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Considerations
To a cat devotee, it must seem a great idea to have lots of cats around on whom you can lavish care and attention, lots of friends for you to play with. Be warned however, that a multi-cat home can be a nightmare if you don't get the fundamentals right, such as being prepared for the extra work you will be involved in, the extra financial costs you will be put to and the possibility of tensions and fighting amongst the cats. You should remember that by nature, cats are solitary animals who live their lives on their own terms without restrictions being placed upon them. Group living is unnatural to a cat who will be unused to making the necessary concessions to another animal which will be necessary for harmonious group living.
If you are thinking therefore of adding another animal to your existing cat, the very first thing to consider is the personality of your existing cat and the need to choose a compatible housemate. So you will need to consider factors you may not have thought about, such as age, size, breed, male or female. Also, be aware that cats genes have conditioned them to a hierarchical lifestyle and your existing cat may not take kindly to an interloper usurping its top cat social position. Be prepared for fur to fly when the pecking order status quo is challenged, as it will be, even over such apparently minor issues as favorite chair, scratching trees, litter baskets, food bowls and sleeping arrangements.
You should also understand that the cat which controls the high ground develops the higher status and will have dominance over other cats by being physically above their eye line. Cats also need high places they can escape to where they feel safe. That is why so many cats seem to prefer sleeping in an upstairs bedroom or landing area, so be prepared for fights and squabbles over territory as well as the inevitable marking of said territory by urine, scat, and scent glands all of which can be unpleasant and will need to be removed - not a pleasant task.
Practical Steps
So, having thought things through and reached a decision to bring another cat into your home, what steps can you take to ease the passage of introduction and acceptance? Bear in mind that the manner in which you introduce the new cat to your resident cat will have a huge influence on their future relationship. To lay a healthy foundation, you need to follow some well tried practical steps in order to prepare for that important initial meeting. First of all create a "safe room" which will be dedicated to the new cat, who will live there alone until the resident cat is deemed ready to accept the newcomer. In this "safe room" place water and food dish, litter box, bedding and a piece of furniture for the cat to climb on or hide beneath. Do not let the resident cat into the safe room.
Bring the new cat home unseen in a ventilated carrier, so that the resident cat can smell the newcomer briefly. Open the carrier in a corner of the safe room, but let the cat acclimatise and come out in its own time. Place a little food treat near the carrier, then leave the room without touching the cat, so that its smell does not reach your hands and cause jealousy, closing the door behind you. When visiting the new cat, pick a time when your existing cat is busy or asleep, and then visit the safe room to take care of your new cat, putting on a robe of some kind (which you can keep in the room) to avoid picking up too much odour on your regular clothes. As far as possible, limit the amount of odor you pick up, washing hands and forearms with hot soapy water.
Continue to treat your own cat in the normal way. It may start to prowl around the safe room door, sniffing and hissing, but this is just curiosity. It may take days, or even a week or more,but eventually your cat will lose interest in the invisible cat behind the door and this is the moment you have been waiting for. Get a clean pair of socks and imbue each sock with the smell of the other cat by simply rubbing each cat with a sock stretched over your hand. Get each cat to smell the "other" sock, give a little treat and then leave the socks strategically placed in the safe room and house. Rub the cats regularly with the "other" sock until they have become accustomed to the smell and appear disinterested and once this stage is reached, play musical chairs by switching their living space for about an hour. Let the newcomer find its own way out by leaving the door open and use the carrier for your own cat, so that they do not see each other, closing the safe room door with your own cat inside.
Summit Meeting at Last
Return them to their own space after about an hour and give a treat. Repeat the exercise two or three times over the next few days until you reach the moment of truth. You have patiently and gently prepared the ground for the actual meeting of the cats, so all you can really do now is sit back and watch what happens. Have a handful of treats ready, open the safe room door and let events unfold. Let the cats meet each other in their own time and make sure you put a handful of treats on the floor which they can both reach without competition. That is all you can do really, it is now up to the cat and cat to get to know one another and reach an amicable accommodation between themselves.
Terry Blackburn. Internet Marketing Consultant, living in South Shields in the North-East of England. Author and Publisher of http://www.catcote.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terry_Blackburn
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