Need Cat advise for new house cats

[Josette]

Maybe some of you remember back last summer my situation with 3 feral kittens in my garage. I still have them (all females) and they will be spayed in the next 2 weeks. I'll spare you the long saga trying to contact cat rescues - they were over whelmed with cats. I did not want to drop at SPCA and risk PTS because they were difficult to handle. SPCA was buried in cat hoarder situations. Our local vet office was going to charge us $800 per cat to spay. So we kept looking until we found another vet office charging half that price. Crazy times are here.

So - I managed to befriend 2 of the kittens Suzy (solid black) and Daisy (tiger with missing hind paw). Spider Monkey (the tuxedo) prefers no touching contact and continues to climb into the eaves of the garage. Suzy is a love bug and wants to be held and Daisy likes being petted. Both greet me at the kitchen door every morning. DH and I figure they are now our cats.

Also, we have 2 small dogs who are fine with cats. Plus these kittens are accustomed to us walking past with the dogs. The CHALLENGE is our older indoor cat who is the QUEEN and rules the house (including the dogs).

What is the way to get the Queen, Suzy and Daisy to accept each other? We have a large house with kitty boxes in basement (door left open). I do not want to have cats doing a territory situation peeing and pooping throughout the house. Our house does not smell like pets and I want to keep it that way - plus we have carpeting all over.

I just tried putting the Queen in the garage to see reaction - LOTS of hissing from her. Any thoughts - suggestions? I really want Suzy as another house cat and feel handicapped Daisy should be in side too.

[blob]

The key to cat introductions is giving the new cats a 'safe space' but also to making sure the original cat does not get overly territorial.

It would be good to have Queen go into the garage when the other kittens are not there so she can smell them, without having to interact with them.

This article from Jackson Galaxy has a lot of tips that might be useful: https://www.jacksongalaxy.com/blog/the- ... cing-cats/

For the cat box you likely need to get a new cat box for the kittens temporarily as Queen may not let them use hers or may stop using her's if the kittens start using it. Eventually this likely won't be an issue but in the beginning you will need an additional litter box (or even 2).

[Josette]

Thanks Blob - I have a feeling this is not going to be easy with my older cat accepting them. She has been the only house cat for 8 years so has not been socialized with other cats. It appears introducing by scent initially is recommended (bedding) before physically meeting. I want it to work but have my reservations.......

[Tanga]

I have a lot of cats now and bred and raised Siamese for 35 years--some experience. Besides the gradual introductions, getting her used to scents, and such, I have a new way to fix all issues--bribery.

I have catnip spray I bought that I discovered not only is fun to spray on stuff, but is good to spray on any arguing cats--they all become so much friendlier. Also--Kitty Cocaine--Temptation treats no cat can resist. Spray the kittens with catnip spray and feed her Kitty Cocaine while she is near them.

Generally adult cats always accept kittens. There may be hissing and pissiness, but usually the kittens' adoration of the adult, which they will do, wears them down. I have never not had an adult cat accept a kitten except in one rare case with a very neurotic cat.

[Josette]

Tanga - thanks so much for your experience as my adult cat does like catnip. These young females are about 8 months old - so not that young now. They were really feral and fearful when we found them last summer. It took so long to make spay appointments due to Covid - plus we couldn't catch them. They have been locked in our garage this entire time for fear of getting out and having more kittens. Lots of stray cats around from nearby farm. It took a long time to befriend these kittens and now 2 can be easily handled.

I really under estimated how territorial cats are until I read these articles. The logistics of trying to separate them inside the house is difficult because of the dogs. Setting up kitty boxes upstairs is problematic with poop eating dogs. This a nightmare.

[blob]

Is there a room you can designate temporarily to the cats and close off to the dogs?

I have a baby gate with a cat sized hole in it blocking the entrance to the room where I feed my cat and where her litter is to keep the dog from eating either.

[Josette]

Blob - yeah - that is what I'm trying to figure out. The basement situation is my current setup with my indoor cat for the litter box because my dogs will not go down the basement stairs. She is fed on a counter top in the kitchen. (That is my ideal goal for ALL cats to use the basement and I can even feed ALL cats down there too.)

The ground floor is mostly open space except for one doorway into the living room - all carpeted. Bedrooms all carpeted too and where the dogs hangout as one is DH's work office.

If I somehow close off the living room and place plastic on carpet - what happens when I go to move litter boxes in the future? It is a large house but it seems so complicated with this mix of animals. So many places to hide and leave kitty pee/poop somewhere.

Step one - get them spayed . Their spay appts are this week but now snowing like crazy here.

[blob]

moving them eventually to al use the basement shoudln't be an issue. but you will likely need a temporary spot. I would use one of the bathrooms--that is what I have always done. Easier clean up and easier to put a baby gate door to block dogs because it's not a place they're used to hanging out.

[Hayburner]

Sorry no advise on getting the cats to get along.

I will suggest you contact a few cat specific rescues and a few of the animal shelters for a price on spaying the kittens. I know a few times in my area they reduced pricing on spay/neutering, especially if they are feral the price I see even less.

[texsuze]

Ditto using bathroom(s) as temporary litter box location. You could feed on top of countertops or bring in a small nightstand and rig it up for a feeding tower. For pup-proof litter box you might try taking a Rubbermaid (or other brand) tote with removable lid. Square or rectangle, opaque color (not clear), large enough for cats to sit/stand/turn around inside. With the lid on, mark out a square entrance hole to be cut into one side. Just large enough for largest cat but too small for pup to stick head inside (unless chihuahua!); make sure the bottom edge of the hole high enough to keep litter inside. We offset the hole on one tote so it wasn't exactly in the center of that side of the tote, if that makes sense.

[Josette]

Thanks for these ideas - they are very helpful. Daisy kitty (the one with missing hind paw) was spayed last Thursday and is currently recovering in the downstairs bathroom. She can hear the kitchen noises and activity with dogs and appears relaxed there. She did shred the remaining toilet paper I forgot to remove - so she seems to be recovering well.

texsure - I will give some thought to that litter box cover. My dogs are smallish and one is a chihuahua mix - a very bad sneaky poop eater.

Another spay appt tomorrow for the last 2 cats. I will probably only get Suzy (she is the easy cuddle kitty) but Spider Monkey is tricky. No food today.

[Josette]

Is there a scream icon? I couldn't catch the last 2 cats this morning for the spay appt. Food and water was removed last night but I guess they figured it out that it means a road trip - like in the past for vaccines. I'm annoyed that the vet office booked 2 cats as I told them I might only catch one - NOT. I was charged a $75 cancellation fee per cat = $150 wasted today. I totally get the cancellation fee - but next appt is scheduled for May 26 as they are booked. Small practice and only do surgery one day per week. I'll need to search for another office to try for an earlier date - then rinse repeat this catch cycle again. I'm adding a curse on people who drop off cats - especially all females.

[demi]

Bummer, Josette. I’ll add another curse on people who dump cats. And dogs.