October 28, 2002
Monday

Last week, we had finally introduced your new kitten Simba, to your older cat, Tuna. The length of the acceptance period depends a lot on Tuna's age and temperament. If Tuna's a fairly young and playful fellow, it won't take long at all for him to find Simba just as adorable as you do. But don't expect that today.

Today, you're going to have a cat who hisses every time the Dreaded Interloper comes near. And Simba may back off, may cower, may just stand her ground and Tuna may back away hissing. Cats do not like change. And the way they express their displeasure is by hissing and growling and lunging and batting. Depends on the level of displeasure. But it's mostly show.

However, it does introduce a Never Rule, that goes like this: Never, NEVER,NEVER, ever, try to break up two animals fighting. EVER. It doesn't matter if both the animals love you dearly. You putting your hand into what was a communication session between two animals, has now raised the stress ante to the point that actual skin-breaking biting may occur. And you stand a good chance of being the one that gets bitten. Animals very rarely bite each other hard enough to break skin, unless they are un-neutered Toms seeking the same female companionship. And we don't do those.

So keep your hands out of the discussion. Tuna is teaching Simba the rules of the house, and who is boss. And these are rules Simba needs to learn. You have softened their meeting so Tuna was warned. Now you just need to wait til Simba has learned the rules and Tuna recognizes what a fine addition to the household she is.

You can help this process with a little classical conditioning, however. Whatever Tuna really loves, be it tuna, or semi-moist treats, or brushing, whatever it is, make sure that it occurs when the two of them are in the room together, and that whatever it is goes away when one of them leaves the room. Regardless of behavior. Even if Tuna's hissing up a storm. Keep the good stuff a'comin'. What happens is that the association gets made: kitten=good stuff. No kitten = no good stuff. It doesn't take long.

Make sure everybody gets lovings during all of this. And now you wait. Hopefully it won't be long.

Next: New Kitten Meets Resident Rover





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