Minutus

Two months ago I rented out a room in my house to a man with three cats.
Coincidently, one of our two cats is the mother of two of those cats. Those
three cats grew up having no contact with any other humans than the man. We
have tried to integrate the cats in minimal ways with no success. It has only
been six weeks. If my husband and I go in their room to make friends with
them...they hiss and cuss. One cat scratched my husband and myself as we tried
to feed him some treat food..in his space. Once our cats were
fighting/playing and that cat raced from his room into the kitchen and looked
like it was about to attack our two cats. The owner of cat said that was the
weakest cat in terms of dominance. The man is out of town for a week. My
husband and I call his cat the demon cats. I'm responsible for the
water....I'd like to put some poison in there. I don't know what to deal with
first....keeping our cats in basement until these cats get used to coming out
of the room...usually only the cat that scratched us comes out...or leaving
them all alone and available to each other...which if I'm the only one in the
house...i'd be leaving and hope noone is seriously injured when I come back. I
always disliked one of my cats....(because he shat on my pc computer) but I
only appreciate his calm and regal nature since these cats moved in. We had a
cat in the eighties and got a dog and the dog chased the cat up a tree and it
took a year before the cat would be in the same room as the dog. I'm sure the
new cats are completely threatened by the this new situation but I'd like to
speed up the operation so we can all live together. Any ideas for what to put
in their water?

Carol

Sound like a similar situation I had to deal with a while back. Took in my son/DIL’s cat after the
storm Irene flooded them out. So that cat was going thru some trauma and I bent over backwards
to accommodate it. Wrong choice with this cat.

It turned out this cat was looking for way to be an alpha cat but he had no cat social skills as it
was raised by a woman who never set any boundaries. Also the cat essentially never learned to speak cat.
I had told my cat to not attack the guest cat and he listened so the guest cat was really on his
own track.

Bottom line, I finally did a communication on this cat and also tuned in to my cat during that session.
This guest cat really never learned the social skills of being a cat and he was totally spoiled by the
first woman who owned him. We talked with him in the communication session to inform him that
if he wanted to stay, he needed to change his behavior. My cat also tuned in to say he tried to
communicate with this cat but it was like he didn’t understand any of the cues being given We
directed the cat to pay attention to my cat and try to learn from him. It was a real disaster experience
which ultimately got my cat so sick from the stress.

Your situation does not sound quite as severe as the cats have been around cats, each other. Were
they placed outside the litter too soon? My guest cat was also afraid of other cats.

So, I would suggest a communication session to check in with the cats and try to identify the core problems.
You can use the session to communicate what you need to the cats as well as get the subjectives
for case taking and try to find a remedy to help sort out the fears and confusions.

t

Do you know how he behaves with his owner, and what his past history was?
Does his owner let him outside, or keep him in all the time?

Oh, and how his cats relate to each other -- does demon cat, as the weakest, get beat up, or just ignored?

Hi Carol,

For everybody's water bowl and glass:

"Rescue Remedy can be regarded as a panacea, whose uses run the gamut: from comforting frightened children and de-stressing any and all tense situations................ With Rescue Remedy it is unnecessary to delve into any complicated decision making procedure before taking action."

"Practical Uses and Applications of the Bach Flower Emotional Remedies"

Atb,

Leilanae

None of the cats have ever been outside. We let our cats out 2 or 3 times a
day..in-out-in-out.

The smaller black cat with no tail and a limp...and the other cat that looks
like a cow...they always stick together on his bed..and the demon hides behind
tv....or isn't always visible when you go in the room. Or....demon will be
waiting right near the door and hiss when door is opened. Owner of cats did
try to give away demon cat before he moved in. When she is out and moving
around...I can pet her and she or he...will swish by me like a normal cat and
let me pet her. I pet her on head and owner says, no..she likes to be pet on
her neck?

Thanks for reminding me about Bach Flower. I told my husband who is really the
cat person here about communicating with the cats and he went in the room and
looked at each cat and said, "adjust!" over and over. I said, "no...not like
that..with your mind". Since my husband is the reincarnation of St.
francis...if the cats ever adjusted...I tell you they would be going down in
the basement to his man cave and eventually all 5 cats would be sleeping with
him. We babysat a huge dog once and he ended up going in basement to sleep
with husband and his two cats.

Dear Carol,

Cats have a very specific social system, which includes a territorial system, and if you accommodarte that you will have a much better time integrating two populations, which is essentially what you have.

Bach remedy in the water can help as well, but the social issues are too important to skip. It would be like leaving out nutrients that a remedy can not provide.

First you need to know that the cats see three separate environments or teritorial regions.
* The man's area and his 3 cats.
* Your area with your 2 cats.
* The combined area with five cats.

Every cat has its personal security as its top priority. Cats are very place-oriented in this and they need to KNOW what is or is not their territory and what they can count on.
So with more than one changeable territopry - this is scary and insecure and they do nto know what way is up.
It would be good to either keep two separate territories for the cats, and keep interleading doors close - OR - make one combined territory for all cats, with no closing of interleading doors (ie have cat doors.)

Within the territory, (whichever you choose) each cat needs personal "stuff". This consists of a territory, a feeding place and bowl, watder palce and bowl, scratching post that is theirs, and litter that is theirs.
If your cats had access to the man's room before he moved in, they OWN that tereritory by cat law.
New cats need NEW territory if you move in new cats, especially if they are adults.

Cat territory is not defined by area. It is defined by PATHS.... and stuff. Stuff is easy. It's the territory that needs understanding.
There is a hierarchy in everey cat group. ONE of the cats is TOPCAT in any territory - but if you have your area (with a topcat) and the man's are (with its topcat) then that is a catwar waiting to happen if you release them all into a single territory with no predefined topcat.
If you CHOOSE to have one common cat territory, you will need to let the cats share it and have ONE totem pole hierarchy with ONE topcat out of the five and the other four falling into the proper positions.
WHen you put three and two separate adults cats togetehr NOBODY has a hierarchy and all will vie for higher position. It will be chaos. In the wild they wold fight it out but in captivity there is nowhere to run for the frightened cat. THEY will make the most noise. The cat who hisses and spits and growls etc is the MOST frighteneed of all, it is in fear of its life and is trying to make itslef look big, sound big, etc as a defensive mechanism. THAT noise cat is not the aggressor. In the cat world the aggressor is always the silent attacker with ears forward. The vat in fear is noisy wit ears back and down to keep them form being ripped by the aggressor.
(Dog body language is the opposite.)

In your shoes I would slect a single territory - but start with two, and gradually blend them. Like so...
You need a dividing door that has mesh, so the two sets of cats can talk and discuss hierarhy and eat near the door at the same time on both sides, sniff each other and get some notions of who is who and where on the totem pol;e wihtout a barney.
Especially get them started at mealtime - with meals at the same tim eeach side the mesh, very close to the mesh.
Eating together will help integration as it removes the predator competition cats naturally feel.

IF the man's cats are where youre cvats used to go, THEY need new territory. For example shelves along walls, and places to hang out that have no prior kitty use. New furniture, cat igloos and beds and so forth. BUT tghe territory must also be appropriate. The top cat needs a literally higher shelf, with better window views than a lower cat. THis must be introduced as THEIR individual territory. One way to do that is to call the cat to the main spot that is theirs and greedt therer, p[play there, give treats there. Chase other cats from that cat's place so it is learned as theirs. This makes a cat feel secure. They know they can always expect their territory to be respected by all.
YOU need ot teach that as you are the ultimate top cat.
After all cats have secure personal territory and have eaten with a mesh divider well, then introduce them to meals with the door open, supervised.
If necessary put them on a leash - at least the aggressors. TELL them they are leasghed for aggression. Cats are quick to learn English. ASk them if they want to be in timeout. Carry out that threat if neede and put them in the bathroom or some such.
Make it a very short intro, just during the meal.
Praise and do treats in personal territory afterwards.

One powerful tool when yhou have more than one cat, is to give a treat to the ones behaving according to the rules and leave out the one who is misbehaving. Be sure to make it clear with English explanations - that this is what you are doing, and the cats will soon do what you want.....cats do what they think is in their interests:-)

Gradually grow the integration time, always enforcing personal territory areas so each cat respects the personal territory of the others.
Introduce games-time next after a meal, so all enjoy something and look forward to that time.
(I like to also have a game/activity that is specific to each cat that I do with no other cat. Each at a time they can count on. It builds trust.)
Bach remedies to help:
Rock Water ... it is for flexibility of attitude .. and is esential for cats:-)
Vine... for tempering the dominance attitude.
Wild Oat...the positive balance to help them find new things to be interested in doing (instead of arguing the totem pole positions)

Other options:
Rescue remedy (RR)...trauma
Mimulus and Aspen ...for fearfulness - it is not included in RR

With a little understanding of how cats work, you can get cats to do pretty much whatever you need them to do.
Invest in training tools (aka treats such as purebites dried chicken, turkey, salmon and other feline bribery and corruption systems) to help. Make it fun.

Namaste,
Irene

--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."