haha, my cats started fighting while I was writing this.
Try getting something that your boyfriends cat has laid on and putting it in your apartment so that your cat can get used to the smell of another cat before you bring the new cat in. It also works when bringing home a new baby.
when i furst got my mail cat, he was 10 weeks old. a silver spotted bengal, and he is a pretty big cat. so when i got my wee snow leopard female one who is absolutly tiny there was a bit of tention bitween the 2 of them. We supervised them during the day together and seporated them at night to begin with in case there was any fighting that we couldn't stop while we were asleep. Now they get on pretty well and even groom each other, but ocationally there will be a wee bit of fighting going on, both my cats are nutered but he will still try and mount her some times even though its pointless, i think that's his vertion of foreplay ... hope this has helped you a bit. x ;-)
Cool, thanks! My boy's cat has met my dog before, they're cool. I think it'll be ok, my cat's a stoner, so he's pretty easy going. I do appreciate the feedback. I've brought a towel from my boyfriend's that I rubbed on his cat, that's I'm going to put near my cat, so hopefully that will work. Thanks!
i hope every thing goes well for ya babe , and i hope they will get on too. It can be a bit dissconserting when your trying to get 2 cats use to each other but once they find there place in the pecking order things will be fine. Ocationally my 2 have a wee fight over who's the dominent one but it usually gets sorted out. are your cats de clawed? its against the law to de claw your cats in the u.k, i don't agree with de clawing your cats, your taking one of there weppins away which they need other wise how are they meant to defend them selfs or climb? anyway i wont get in to that i don't want to make any body feel bad in any way. every body does things for a reason right? and that's totally fine if it suits them and they shouldn't be made to feel bad because they have had to do something or reach a desition. this is all hypothetical here, i'm going to stop typing now so you don't strain your eyes looking at my woffling lol. good luck anyway. x
