Meet Sonny!

[petebradt]

Sonny is a 16-month old male kitty, adopted from Tony La Russa's Animal rescue Foundation a week ago yesterday.

He hasn't integrated into the household, he gets upset and aggressive when he's in the room with the cats who have been with us for years, so we're having to integrate them very slowly, but we love him already and we'll take as much time as necessary to get him used to being here.

So say howdy to Sonny, (yes named after Mr. Landreth)

[pc]

Wow, he's the spitting image of our shelter-rescued cat, Tommy. (Named at the shelter, not by us. :) )

Congrats on the new pal. He's a lucky cat.

[pc]

Dang, can't put my hands on a shot of Tommy's face right now, but you can see the coloring is right on, as Tommy looks into the baby carrier in this shot.

[David Barnett]

How do the old cats feel about their new roommate?

One of the reasons that I've put off "replacing" Alice, the cat I lost last December, is because I'm just not ready for the stress of dealing with my cat Clyde's inevitable negative reaction to a new feline roommate.

[guitar_ed]

My step-brother just moved to Hawaii, and taking pets is a real nightmare. So we adopted his two cats, to join our one, for a total of 3. After 3 weeks, they can be within 5 feet of each other without hissing.

We just let them run the house, and figured they would work it out. So far, it has worked.

Guitar Ed

[Tremo]

Originally Posted by guitar_ed

My step-brother just moved to Hawaii, and taking pets is a real nightmare. So we adopted his two cats, to join our one, for a total of 3. After 3 weeks, they can be within 5 feet of each other without hissing.

We just let them run the house, and figured they would work it out. So far, it has worked.

Guitar Ed

We have 2 cats, a male and a female (both fixed), and both about 10 years old. They get along well and sleep together in the cat bed on cold afternoons, and in the bed with us at night. We used to have a third cat, a big male orange tabby with white socks, who died of terminal cancer about 4 months ago. The tabby got along with our other male cat, they would wrestle and jointly defend the territory from other neighborhood cats, but the tabby only got hisses from the female.

We recently tried to introduce another third cat into the mix, another fixed male that we inherited from my wife's cousin who moved to Hawaii. Not working. Our male growls at him, and the female hisses. He has strayed twice and ended up back at his original house on the other side of town. At least we know where to go look for him when he's missing, he seems to find his way there no problem, about a mile and a half away. We're starting to think that he simply won't integrate into the household, with the negative reaction he gets from our existing two and the straying. He's used to being in a single cat house.

My wife won't take him to the local animal shelter for adoption, because they put them down after only a couple days. She thinks another shelter in a neighboring city won't do that and we're considering trying that. We would like to keep him, but if he keeps straying it just won't work.

Frankly, I'm rather upset with the cousin, they have a habit of dumping their problems on my wife to handle. I've had to go in twice and clean up houses they moved out of, they left them in a mess. Now this cat issue. If it were anything other than a living creature, I'd tell the cousin to shove it.

[petebradt]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

How do the old cats feel about their new roommate?

One of the reasons that I've put off "replacing" Alice, the cat I lost last December, is because I'm just not ready for the stress of dealing with my cat Clyde's inevitable negative reaction to a new feline roommate.

Sonny is the one with the problem adjusting. He's very aggressive right now. We're keeping them separated. I'm told this can take months and we're prepared to deal with it. It's not easy and sometimes it's frustrating. Sonny is very sweet to his people, it's just a matter of getting him to chill out with the cats. It'll happen. Eventually. :-\

[Joel Terry]

Congratulations, Pete! Sonny is the spitting image of our youngest male, Charley. What a sweet face!

And as far as the adjustment period--well, he's just trying to find his place in the pecking order. My vet (a brilliant man who I respect far more that my own family doctor ) told me that the fighting, hissing, and yowling sometimes upsets the people of the household, but it's all in the scheme of things. Hierarchy. Yes, it is frustrating, and you definitely want to keep them separated at first, but even after they're all acclimated to each other, they will constantly jockey for position in the pecking order. (Of course, I'm probably telling you something you already know. )

May Sonny have a long, happy, and healthy life in your home! And thank you for taking in a rescued animal--I don't know how you look upon faith and things of the spiritual realm, but I personally believe God has special rewards for people who kindly take care of people and animals alike. Bless you. :)

Joel