I've had my first cat, Bruce (about seven years old, male, kind of curmudgeonly), for about two years. About a week and a half ago, I just got another cat, Delilah (one year old, female, playful but fairly meek). For the first week, I had Delilah in her own room so she could get acclimated to the sounds and smells of our house, and she and Bruce didn't have any interaction with each other, with the exception of an accidental meeting on Day Two (Bruce slipped through the door when I opened it to feed her - there was a LOT of hissing and jumping about, but no physical contact).
Three days ago I started switching things around a bit, so now Bruce is in the safe room for a few hours a day while Delilah gets to hang out in the rest of the house. That seemed to be going well (neither seemed overly interested in the other one's scent), so today I tried introducing them with Delilah in the carrier and Bruce out. Didn't go well at all. There was tons of hissing, and Bruce kind of went nuts jumping all over and scratching at the crate trying to get at her.
Is this a sign that this is just not meant to be, or am I just pushing too fast? My husband thinks we should just put them in a room and let them fight it out (no chance of that, fear not - sounds like an awful idea to me), but I don't have anything else to tell him other than that we need to take it slower. Any advice?
Three days ago I started switching things around a bit, so now Bruce is in the safe room for a few hours a day while Delilah gets to hang out in the rest of the house. That seemed to be going well (neither seemed overly interested in the other one's scent), so today I tried introducing them with Delilah in the carrier and Bruce out. Didn't go well at all. There was tons of hissing, and Bruce kind of went nuts jumping all over and scratching at the crate trying to get at her.
Is this a sign that this is just not meant to be, or am I just pushing too fast? My husband thinks we should just put them in a room and let them fight it out (no chance of that, fear not - sounds like an awful idea to me), but I don't have anything else to tell him other than that we need to take it slower. Any advice?