I am due to move house in a few weeks and a potential new housemate has a 3year old female rescue cat. I have a 9 month old Bengal cross female. Lola (my cat) has lived with other cats and gets on fine with them. Would she be ok with living with Dylan? (she is female but RSPCA told my housemate she was a boy ) Would she get upset when Dylan left? ie my housemate moved out after a year?

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Felix
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Two schools of thought on this one:

1. Just let them get on with it. There may be hissing and growling but it will all sort it self out in the end. Feed them together.

2. Introduce more slowly. Keep separate and scent transfer by swapping their blankets, stroking one then going to stroke other. Let each get a look at the other in a safe environment. You can also make each smell the same by rubbing talc onto each.

Thanks, I intend to just let them loose on each other and see what happens. If the housemate moved out say after 6 or 12 months, would Lola get stressed? I am looking into getting her a friend from the local college cattery but would 2 gang up on my friends cat if my two had already bonded?

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Felix
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We have four cats but when we lost Paddington last year it did affect the others slightly,they looked for him for a day or two but got over it suprisingly quickly. They were more affected when the dog died, it took weeks for them to stop looking for him. It really depends how close your two cats become, two of ours are best buddies but they probably wouldn't notice if the other two dissapeared off the face of the earth. Not being very helpfull am I.

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Haha..thats very helpful actually! What about introducing 1 cat to 2 cats that are already bonded? Is that asking for trouble?

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Felix
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I haven't ever had a problem, but I've only ever added kittens to adult cats and the adults usually just hiss a bit then get over it, the worst we've had is our cat Elvis who usually bats them with his paw to let them know who's boss. They always get over it in the end. I would just let adult cats sort it out themselves, one will be less dominant than the other just keep an eye on them so they aren't actually doing any damage to each other. I do think if your adding a cat and you have a choice it is easier to choose a kitten, the adults seem to accept a kitten better.

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Coooool! Well I think it will be ok then...the plan is to get Lola (9 months) a friend...a kitten...perhaps 8-10 weeks. I am waaaay excited!!

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Felix
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