I'm hoping that beth, pamie and other readers of this site will read this question and help me out: I've got one cat now (2 years old) and am thinking of getting another - mostly for the cat's companionship. I am feeling really guilty how lonely and bored my cat is since both me and my SO are at work all day.

Does anyone have any advice on one cat versus two? Is it twice the work? Most importantly, can you recommend how to introduce a new cat (either kitten or adult) to the current queen of sheba? I'm worried that they wont get along and will kill each other when I'm not home (or when I am home and I'll have to witness it...)

Thanks for sharing your wisdom! I look forward to any replies.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2000

Answers

I heartily recommend two cats. They don't eat much more than one cat, and having a kitty companion during the day really helps stop the neurotic behaviour.

Both times I introduced a new cat into the household it's gone off without a hitch. The key is to do it gradually, and let the resident cat get used to the situation. If you force it, they will despise one another forever (that happened to one of my mum's cats about 10 years ago...took 8 years for the cats to decide they really did like each other). I tried keeping the new cat in a room until it adjusts and then supervise the meetings until you are sure they will be ok.

Cats rarely if ever kill each other so don't worry about that happening. Good luck!

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2000

Two cats are great. Best case is they get to be friendly and play together and entertain each other. Worst case, they never like each other and just avoid each other. One cat isn't enough for me. We have two and I'd like to have three.

One good way to introduce a new cat is to bring it into the house and leave it in its carrier. Don't call the queen of sheba, let her discover this strange thing in her balliwick. Since the new cat is in the carrier, the queen can't hurt it, but can give the whole setup a good inspection. That makes her - the queen - feel more secure about the idea.

After a while, like an hour, you can let the new cat out and stick around to monitor things. Don't be surprised if they have a face off then run off and avoid each other for a few days. Keep giving them each a lot of attention.

Get a second sandbox, if your cat uses one. Some cats get territorial about this and will start peeing elsewhere to show their annoyance. It keeps the box from getting too filthy right away, too.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2000

I have one mean, evil, rotten cat (Rudy) and another who will go along with whatever mean, evil, rotten idea Rudy comes up with (Benny). I got Benny when Rudy was really young, about seven or eight months old, so they got along okay. But when I tried to add a third cat, all hell broke loose.

No, cats don't usually kill one another. Benny and Rudy did draw a lot of blood from the interlopers, though. The second one had to be hustled out of my apartment in a hurry after I came home one day and found blood all over the bathroom, including the ceiling. Before that, B & R wouldn't let him use the litter box, eat in their space, or (eventually) leave the bathroom at all.

Assuming your cats aren't demon spawn like mine, you shouldn't have any real problems, although they may fight at first and pee in the wrong places, and they may never love each other. If your cats (like mine) are slightly demon spawnish, you might consider adding a kitten rather than a cat. Lots of people say that's a bad idea because a kitten will drive an adult cat nuts. In my experience, the adult cats may hiss a little, but they're far less likely to have lasting problems with a cat they know from kittenhood. Benny and Rudy both adore Sally, who was just a kitten when we brought her in. She did torment Benny for a few months because she was far more energetic and playful than he was, but he got over it. (And fair's fair ... he's tormented plenty of other cats in his time.) He also never hurt her or even used claws on her, although he is and was perfectly capable of swallowing her whole.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2000

it's definitely important to let the cats get to know each other gradually, so if possible, try to have a place where you can keep the new cat enclosed for a week or so. after the first cat gets adjusted to the scent of the second, supervised visits of gradually increasing length should let them get to know each other without too much damage. remember that the new cat will be freaked out by its new home, too.

the question of whether to get a cat or a kitten depends on the amount of time and patience you have. since you can't be home much, i suggest getting a cat, because kittens get into things and need trips to the vet. if you can get a cat who's already been spayed or neutered, that would be the most convenient, time-wise. often the animal shelter will have information on whether the older cats are good with other animals.

if you have your heart set on getting a kitten, and you have the space, i recommend getting two kittens at once - the older cat gets the benefit of having other cats present, but doesn't get pestered as much because the kittens play with each other.

most cats really don't mind being alone - your cat might not be as bored as you think. it isn't that much work to have a second cat, so if you want one, it shouldn't be too difficult to add one to your household. if your main motivation is guilt, though, you probably don't need to worry about getting a new cat.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2000

Well, speaking from the perspective of someone who has royally messed up the introduction of a new cat recently, I'd stick like glue to the advice that has been presented here.

Part of my problem centers around the fact that when we brought Pearl in from the cold, we were rescuing her with the intention of finding a new hom for her -- not to make her a part of the household.

So we treated her and our cats with that assumption in mind.

However, as the months have gone by, we've grown attached to her and now we find ourselves with the problem of a divided household.

The bedroom belongs to Pearl. The rest of the apartment belongs to the other four cats (Shara and her kittens, who are now over a year old)

The rest of the problem centers on the fact that Pearl is still entire -- we didn't have the money to spay her right away (yes I know it doesn't cost that much, but trust me, we had _no_ spare cash on hand when she turned up in August)

So that upped the ante, since the boy cats, even spayed, could hear Pearl calling when she went into heat and wanted to get down and dirty with her.

No matter how much attention I lavished on Shara (mom-cat) and her daughter Sasha, the two lady cats have decided that Pearl is their mortal enemy.

Now Pearl is very petite -- she came to us at 4.5 pounds, skin and bones and definitely could not stand up for herself because she was starving to death. She's up to about 6 pounds now and can fight back, but Shara is twice her size -- she tanked up while she was nursing the kittens and never lost her pregnancy weight after she was spayed. (Shara was also a rescue, who came with surprise attachments)

So we have big bruiser cat with tiny little defenseless cat.

Bad scene.

I tried to introduce the others to Pearl gradually when it became clear that Pearl would be staying. First I started leaving the door open so that they could come in and sniff each other out, but I'd stay in the room.

Then I started leaving the door open to let them come and go as they pleased while I went elsewhere in the apartment.

Every time, Shara would wind up kicking the cr*p out of Pearl and pinning her down in a tight corner. So I went back to supervised visits.

Now Pearl has become hyper-defensive: every time I open the door to the bedroom, she runs away and hides just in case Shara comes in.

The only one of the other cats that Pearl gets along with is Mephisto and Sasha has gone from tolerating Pearl grudgingly to beating her up after the first time Pearl went into heat.

Tomorrow, Pearl goes in for her spay at last.

And we'll be moving in a few weeks, either to a new place here in Virginia or a completely new place in San Francisco.

I hope to goodness that the change in locale will let me "re-introduce" Pearl, in neutral territory and that once she is spayed, my three girls will at least stop beating each other up. They don't have to be good friends -- but an end to the yowling and pounding would be nice, as well as more roaming space for poor little Pearl.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2000

Well, I came into this thread a couple hours too late.

PAWS called me today to ask me to take in another foster, an 8-year-old cat who was surrendered when her owner died some weeks ago. She is now extremely depressed and has stopped eating or grooming herself. Her fur was so grimy and matted that the first thing I did when I got her home was give her a bath and a good brushing.

So you know we got started out on the right foot. I have a chunk missing from my left thumb. If it were the opposite thumb, I'dbewritinglikethis. Hell, I'll live.

Anyway, the bath turned out to be a good idea. Gigi, the new cat, couldn't puff up when Tove started threatening her (because her fur was still damp), and since I used my shampoo on her, she smelled kind of familiar. Although there's been a bit of hissing, there hasn't been any snarling or charging or, Christ forbid, blood on the ceiling.

The instigator of much ugliness has been, surprisingly, Cassidy the foster rabbit. When rabbits get angry they thump their back feet, and the noise reverberates like you wouldn't believe. It makes Tove livid, which makes Gigi nervous, which starts a "THUMP" "Mrowr" "Murrrrr" "Hiss" "Hiss" "THUMP" "Mrowr" cycle. It's like living in the Bronx Zoo, frankly. I don't know how I got so very fortunate enough to get two fosters at once.

If you do get a cat, please, please adopt from a shelter. When I was at PAWS today they had a picture posted on the wall whose caption read "Don't litter. Spay or neuter your pets." The photograph was of PAWS employees standing next to five round plastic garbage cans filled to the brim with cat corpses. It made me so upset that when they brought Gigi out to me I thought they wouldn't let me take her home, as I was distraught and on the verge of tears for no discernable reason. One of the cats on top of the bins looked just like my Tova. Okay, now I AM crying. Please don't buy from pet stores or breeders.

..........................................

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2000

We have 4 of the critters ourselves, so the obvious answer is "the more the merrier!"

I think you need a 2 cat minimum to fully appreciate and understand how a cat thinks (rarely?) and how the group dynamics and personalities come into play.

When you do get the new addition, you'll find there'll likely be approx 72 hours of posturing, stand offs, fur flying incidents and such as they work our their pecking order. Not to worry; one day you'll come home from work and find them cuddled up together in some saccharine sweet pose. (It's enough to make you want to cough up a furball.)

Speaking of multiple cats, the city of St. Catharines, Ontario recently passed a by-law limiting the number of cats per household to 3, and that all cats be licensed. Seems some people in the city were upset that caterwauling kept going on in their backyards and raised a big enough stink about it that city council decided to paint all cat owners with the same brush.

What do you think? Should responsible pet owners have to take the same punishment as irresponsible ones? Should the city instead spend their energies on educating pet owners and engage in a program of catching and neutering feral cats?

I have visions of our car load of kitties being stopped at the offramp and turned away by some sort of pet gestapo, next time we go that way to visit our relatives.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2000

One cat vs. two? Well, as I'm owned by six (yes, six...I'm the crazy cat lady down the street), I definitely say why stop at one? (This is what happens when you work at an animal shelter, but that's another story.)

Everyone so far has had great input. I'll add this: After the Queen has inspected the "interloper" to the realm in said carrier, try to keep the cats in separate rooms when feeding if at all possible. Best, feed them on opposite sides of the same door at the same time. That way they'll come to associate the scent of each other with good stuff (i.e. dinner). After a day or two, open the door a crack when they're eating. This way they can see and smell each other. Monitor them for any major outbursts. After several more days, open the door, but continue to feed them separately. They'll be getting used to seeing and smelling each other. Eventually (a couple of weeks), there should be no problems.

Based on past experience, I'd suggest a young cat as a second addition. Not a kitten, but not necessarily an adult either. My two older codgers were waaaaay more tolerant of youngsters and there was a minimum of carrying on. Hissing, yes...blood on the ceiling, no.

Additional litterbox: YES! In a separate area, if possible. Add another water bowl somewhere in the house, too.

Finally, I wholeheartedly agree with adopting from an animal shelter. Please, please, please! There are sooooo many wonderful animals who need a home. Best of luck!

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2000

I should point out, so I don't scare anyone out of adopting a second or third cat, that the blood on the ceiling incident happened after the cat in question had lived with us for almost a year. They never liked him, but things didn't start off that bad. It became clear eventually that nothing was going to improve, and I would have given up and found him a new home except that it was just supposed to be extended cat-sitting -- he belonged to a friend who had moved out of state, and the friend told me he'd send for his cat in nine months. So I wasn't treating the situation the way I would have if the cat were going to live with me forever, and when it became clear that the situation wasn't going to improve, I thought we just had to hang on for a few months. Otherwise, I would have found him a home at that point.

Also, the new cat was declawed, and my cats are not. That's just too dangerous a mix, and I wouldn't have taken him in had I known. (I agreed to take him at the last minute to help my friend.)

And the happy ending was that after the blood on the ceiling incident, another friend took the cat, and she loved him and gave him a happy life until he died a few years ago. And Benny and Rudy stopped trying to kill things, unless you count the dog. Rudy really hates the dog.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2000

Well, Cal and Taylor seem to get along pretty well now. They sure do play rough, but you can tell that they don't have to be in the situation (there are hiding places or places to flee) and that they choose to continue to tumble and growl and kick. It makes for fewer scratches on us, I guess.

Since Taylor was already used to having another cat around I thought Cal might be an instant welcome addition.

No.

Keep everything separate for the first month or so. Put the food in two different places, the litter boxes in two different places. The cats need to be able to claim individual territory before they are willing to share.

I've had cats who never went near each other. I've had cats who slept in each other's arms. It depends. I find that the male/female works better (although the female tends to take a bit of abuse, but the bond seems stronger faster), but Cal and Taylor seem to be buddies now, even though they only really work together when there's a bug to get rid of. Taylor finds it and Cal eats it. They know their roles.

Jealousy seems to be another factor. Resist the urge to pamper the new cat around the old one. If the old cat isn't sticking to routine (like sleeping in your bed), make sure you invite the old one back into the routine so it doesn't feel replaced. Special toys or food helps too.

Good luck! And I agree with Kim-- please adopt from a shelter.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2000

I have only one cat. She's almost 12 years old, and very set in her ways - I think Zanda would flip out if we got another cat. Since Sasha is so young, Shelagh, I think you might be able to get another one.

Everyone seems to be so pro-2 cats, so I'm presenting the other side of the coin. My friend Pam (who also owns a pitch-black Sasha) got another kitten after Sasha had been around for 3 years. Sasha promptly turned into a bitch who hisses and screams at everyone who enters their house. The only people she doesn't scream and hiss at are Pam and her husband and son.

So, seeing has how getting Poco changed Sasha completely, I really fear getting another feline in our house, because I love our wonderful Zanda just the way she is. At her old age, I don't think it would be fair to change things around for her - it's bad enough we're adding a little person to our family in September! :) Don't know how she's going to take that either - she's always been our baby.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2000

We got a second cat (Mia) for companionship reasons when our first cat (Grendel) was about 6 months old. Both are spayed females. We didn't know anything about introducing cats, and did it all wrong -- basically, we plopped Mia down in the living room and said, "Grendel, meet your new sister!" Grendel promptly freaked out and hid in the bathroom for 3 days. I cried because I thought Grendel would never forgive me.

It's nearly five years later now and they get along fine, but I think that Grendel has changed. She is not nearly as affectionate as she was as a kitten, but I don't know if this is a result of aging or of introducing Mia so poorly. They still fight about once a day and chase one another around the apartment, but it's very playful and not at all mean. Once in a great while, they will groom each other, but only for a second before it turns into a fight.

That said, Grendel definitely calmed down a lot when we got Mia. I whole-heartedly agree that two cats are actually less trouble than one. I just wish we had done a little research before introducing them. They are both strays, and I also wish we had gotten them vaccinated before they potentially infected one another. We were lucky, but it could have turned out differently.

Of course, now I want another cat, and a dog. But I'm waiting until I live in a house since it's so hard to find an apartment with animals.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2000