This post was from Wednesday, November 17:
It went very well. I locked Lucas, the largest and most aggressive of the cats, in the living room, leaving the rest of the house open for Khufu to explore safely. Sabra, the very overweight black cat, was the first to see him. She came into the room with her tail all puffed up but she settled quickly. Khufu was like, “Great! Another cat!” But he’s smart enough to stay back and let the other cat approach him. When Sabra got close enough (about 12-18″ away) to almost sniff his nose, she hissed, and Khufu dashed back into the bedroom, which is his safe space.
He came out quickly and pretty much ignored Sabra as he explored the dining room (dining room and kitchen are really one great room, but the kitchen does not have interesting cat furniture and toys like the dining room does). Sabra kind of followed him around for about an hour. Then I put Khufu back into the bedroom for a while, and she traced his paths around the room by his smell. After the first few minutes both cats had been pretty relaxes, so I considered that good.
Later I trapped Lucas out on the screened porch and let Khufu come back out. Again Sabra was in the room and sort of interested in Khufu but he was completely ignoring her since he was bolder about investigating all the neat stuff in the dining room. Then Sabra was about to actually touch noses, but the thing I use to block the cat door was knocked down by Lucas and bother the other cats scattered – Khufu back to the bedroom, Sabra to the living room. So I lured Lucas into the living room with Sabra.
Khufu came back out quickly and while he was exploring, Maya, the little gray cat, came out to see what was going on. She’s been very jealous of the time I’ve spent in the bedroom with Khufu and heard me talking to him. It took her ten minutes to sneak from the library to the dining room, and then she never got very close to Khufu. Khufu was unfazed – he went about his exploring and even entered Maya’s sanctum, the library, where she hangs out with me much of the time. I let them have a while in there undisturbed then I went in, both cats went out, and I let them explore alone for a good hour. I heard not noises, so I guess there were no confrontations
Maya came back into the library, very relaxed, and flopped down on the desk where she usually sits. I went to check on Khufu and he was back in the bedroom, very relaxed, asleep on the bed. So I closed him back in and let the two big cats loose.
For a first introduction, I consider this a very big success! No fights, no chases, only a few hisses. Tomorrow I may let Khufu loose with Lucas also loose and see how that goes. Lucas is very interested, but he tends to be aggressive. Since he is the largest at maybe 14 pounds, he could do come damage to little 5 pound Khufu. But we can’t put if off forever.
From Thursday, November 17:
Khufu has now met all the other cats – with NO fireworks!
| This is great!. We’ll probably leave him in the bedroom tonight, maybe tomorrow since I have to leave at 8 AM for my surgery and have no idea what time my husband will be back. The plan is for me to get out of the hospital Saturday and I will probably leave the bedroom doors open so I can yell for my husband if I need help. Today, Lucas followed Khufu around but seemed really leary of him. Khufu does not have any desire to confront any of the other cats though he is really curious about them. The two lady cats are wary but fairly tolerant if he gets close. I’m very pleased with how the cats are handling this. There may be conflicts in the future but so far they are doing great for first introductions. |
Khufu has been playing with two of the other three cats – Lucas and Sabra have nightly romps with him, running from one end of the house to the other. Lucas and Khufu also have wrestling matches – often begun by Khufu.
The other day I came into the dining room and Khufu and Sabra were curled up in adjoining cat trees. By the time I ran to get the camera, they were both awake and were not happy that I had disturbed their naps. But I still got this picture of them together.