integration

[Peggy Ankney]

To answer Susan’s questions:   We have 3 cats: 2 negatives and one pos.  The pos just came to us last week so we’re still novices and learning.  But as far as integration goes, we didn’t really do anything special.  We really didn’t have to since we aren’t worried about stressing our healthy cats, and Scooter seems comfortable here so there’s not a problem in keeping him away from the others and gradually introducing him into the household.  One cat (the oldest) was chosen by me, while the other two were strays that picked us probably because they knew they would be cared for.  When Karma came to the house about 7 years ago, she and Montana hissed at each other awhile but learned to tolerate one another.  They’ve never gotten friendly enough to sleep curled together or groom each other, and on some (rare) occasions one will take a swipe at the other in passing.  Now that we have a third, we integrated him by letting him in the house (no cages) and so far, except for some hissing at the food bowls, it’s been fine.  Scooter (FeLV+) can tell that he’s third in the hierarchy and walks carefully when Karma is in the house but otherwise seems perfectly comfortable.  The negatives can come and go using the cat door, so they aren’t all three in the house together 24/7 which probably helps keep the peace.