Herd your cats here

[smallcleanrat]

!!!

Got notification of an opportunity to take in an 11-week old kitten, male.

According to the neighborhood cat-watchers, there's a very good chance this kitten is a full sibling to Maestro. Apparently, there is an extremely evasive mama cat who regularly produces litters, and often associates with the same tom (presumably the father).

I am so very tempted to adopt a sibling for Maestro and to raise another kitten. But also nervous about the responsibility of taking on a second cat.

SO says the main hurdle will be to introduce the two kitties gradually and hope to get Maestro to accept the new kitty as a friend, not a rival. SO also thinks *if* we are going to get a second cat, now is better than later, when Maestro still has the playful energy of a young cat and is more likely to find fun in roughhousing with a kitten. Older Maestro might be grumpier about the whole prospect.

Any type of change makes me anxious, so going with my gut instinct isn't always helpful.

Thoughts?

Can you try fostering him first and see how how it goes? Some cats love a companion and others are very territorial. If it works out a bonded pair is great though, especially when they're young and have lots of energy to burn.

Yes, I think we are leaning towards fostering and seeing how it goes.

Funny thing, this little guy is the last of the litter. The other kittens have already been adopted in pairs.

Maestro was also the last of the litter, with his other siblings adopted in pairs before him.

Maybe they will bond over their shared experience as "leftovers."

[clean]

Keep your expectations low and Good Luck!

[smallcleanrat]

Keep your expectations low and Good Luck!

This should be on a motivational poster.

[smallcleanrat]

Was it a real box or a virtual box?

M.

:)  A real box. We are those cat people. We keep a box on top of another box in the living room because it is Ricochet's preferred box at preferred height.

I love the idea of turning Ricochet into a comic book character.  I'm going to need a plan b pretty soon, so cat comic book series writer sounds good. Do I need artistic talent for that?

SCR, maybe we can start a writing group as you are turning Maestro's exploits into an adult graphic novel co-starring his teddy.

I did mention in another thread that I wanted to start a thread about skill-building.

I have been getting interested in learning how to draw and trying some creative writing projects. Fora kitties seem as good a subject as any.

[mamselle]

General note on pet health with regards to Brood X's immanent arrival, (unrelated to above...)

   https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/your-dog-or-cat-ate-a-cicada-what-to-know-about-brood-x-cicadas-and-pet-safety/

That crunch-crunch you hear may be their own...

M.

[Puget]

General note on pet health with regards to Brood X's immanent arrival, (unrelated to above...)

   https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/your-dog-or-cat-ate-a-cicada-what-to-know-about-brood-x-cicadas-and-pet-safety/

That crunch-crunch you hear may be their own...

M.

Too bad we're not quite in the brood X zone -- Panther Boy successfully hunted and crunched a fly this morning but cicadas would be way more exciting (and filling!).

Periodicity is a fascinating and unusual survival strategy, known as "predator satiation" -- basically, if you are a delicious and defenseless protein nugget your best bet is to emerge in such quantities that your predators can't possibly eat you all before you can reproduce. Cicadas that emerge early or late get eaten, which puts strong selective pressure on evolving accurate timing.

[the_geneticist]

General note on pet health with regards to Brood X's immanent arrival, (unrelated to above...)

   https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/your-dog-or-cat-ate-a-cicada-what-to-know-about-brood-x-cicadas-and-pet-safety/

That crunch-crunch you hear may be their own...

M.

Too bad we're not quite in the brood X zone -- Panther Boy successfully hunted and crunched a fly this morning but cicadas would be way more exciting (and filling!).

Periodicity is a fascinating and unusual survival strategy, known as "predator satiation" -- basically, if you are a delicious and defenseless protein nugget your best bet is to emerge in such quantities that your predators can't possibly eat you all before you can reproduce. Cicadas that emerge early or late get eaten, which puts strong selective pressure on evolving accurate timing.

All of my cats LOVE crunchy bugs.  I'm sure they would think a cicada is a worthy adversary.  But we are on the west coast and do not have cicadas as far as I know.  We do have some gigantic shiny green beetles.  Sir Puck will sometimes dig the larvae out of the compost and they are almost the size of a thumb.  He loves to carry them around, smack them with his paws, and then leave them on the patio (for later? as a gift?).  Apparently they taste nasty since he has learned to not chomp into them.

[smallcleanrat]

Been in too much brain fog to write the last few days, but today is the third day of the kitten's arrival.

The kitty is light brown, with dark stripes all over, except on the belly. The belly has leopard spots! New kitty resembles the mom, whereas Maestro the tuxedo cat favors the dad.

Kitten (separated from Maestro by a door) seemed to feel at ease quite quickly, nuzzling up to me and to SO (I think we have ourselves a Velcro cat). Relaxed enough to eat, sleep, and play with a toy. From the very start, Maestro was very interested in the kitten, but not in a wary or aggressive sort of way. More in the curious/excited/anticipatory way he gets when we start taking a new toy out of the package. He has been surprisingly gentle with the kitten from the start.

We moved the kitten to a mesh playpen, so he and Maestro could look at each other, but not touch. They watched each other for hours in mutual fascination. No hissing or puffing of tails. When Maestro walked away for a water break, the kitten squeaked repeatedly in displeasure, throwing himself at the mesh as if trying to follow. He kept squeaking until Maestro came back into view. SO thought this was promising enough to try a supervised play session.

They wore each other out playing chase all over the apartment. Maestro showed no possessive behaviors over toys or nap spots or dishes. The kitten felt confident enough to make several play attack dashes at the Maestro. Maestro never did any play pounces at the kitten (perhaps he understands the kitten is too little for that?), but he did seem to quite enjoy the chasing game. At one point the kitten chomped on poor Maestro's tail, but Maestro was able to chastise him with a soft-pawed bop on the head.

In the last 24 hours we've seen the two best milestones yet:
1) Maestro and the kitten shared the bed with me and slept peacefully; Maestro even conceded his preferred spot to the kitten (I think because he got tired of repeatedly shooing the kitten away because the little one didn't seem to be taking the hint).

2) Maestro has started tentatively grooming the kitten. The kitten would back away at first, but by the end of the day I found him on the couch, sprawled on his back asleep, with Maestro delicately licking his ears and cheeks.

Maybe they're going to be good buddies after all.

[mythbuster]

That's adorable! Congrats on upgrading to a two cat household. I look forward to more heart warming reports.

[Larimar]

That's great news! Glad Maestro and his sibling have hit it off so well!

[mamselle]

Awww.

Extra scritches to both from me, please.

How lovely.

M.

[Volhiker78]

Sounds like Maestro and his sibling are getting along great.

We also have decided to foster a young kitten after getting a desperate call for help from our local humane society.  Someone abandoned a 2 week old male at their door and they couldn't care for him.  Its been almost two weeks now and things are going well.  He is now rapidly gaining weight,  eating a mixture of food/formula on his own, and using his litter box.  We call him Lil'Man to distinguish him from Lil'Lil,  our adult former feral tabby. 

We were worried how our two adult cats would handle a new kitten but so far,  they seem to just ignore him when they see/smell him.  We keep him in his own room most of the time.  Our two adult are extremely territorial and don't get along very well when in the same room.  However, with the kitten,  we haven't noticed any hissing/ears back/aggressive behavior when in the same room. 

We aren't going to keep Lil'Man however.  Once he gets to a certain weight,  we'll return him to the Humane Society to find a loving home. 

[the_geneticist]

Awww!  Maestro and the kitten seem to be getting along splendidly! 

[Puget]

Yay! If Maestro is grooming the kitten (what will the kitten's fora name be?), then I think you are good to go!

When I adopted mine, they had been separated for a while after Little Calico's spay, and had hissed at each other the first time the fosterer tried reuniting them, so they freaked out and separated them again and the rescue group "cat behaviorist" had this week's long plan for how to very slowly reintroduce them that she wanted me to follow. That lasted about half an hour of them crying from separate rooms when I brought them home, and then let them both out-- there was a brief interval of hissing, some chasing, and then they settled down on the bed and started madly grooming one another's faces. I sent a video of that to the "behaviorist" who was mad I had not followed her plan, but I sort of figured my PhD in psychology made me at least as qualified to predict behavior as her Ed.D in nothing to do with animals ;-) They still groom each other and it is still adorable.

[OneMoreYear]

Aww, so much cuteness! Belly spots! It does sound like Maestro and Lil'Bro are going to be good buddies!
And wonderful news from the Volhiker78 household, also, with the new foster.

I would love to foster, as our local no-kill shelter often asks for volunteers. Ninja is human-focused, so I think she'd probably ignore another cat (she ignores Ricochet's squirrelly behavior), but we're concerned Ricochet may regress and hide again. She has now adopted a new safe space--the chair nobody sits in--and has even been inviting tummy rubs.