We have had our seal point Siamese cat for 7 or 8 years now and about a year ago we got a stray cat inside and closed her off to the basement. At first, our Siamese, Sasha, was extremely curious, but the new cat was very scared so we didn't let them get too close.
We have been doing regular visits and they usually consist of the new cat hiding under the couch and our Siamese patrolling around the edges of the couch. But recently she has been slipping into the basement without supervision and we have found white hairs from the new cat in the basement and we think that they have been getting into fights.
We've been trying to keep them apart while we aren't supervising, but our Siamese seems to slip in there unnoticed quite a lot. Now whenever we go down to visit with the new kitty, she's extremely frightened to get out from under the couch, but after talking to her a bit she comes out and is very affectionate with us. She always returns to under the couch if she hears the slightest movement or if we stand up suddenly.
Today we were setting up our Christmas tree and needed to access the basement and when we opened the basement door she was up against it and didn't seem to notice that we had opened the door. She was staring out in the dark and I went down and found our Siamese searching for her on the other side of the basement.
We really don't know what to do! Our new kitty is terrorized by our Siamese and we would love for them to get along and if our Siamese continues to slip into the basement the new kitty or both could be seriously injured. Please help!
By Alyssa from Greenwich, CT
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The humane thing is to re-home the new cat where she is the only one. Because she has suffered trauma with another cat this can result in phychological damage.
My questions are, "Is your newer kitty a longhair cat?". "Is the fur you are finding matted clumps or non matted clumps that have even a tiny bit of some flesh attached or just shedding fur that happens to be in one area where he/she might have been grooming?" I had a Persian, who if I didn't brush for a couple of days, would leave clumps of fur when she groomed and several short haired cats that simply left a lot of fur in one spot simply from rolling around.
It's most likely that you are making a mountain out of a molehill and should just let them sort out their relationship. If you haven't seen blood or injuries in a year then they simply haven't had a chance to socialize together because you keep them apart. Not all cats like each other but they will respect one another's territory once they are allowed to work things out for themselves.
You most likely are doing both of them a disservice (and especially the newer one banned to the basement) by not allowing them to get to know one another. Just leave them be to their own devices and within a fairly short time they'll either be best buddies sleeping and playing together or they will avoid each other and keep to their own chosen spaces out of respect for each other. It shouldn't be you making the choice to keep them separated.
This is a tough situation. I have been there. Mixing two adult cats is sometimes really hard. You cant let them hurt one another, or be psychologically damaged. It sounds to me like you have tried everything I could think of. You could try supervising them together (with a squirt gun handy for fights).
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