Is it good or bad for the new cats to stare at each other silently?

Scouty and Silver have taken to sitting outside the closed spare room
door and staring at it... they KNOW that Tessie is in there and
they're not sure how they feel about it. They seem to be taking things

sriddles...

Staring is a good thing. That's the whole purpose of shutting Tessie
up. They're getting a chance to mull this over without a face-to-face
confrontation. If there's a crack under the door big enough for a paw
only, all the better! If not, and if things continue calmly, you can
put a latch (very inexpensive, easy to install) on the door that allows
an inch crack or so.

They seem to be taking things

a lot more calmly then they did last week (probably because we took
Tessie away to the vet and they stayed home)... When I go into the
craftroom they squeak and meow for me to come out again. I'm not sure
if that's because they don't want me in there or just because they
HATE closed doors...

sriddles...

They are just curious. That's pretty normal.

This morning Tessie was meowing for company and they were staring
towards the craftroom from the other end of the house. I opened the
door and Tessie darted out and she ran right out into the livingroom
where the girls were... Silver was on the coffee table and they stared
at each other, and Scouty was on the floor and THEY stared at each
other, but no hisses were exchanged. Is this a good sign?

This is only the second full day that Tessie has been here since we
brought her home from the vet, so I don't want to rush things or risk
traumatising any of them. But Tessie wants out and Scouty and Silver
want in... how long do we have to keep them seperated?

Adrian...

I think it is a good sign, hopefully you won't need to keep them seperated
for much longer.

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)...

It varies with the cats, I think. Cendrillon and Melisande
no longer growl or "shout" at each other, and the chasing
seems to be play, not attack. I think cats stare at each
other to communicate telepathically - I know Melly has
persuaded Cendri to sit and wait by the food bowls until she
has finished eating. They eat from side-by-side bowls, but
if Cendri is eating and Melly shows up, Cendri sort of moves
aside and sits waiting.

Chakolate...

That's what Doc does if Pi comes by while he's eating. He doesn't seem
to mind at all.

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)...

Fortunately, Melly never finishes a dish of food, so I don't
have to worry about her eating it all before Cendri gets a
chance at it. Cendrillon, on the other hand..... She's so
tiny, I don't know where she PUTS it all, but by time for
the next meal, I keep finding both food dishes polished so
clean they really wouldn't need to be washed! (We ruled out
tapeworm, when she saw the vet for her spay - she just has a
hearty appetite.)

Enfilade...

Smokey does this with the kittens. They eat their fill of what's in
the bowl, and he gets what's left. The kittens are now almost 3 years
old and he still defers to them.

I put down 3 bowls of soft food so he actually gets some, instead of
fat Tyche hoovering it all down.

Nocturne won't eat if anyone else, human or cat, is in the room.
Mustn't watch a lady eat.

Marina...

YMMV and all that, but I never kept either Miranda or Caliban separated
from the established cats. But if you do let them out together, you have
to be prepared to listen to them sorting themselves out - hissing and
growling. It doesn't do to interfere, unless someone physically attacks
another cat. A lifted paw does not constitute physical attack. This is
how I've always let my cats work out their relations, and they've always
become good friends quite soon, without bloodshed.

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)...

That's what I've done, too. I think it speeded things up
that Cendrillon came in heat - it made her CONSIDERABLY more
amenable to the attentions of another cat (even a female),
and Melisande was curious about her strange behaviour.

sriddles...

Karen, I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But I want to read
on this group six months from now that Tessie is a part of your family
and you can't imagine not having her. I don't want to read two weeks
from now that Scouty and Silver refused to accept her and you had to
give her away. She sounds like a great cat! The responsibility for

Karen AKA KajiKit...

I didn't LET her out! She RAN out between my legs when I opened the
door to go in to her. And yesterday Scouty snuck in there when John
went in to work on my computer. John and I aren't exactly little
people so that door has to open wide to let us through, and she's a
VERY skinny and agile kitten. If she's next to the door she's going to
have plenty of chance to go through it and there's not much we can do
to stop her.

Pat...

I suggest carry a broom with you and stick it into the room first - open the
door just enough to get your hand and the broom in, then wiggle the broom at
the kitty so she backs off until you can get in and shut the door.

You might even use another broom in the other hand, to wave at S & S behind
you in case they are trying to go in the room with you.

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)...

I find a squirt-bottle of water easier and more effecive. I
still have to chase Melly up four flights of stairs to the
roof door, every once in a while when I'm not fast enough,
but it's the only way to keep her inside the apartment when
I come home. She never did that when Patches was alive, so
I'm hoping, now she has a companion cat again, she'll lose
interest in escaping. ....Unless she encourages Cendri to
do likewise! (But Cendri is so shy and so much given to
hiding that I hardly know she's there except at mealtimes -
I don't think she's too likely to want to escape.)

sriddles...

Nowhere in my post did I suggest that you let her out. Believe me, I
already know how hard it is to keep a cat behind a door while you're
trying yourself to get in.

sriddles...

snipped.

I'm going to do what was suggested and get a baby-latch for the door
so it can be open a crack - that way the girls can stare in but they
won't be able to GET in because they're much too fat to fit through.

Right now all three cats seem to be extremely happy - I was in the
bedroom watching the X-Files with Scouty and I called Silver in and
she came and then they had a washing/wrestling session and ran off to
play in the livingroom... and Tessie just used the litterbox (and BOY
did it pong!) and she was sitting on the craft table waiting for me to
come and clean it out and now she's kneading on my tummy.

I'm NOT setting any deadline for this! The cats seem to be happy
(especially when John's home, because then there's one of us in here
and one of us 'out there' so nobody's alone) And that's good and I'd

sriddles...

I'm very glad to hear that.

And that's good and I'd

like to keep it that way. But I haven't done it before and John was
pushing for just letting them have it out since there hasn't been any
overt aggression. When he fostered various kittens he never tried to

Chakolate...

My NSH opinion, based merely on one cat introduction, is that you should
let them get together, supervised, if they're not hissing at each other
now. There will be tussles, a little more hissing when one tramples on
the territory of another, then all will be, well, if not calm, at least
under control.

seperate them from each other - he couldn't because he was renting a
single room so there was nowhere else for them to go!

sriddles...

Kittens are easy. They're MUCH easier to integrate. There's something
about a kitten that they know how to roll over on their back as if to
say "Don't kill me, look how cute I am." that the older cats just seem
to put up with them better.

failure or success is on your shoulders, not Scouty and Silver's. She
can be integrated if you are diligent and patient.
But you seem to be in such a rush. You have mentioned "deadlines"
several times (one week, two weeks, etc.). You just can't put a
deadline on your existing cats like that. Every cat is so different!

Monique Y. Mudama...

I just want to underline this post. I made a horrible mistake by
"introducing" Eros and Oscar by plopping Eros on the floor near Oscar.
See, I felt bad that he was being taken from his home, and I didn't
want to lock him away in another room.

Well, it was a disaster. I ended up with Oscar so terrified that she
wouldn't leave the underside of the bed. She also has a scar on each
ear to remind me of why cat introductions should be taken slowly.

Also, if you turn them together too quickly, you'll be set back and it
will really hurt your progress. I think you were just lucky that Scouty
and Silver didn't freak out when Tessie got loose, from what you've
posted about their prior reactions. I think they're going toward
acceptance, but still it's way too soon to turn her out.

Marina...

OK, having read this, I want to emphasize that I wrote about my own
experiences in the past. It wasn't a recommendation to let Tessie out
too soon.

Having said all that, I sympathize about the inconvenience. I am very
familiar with it. The spare bedroom starts to stink, because the litter
box is in a small enclosed room. You suddenly have food bowls and a
litterpan in a room that's already being used for something else. You
have to be Houdini to get in there yourself without letting Tessie
out/Scouty and Silver in. And you feel sorry for the poor mite who is
locked up, then feel guilty about spending time in there because your
cats sit at the door voicing their disapproval. Been there!! It's no
picnic. But it sure is worth it, IMO.
Good luck Karen.
Sherry