by Janice Willard DVM, from the January 2006 Newsletter

For cats Henry and Sienna, it was hate at first sight. 

Sienna, a wry orange tabby, had lived in our barn for many years before making the transition to house cat. Although we had other cats, she settled into a preferred area—her home within our home—in our kitchen and dining room with relative ease. Everything was great until the day I visited the humane shelter and fell in love with Henry, a big, affectionate, gray tabby. And when I brought him home, I committed a feline faux pas. Their antipathy is largely due to my failure to provide proper introductions.

We used to think cats were solitary. And it is true they are solitary hunters and are capable of living alone. But in areas where enough food exists, cats readily form colonies of large extended families plus some additions.

Cat colonies are very insular. Newcomers are not welcome and aggressively driven out. However, a new cat is capable of working its way into the colony by approaching the edges of the colony in a non-threatening way and gradually being allowed closer access. Over a period of weeks to months, they may gain acceptance and entrance.

Another clue to feline introductions comes from watching cats in a colony greet each other. Cats have scent glands in their cheeks. When they greet, they brush their bodies against each other, which commingles their scents. They also rub their cheeks against the portals of their common use areas. All of us are familiar with cats rubbing against our legs. And while you can't see it or smell it, they have marked you with a cat scent that likely identifies you as a member of their family group.

We get into trouble by bringing a new cat into the household, plopping them down in front of the resident cat, and expecting them to instantly just all get along.

What cats generally do is sniff noses, hiss and run in opposite directions. The resident cat has recognized an invader and the incoming cat recognizes that it is in someone else's territory and that is a dangerous place. However, because they are in our home, the new cat can't escape from the other cat's territory. And the resident cat can't drive off the invader. Most cats will eventually learn to tolerate each other, but for some cats, this kind of introduction can make them long time enemies.

Just as there are proper ways for humans to be introduced, there are ways you can introduce cats to increase their likelihood getting along. The key is to mimic the strategies used by cats in a natural setting.

When the new cat comes into the household, don't let them meet at first. Instead, put the new cat in a separate room (with food, water, litter pan and scratching post). Now you do a sort of feline sleight of scent. When you are petting them, stroke each cat with a small cloth like a washcloth and rotate these and the bedding between cats. This mixes the scent of the new cat with that of the resident cat or cats and creates a "group scent" that includes the new cat. Then rotate the room that the new cat is living in so that the cats are first exposed to each other's scents. Eventually you can open the intervening door, but block the door so it only opens an inch or with double stacked baby gates. This way they can gradually approach or avoid the common area on their own terms. 

When you see calm behavior from both cats, you can open the door. How long that takes depends on the cats—some will take days and some may take weeks.

Using a gradual introduction can greatly improve your chances that your cats will at the very least tolerate each other and may even become feline friends in the future.  If a cat needs to be hospitalized or is out of the house for a period of time, also do the gradual re-introduction to the household. The cat coming home may smell like the previous environment and appear to be a stranger to the resident cats. Any time cats appear stressed with each other, it is good to separate and re-introduce scents first. You might say, it makes good scents!

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