You Brought Home Another One? (Part 1)

As anyone who has tried knows, introducing cats can be a difficult thing. The secret is making the introduction as slowly as possible and keeping the interactions between your cats positive. There is no timeline that works for every cat, it depends on their individual personalities and on if your home is set up adequately to house multiple cats. If you've already introduced your cats and it didn't go very well, it's not too late to repair the damage. In this post I'm going to lay out an "ideal" way to introduce cats to each other, as well as give some backtracking tips if your cats are already having problems.

Then someday you'll get to spend your days taking pictures of
adorable cuddle puddles.

PREPARING YOUR HOME
(Best case scenario, you do all this before you get another cat, but these are improvements that can help any cat household no matter how long the cats have been living/fighting together.)

The first thing you need to do is assess your home. If your house isn't multi-cat friendly then you are setting yourself up for failure. To have a smooth introduction and a peaceful life, you first need to check out your litter box situation. The golden rule for litter boxes is: number of cats + 1 and litter boxes should be cleaned daily. Having too few or dirty litter boxes pretty much guarantees cat fights, litter box aversion, or both.

Litter boxes good? Next, your resident cat(s) need a place to mark their territory and your new cat needs some territory to claim as his – for this you need scratching posts and cat trees. (Read about why scratching is important here.) Give your new cat a fresh scratching item, even if it's just one of the lay-on-the-floor cardboard scratchers. Having something of their own to scratch that doesn't smell like the other cats in the home will help you out later on during the actual introduction.

The third thing you should evaluate before bring another cat into your home is vertical space. Like scratching, it's a territory thing. Not having enough vertical space will increase competition in your home and certainly not help your cats get along.

EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT CATS
Are your current cats happy and healthy? Before you bring a new cat home you need to make sure your resident cats are current on their vaccinations and spayed or neutered. Not only do you not want any accidents, but altered cats get along much, much better than they would otherwise. An unaltered male cat would happily kill a new tiny kitten if they were left unattended together in your home.

If you currently have ill or unaltered cats, right now might not be the best time for you to make an addition to your family.

It's hard to believe now that at one time Harry wanted to eat
Damien as a snack.



PREPARING "THE SANCTUARY"

As soon as you walk into your house with a new cat, your current cat(s) are going to know. Even still, your goal is to be as unobtrusive about the new member of your family as possible. Before you bring your new cat home, set up a room just for them.

In this room you need:

• fresh water
• food, as needed (dependant on how you're feeding – free or scheduled)
• a clean litter box
• something to scratch on
• something to play with
• something to sleep on
• somewhere to hide

When you bring your new cat home, bring them straight to this room. Transport them from wherever you're getting them to this room in a sturdy cat carrier. Try to avoid your other cats, this is a stealth mission. Once in this room, open the carrier door and let your new cat come out. If it's a little kitten, chances are it'll come bounding out and ready to play. A mature cat, however, may take a little time to venture out. Let the cat decide when it is ready to explore it's new home and don't try to force him out!

If you already have a new cat and you're having problems, repeat this step (or do it for the first time). It's the first step to making things better and it keeps your cats safe from each other. Not only are cat fights awful to listen to, but they can cause an array of damage – anything from small bites and scabs, to scratched eyes, to puncture wounds that form abscesses.

Lola, circa 2004, after getting beat up by another cat while
I was in the shower. She received a puncture wound which
turned into an abscess that had to be drained with a tube.
Nothing about this experience was enjoyable.



NOW WHAT?

You have a new cat! Yay! Keep your new guy in his own private room, and keep your resident cats firmly on the other side of the door. Do not be tempted to do anything more right now. You might think your current cats will be excited for the new addition, and maybe they will be, but rushing the introduction process will only make it take longer to obtain your goal – a peaceful home with cats that like each other.

In Part 2, I will go through the next steps to introducing cats to each other. Until then, just remember that you can't go too slow with this process. Be patient and make sure you show love to all your cats, not just your newbie!

Importance of Vertical Space

An architect and a landscaper will look at the same street corner and see completely different things, much in the same way that a retailer and their customer will look at a window display and get a different story. Even what constitutes as extra, open, or empty space changes with experience. My concept of space changed entirely after making the move from Nebraska to Chicago. If the very life you lead can cause you to view space in a different way, then it stands to reason that the space in your home looks differently through the eyes of your cat(s).

Cats need vertical space. It is especially important in a multi-cat household where hierarchy is a big deal. Generally speaking, your "top cat" is going to be in the highest spot of your home, where it is easy for them to survey their domain. It's far more involved than all that, and there are plenty of other ways cats display dominance, but elevation is a basic visual cue.



Mona on the staircase.

Some boys enjoying a multi-leveled view.



 

In a home without vertical space, it can be harder for cats to establish who is dominate. Because they are on the same physical level or close to it, the more dominate cat may feel that the less dominate is trying to usurp it's power, causing fights. The less dominate cat might not even want "the power", but without the ability to effectively communicate that, it's left with the standard two options, fight or flight. Fight, and you're left with battling cats who could seriously hurt each other, or flight, in which you have a rather aggressive top cat, and another cat who is scared, nervous, and hiding all the time. Neither situation is a great one to find yourself in.

Cats on every level!

Asses the vertical space in your home. When it comes to cats, that matters far more than the actual square footage. Cat trees are great, and they aid in healthy scratching, but they are not the only option. In my house the cats can frequently be found on the top of the fridge, the kitchen cupboards, on the bookcases and record shelves, or on the crate thing that holds our couch pillows and blankets, as well as spending time on their cat trees. Just make sure you have a few items in your home that are tall, stable, and that have room for a cat on the top of them.