Anticipating a newbie
 

My daughter will be moving in November, and cats are not allowed! :eek: She will have had Cooper for two years by then, and they're very close. So we are going to be foster parents, with her stern reminder that she is not GIVING us the cat, just LOANING him to us.

Should be interesting. We have two 9-year-old females (Himmies). We've never had a male cat, and Coop has not lived with other cats (though he lives with and loves a little dog).

Our cats have the run of the house during the day, but at night they go into "their" bedroom and we shut the door. We started that when they were little and we had an old cat, and it's worked fine. We're not going to try shutting Cooper in with them, of course, at least not until and if they get along.

Our girls don't jump on the table or the kitchen counter, they ignore the finch, and pretty much behave like middle-aged cats. Cooper's kind of still a teenager.

I'm not sure which is going to be trickier, introducing the cats or getting us used to "new tricks" again! (Well, the trickiest will be prying my sobbing daughter's fingers off her cat when she has to leave him)

Get ready for the girls to be pretty annoyed with you for a while. :D When I introduced Panda to my two older cats it was quite the fiasco. Lots of hissing, spitting and swatting each other on the head. It took longer than I anticipated for them the settle down and tolerate each other. It's been a year and everyone gets along now....most of the time. Gracie is an old woman and acts like it. Tigger is a "guy" and most things don't bother him. Panda is a "pre-teen" and has the attitude to go with it! Makes for an interesting day sometimes! ;)

I think it can be easier introducing a male to two females.

The older females may be a bit dottie...but many males can win them over. We had a male once with Tippy and Sheba. Sheba wouldn't have anything to do with him, but he eventually got her to play footsie with him under the dining room table.

Tippy adored him and they played and wrestled all the time. When Roofie was ripped from us suddenly and went to the Rainbow Bridge, Tippy mourned for over 3 months!

If you were introducing a female to these older females, you'd have some friction I would think. We use FOOD to reduce this and I started a "treat" time for each cat once a day. Each one got her own favorite and it worked out well. Alot of friction is about food competition I believe. When they learn that food will be plentiful some of that reduces. You might see what I call revenge eating... the other two might get fatter. Oreo even did this winter, but now has lost it. Tippy did too when we got Oreo, and she lost her fat too.

Be upbeat and friendly all the time to all 3 to reduce friction. Our cats get defensive if we seem loud or angry...sort of like they have to defend us. By being silly, using baby talk, and friendly to all, they will be more relaxed perhaps.

You might like the male....they tend to be friendlier to women than female felines do, on average. I loved Roofie...he was so special! He even made friends with an aggressive deer upNorth!
This is Rufus with Effie the deer... she used to chase our black cats alot...but she allowed Roofie to come close even when she was eating. (We think she thought he was a squirrel). He had a poofy tail like a squirrel, and was that color too-- at least not black. He was fascinated with the deer and was always out there with them, including the fawns.

Good luck, I think it will go well. You'll have to keep us up to date!

Male cats are friendly. My Tigger is very sociable but thinks I am his mother. He follows me everywhere.

Panda (a female) has chosen DS as her "human". She loves him and isn't shy about showing it.

Gracie, the oldest one, is very friendly when she wants to be. But, when she wants to be left alone you'd better back off! She's a crotchety old woman.

Since Cooper has been living with people and isn't feral it might be an easier transition for him.

Animals can sense our anxiety. The calmer you are around him and the others the easier it will be. But don't be like me and expect everyone to hold paws and sing Kumbaya....at least not right away. :D

One issue will be that Cooper has had very little social life...my daughter has rarely had company since she got him, AND he'll be coming off a 1500 mile car ride. My daughter is planning to stay with him (and us!) for a night or two, or however long so that he's not just "abandoned" here. Seemed like a good idea for him to get used to us with her here, but we'll see.

Picturing the three cats joining paws and singing....:D

They might be singing "Help" by the Beatles instead! :D

This whole deal would be a lot more fun if my daughter weren't brokenhearted at giving up her cat. :(

Cooper's latest trick is getting up on my daughter's counter and knocking dog treats onto the floor and watching the dog gorge on them.

Squirt bottle of water works wonders in training/retraining. Does no actual harm to the cat, and minimal damage to your house. My cats would get to the point where they just had to see me start looking around for the bottle and they were GONE!!! from whatever they weren't supposed to be doing.