Posted on 04/23/2012 4:55:07 PM PDT by carton253
When a new cat arrived in our household where other cats were already residing, I'd give all cats a bath with warm water, using a small amount of baby shampoo, and rinsing thoroughly. Then they'd all have the same body odor and the old cats accepted the new cats.
Occasionally adult males will eat kittens, so your male cat might think those little kittens are prey; perhaps keeping them separate until the kittens are quite a bit larger would be best.
Enjoy and love your cats, ma’am. I had two litter mate dogs for 15 years, outside dogs. I enjoyed every minute of them but that was enough for me. I live in a condo now.
My neutered tomcat has always been very patient with kittens (the keyword here is “neutered”).
It really does depend on the cat. It took Misty about a week to get secure in the house. It took Deimos about three hours.
We have 5 cats and a beagle mix. I have come to understand that cats are like men. They like to come and go when they please but become extremely jealous when their “relationship” with their attached human is threatened. They will bite the hand that feeds them quite readily and will smack the crap out of any other cats they sense weakness in if the weaker cat invades their space.
The good news is they never fight to the death and none of them are allowed to carry.
Cat owner for more than 40 years. Have two now, each is 15 years old. All six of my cats lived to be a minimum of 14, so I had, sometimes, three at once. After all these years and all this experience I’ve learned that every cat is a distinct personality.
I’ve learned that each has its own amount of intelligence, its own sense of playfulness, of ownership and of dominance. These last two kitties tolerate each other most of the time, fight very occasionally and play together rarely. It seems that just about every three months or so, they decided to re-decide who’s top cat. It almost always ends up being the smaller, meaner cat. The big guy, a Maine Coon, is a sweetheart and smart as can be. But he’s not top cat.
Anyway, I’m sharing all of this just to let you know that a lot of the advice you’ve received here probably won’t make much difference. You know the personality of the older cat. Figure out a way to make him comfortable and to let the babies know he’s in charge, and just remember that whatever happens, the situation will remain fluid forever. Good luck.
Got to say you are probably right on. Cats are funny. Sometimes they take to strange cats and other times they never adjust.
Bookmark for later.
LOL you are one mean woman, I don’t want to tangle with you...:O)
Thank you for all your advice. It has helped.
There are some real losers in here aren’t there carton? I’m sure they hate themselves and only lash out to try to relieve the pain.....sad..
WTH is wrong with you?
My late Rottie, Buddy, fell in love with our calico, Chi-Chi.
I am convinced that that dog loved pain.
He put up with biting and scratching, just so he could lick her.The other cats never liked her, as she was always a bit pushy, to put it nicely, so I just thought she was treating him badly because she was nasty to everyone-except us.
Finally, after about a year, she broke down and was smitten. Whenever he came into the room, she would meow and go up to him rubbing against him and he would try to do the same but would end up knocking her over (he was 120lbs). She would roll around and end up on her back, grab his snout and he’d lick her tummy.
Sometimes we had to break it up (hey-you 2 get a room!, my husband would say and they would stop-I swear!) and I’d have to clean up his slobber.
When she wasn’t in the mood, she’d whack him on his head a few times and sometimes he’d walk away, other times he’d crouch, wag his tail and bark at her. She loved it and would keep hitting him so he’d keep barking. When I would come to see what the commotion was, they’d both look up at me with that-what? who me? expression.
At night,I would go around the house turning off the lights,and after a couple of nights, I realized I was always walking over Buddy. Why aren’t you in your bed? I’d ask him. Well, when I went into our other den where the $$$ dog beds were, there, in the middle of this enormous bed,was Chi-Chi. This became a nightly ritual and he only slept on his bed during the day. Sometimes, when he slept on the floor, she would come and sleep next to him too.
Buddy got sick and died rather suddenly from kidney disease and about 6 months later, Chi-Chi was diagnosed with cancer and before we could even decide whether to put her down, she died.
She used to spend all of her time at the window looking outside for him; it was so sad, just broke my heart.
We buried Chi-Chi on our property in the dog cemetery, right next to Buddy....she is the only cat buried there.
...you read about these pet “love stories” and always wonder if they are true; I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes!
Pets are such a gift from above; I don’t know what I would do without them.
Mrs CT Hillbilly
What kind of cancer did your Chi-Chi have? I’m only asking because my Mimi was just diagnosed w/ chronic asthma, is doing much better now (no coughing or wheezing since last weds).....however, the radiologist found a mass.
I’m bringing her in on 5/9 for an ultra sound and biopsy. The mass is either on her lung or sternum. =(
Fawning over yourself much?
she had a tumor on her face just below her ear-I can’t remember what the exact name of it was, but it had to do with the ear canal. It wasn’t on her ear though, just below it-kind of where the face puffs out a little? It was a big long name.It was a few years ago...cannot get the brain to remember...
It looked like she had scratched herself; there was a little hole-just a bit bigger than a pin hole and of course I cleaned it off and kept an eye on it. Like I said, she was a pushy kitty, so I thought maybe one of the other cats scratched her, it was just odd looking.
After a few days, it had gotten larger and was infected, so off she went to the vet...she thought the same thing and gave us antibiotics, cleaned it etc.
Long story short, it started to get larger everyday and of course was oozing etc. It was awful...nothing helped it...took her back to the vet and she took one look at it and I could tell she knew and it was bad-you could tell at that point there was a mass-the cheek area looked puffier; when the vet wiped it a little to clean it, it just opened wide and I didn’t know what I was looking at-I think it was bone. I started crying and they kept her of course.
They called us the next day and told us it was cancer of the_______ ?it’s like the lower part of the ear inside. It was really big and was actually stretching the skin open...it was terrible.It was growing from the inside out.I don’t know if it was a certain kind of cancer/tumor-I don’t remember anything being said about that.
We took her home and the tumor looked a lot better-like it just needed to be drained.I thought maybe the vet was wrong.
About 2 weeks went by and it wasn’t oozing much, so we thought it WAS getting better.
Then one morning I couldn’t find her; she was on top of my kitchen cabinets and her face was so swollen, her eye was swollen shut. She couldn’t see to get down, so I had to go up and get her.
After that, it started oozing more and we knew we would have to make a decision.
The next day,she stopped eating and was hiding and I told my husband I would call and bring her in in the morning; I got up and she had passed ...and she was on Buddy’s bed.
I cried for days!!! It’s so hard with cancer; she really didn’t seem to be in pain or even bothered by it.She cried once when she scratched it, but that was it.You don’t know whether to put them down right away, or wait-hoping they might make it.
Sorry for the long post-I start talking about my animals and they are really my family as I have no children of my own..(unless you count my hubby!) ;), and I just go on and on!
We’ve rescued a lot of cats and even took care of feral cats that “came with the property”, so I have a lot of stories!
Good luck with your kitty...just do the best you can and give kitty a little extra love, I think that’s all they want when they’re sick....
Mrs CT Hillbilly
She had 2 cats she rescued. Both FIV ad cancer. One died, the other is living out his years in ultimate glory and love.
He had a cancerous tumor removed that prevented himself from eating. That one didn't grow back, but now he has several on his other side. Looks like he lost a lot of weight as well.
I'm praying it was just a shadow on the x-ray (chronic asthma in cats causes a LOT of mucus and liquid....and very uncomfortable.
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