We were all nicely set up at home to introduce a new kitten to the household. We'd planned it all, set aside a good 2-3 weeks to go through the process, and graciously accepted bouncing baby kitten into the household.

Naturally things have gone a bit wrong, so I'm looking for some advice.

First off, all the background...

Established older cat: Bootsie. She's a six year old british shorthair (as seen in my avatar). I got her when she was just about eight weeks old, and she was itching to get outside as soon as possible.

She's a real monkey. Very active, loves the outdoors, enjoys climbing and exploring other people's houses - which often leads to the neighbours apologetically telling us that our cat is in their bedroom / loft / kitchen fast asleep.

She's very personable with children, and will run up to total strangers in the street with her tail in the air if they're under 5ft tall. Adults, however, are fair game, and she's more than happy to beat up hands and feet. She will never, ever target the face.

She's a bit schizoid at times (i.e. she's a cat), and will flip from purratronic surround sound to psychotic headcase, but you'll get plenty of warning (tail flicking, gentle irritability) before she goes.

She also gets the snot beaten out of her by other cats in the neighbourhood, of which there are quite a few. She survives this by being considerably faster and more agile, but some will even follow her into the house to continue beating her up, or to eat her food - she's not especially good at defending her territory.

Bootsie is fairly antisocial. She likes to sit just out of arm's reach of people, but within the same general area. She's not a lap cat, and she's not really very appreciative of being fussed, unless you're en route to giving her food.

Finally, Bootsie has some undetermined kitty virus. She didn't display symptoms until a couple of days after we got her, but it appears to be a viral form of Cat Flu. She went through the sneezes as a kitten, and occasionally gets runny-eyed. We keep her vaccinated and it seems to prevent her displaying symptoms often, and from passing it on to other kitties (the cat next door isn't ever vaccinated, and he hasn't caught it off her despite kicking her butt every month or so).


Now, onto the newcomer: Earthquake (blame my fiancee for the name). Earthquake is a rural kitten from a home with five adult cats, and was the first in a litter of three. Because the mother was experienced in popping kittens out (this is her umpteenth litter), Earthquake and her fellow kittens weaned naturally incredibly early - at roughly six weeks.

Here comes the first hiccup in our plan: Because of this, we got Earthquake when she was seven weeks old, not eight. Our local vet refused to vaccinate her until she was nine weeks (whereas Bootsie was vaccinated at eight). So suddenly we had to keep them separate for two whole weeks before Earthquake even had her first jabs.

Almost all the doors in our house are glass-panelled. We couldn't keep Earthquake constrained to a room which wasn't, because those are Bootsie's favourite rooms. So Earthquake is currently restrianed to the Living Room, which holds little interest for Bootsie. It does, however, mean that Bootsie can see Earthquake if Earthquake happens to be near the door when Bootsie is passing. Cue hissing and beating on the door.

Then the next hiccup: When Earthquake hit about 8 1/2 weeks, she started showing signs of ringworm. We took her to her 9-week vaccination appointment and, lo, ringworm it was. So now we're keeping them apart to prevent Bootsie contracting ringworm. Worse, we're having to wash our hands after handling Earthquake to prevent either us getting it or transmitting it to Bootsie, and as a side effect there is minimal cross-contamination of scents going on other than what Bootsie smells under doors or on our clothing.

Earthquake is now 10 1/2 weeks old, and she's starting to believe that she's not allowed outside of the living room. When the door is open she won't cross the boundary into the hallway unless provoked. Meanwhile, Bootsie is still beating the heck out of the glass door whenever she sees Earthquake.

Earthquake's responded well to the ringworm medication, and her lesions are clearing up nicely, but the treatment still has five weeks left to run before she's guaranteed clean. What I'm uncertain of, though, is whether I really should leave it five weeks before introducing these two.

They had an accidental face-to-face over the weekend, and nothing outrageously bad happened. Bootsie yowled and threatened, and bapped Earthquake over the head a couple of times, but for the most part it was quite a well-behaved standoff until Earthquake sloooowly backed away and we separated them.

So my question, really, is this: Shall I wait five weeks before allowing a more controlled meeting, or would that be sheer tomfoolery? I'm quite happy to give Bootsie the ringworm medication if she contracts it, and Earthquake's over her initial post-vaccination doldrums (her booster is due in just under two weeks).

Any thoughts?

Thanks

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From an infection perspective I would check with your vet. If Earthquake (love the name btw) is still infectious and gives it Bootsie and Bootsie is allowed outside she could infect the neighbourhood cats. To prevent that you would have to keep Bootsie in and that could pee her off at a time when you are trying to introduce her to the kitten That could set up a resentment of the new kitten if Bootsie associates her enforced confinement with the baby.

From an introduction perspective then I would say as soon as possible but gradually and under supervision until you are sure that there are going to be no fisticuffs. If they have had one meeting and nothing untoward happened - no viciousness anyway, then you may find as they have both got used to each others smell over the past few weeks that the introduction is fairly smooth. Getting them to interact with each other via play using a rod toy is a good distraction from hissing at each other. I have never met an active adult that is not impressed by the antics of a playing kitten. They both concentrate on the toy and forget they are sitting next to an interloper.

I think it all hinges on whether you want to take the risk of infecting all the neighbourhood cats with ringworm and having their owners knocking on your door

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That's a very good point, Saikou. I'd been thinking along the lines of not minding treating Bootsie, but if she does go around infecting everyone else we just end up with a huuuuge problem.

Living and breating pee's Bootsie off, so I'm not too worried about that

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This is a problem that I experienced last year. We brought Sassy our ragdoll home.At the time I had three dogs and Cash our 10 yr old tabby. We found out shortly after bringing Sassy home that she had ringworm. I've never had an pet with that before and hope I never do again. My daughter ended up with it and had to go off to school. She had to jump around and get sweaty and then take the medicine for it to work. Not something a 20yr old at college and in hot Alabama needed to deal with!
Fortunately, no one else got it. I kept Sassy from all the other pets so they wouldnt get it. Cash could sense her from the other side of the door. It took 3 months of confinement to clear her up. We all spent a lot of time with Sassy but Cash never really took to her.
I wouldn't wish ringworm on anyone or anything. I'd keep them all separated until Earthquake is cleared up.

We're getting a Maine Coon kitten soon so I'm going to go through the introduction process again!
Good luck!!!!!

Eek! Thankfully nobody seems to have caught it off her yet - we're all being careful to wash our hands after handling her and it appears to be working (fingers crossed).

Good luck introducing the Maine Coon!

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Editor: Pantechnicon and Hub magazines.
Director: Humdrumming, Ltd.
Guest Blogger: SFCrowsNest.com

Thanks! Btw I love both your kitty's names!

Thank you

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Editor: Pantechnicon and Hub magazines.
Director: Humdrumming, Ltd.
Guest Blogger: SFCrowsNest.com