re: #410 Dragon_Lady

Esssentially. When I added Cat II (10 year old female) last March I eased her into interacting with Cat I (18 year old male). I luckily had enough rooms and doors that I could “split” the apartment. Cat I had the bedroom, bathroom with his usual litterbox. Cat II had the “den” (2nd bedroom used as TV room) with a temporary litterbox set up. The rest of the apartment (kitchen and living room) were neutral ground.

For a week I alternated leaving doors open while I went to work. In the morning I left the den door open so that Cat II could explore 3/4 of the place. At lunch I closed Cat II into the den and left the bedroom door open for Cat I to have access to the kitchen and food. (Both cats had a bowl of kibble and water in their “territory”.) Once I was home in the evening I left both doors open since I was there to supervise any interactions.

There was some growling and hissing, but no fights. At this point they are not buddy-buddy like I used to have (I had Cat I and his brother for 17 years), but they get a long with relatively little friction. Though Cat II can get to be a bit of a bully when she wants food badly enough. But I definitely am glad I added the second cat since Cat I is acting much better now than he did between the loss of his brother and me adding a second cat back into the mix.