This is day 4. On day 2 we put younger cat in a carrier and fed both cats treats close together, then we separated them again. There was no drama. We did this on the morning of day 3 too. During the evening of day 3, we put younger cat under a laundry basket (that is her happy place for whatever reason) and fed them dinner in the same room together then let them roam free together for about an hour while heavily supervised. Older cat looked a bit worried but otherwise they were fine. We separated them overnight. We did the same thing for breakfast this morning. It started OK. Older cat finished first and left the kitchen. When younger cat was done, she also left the kitchen. They did not come close to each other but I noticed right away that younger cat's tail started poofing and older cat was heading towards her. So I gently put the laundry basket back over younger cat. Older cat walked around sniffing. No noise from either cat. Older cat walked away and I scooped up younger cat. Her tail was back to normal. They are both back in their isolation places. Are we on the right track or was the poofy tail a warning and/or set-back? Any suggestions?

Hmmmm... Older cat has a history of hunger strikes whenever she is upset although she always eats some, just not as much as normal. She does this for a few days after a vet visit, after we return from vacation, or even if we rearrange the furniture. She is a freak. If she turns up her nose completely to food, I'll get more concerned.

It has only been a little over 24 hours so they are still separated. I keep swapping them in the one room we have for containment. They both HATE being locked in there so it is almost-constant crying and scratching at the door. They are both lovers and hate being away from their people. They don't seem to mind the vanilla. But I just put a few drops on a washcloth and pet them with it so it is not very strong. The older cat is not really eating much. She does that when she is upset. I am guessing she is more upset by the containment than anything else. I did notice something odd. When loose, they each go to the site of the fight and sniff everywhere. That, I'd expect based on what you said. But I also noticed an area far away from the scene that had some oily drops. This is where I was standing while holding the younger cat when we first tried to reintroduce them (too early, I now know) and she was hissing and spitting. The floor is wood there. The drops did not really smell and I can't be sure they came from a cat but have no other good explanation for them. I cleaned them up with Bac-Out but noticed that this is another spot they each must thoroughly sniff when first out of containment. Is there a connection?

I just did this today. I have only one homeschooled-from-the-start child who is entering her 12th grade year. We are not and never have been, part of any sort of homeschool group, co-op , or community, other than these forums. I have always worked part time and moved to full time (half working from home) when my child started 10th grade. Advice was going to another family with an only child who will be in 6th grade. They are 100% new to the whole idea but willing to put thought and effort into it. Both parents work full time, and one is an essential worker who must work onsite. They have arranged their schedules so one of them will be home at all times but the non-essential worker will be working during his time at home. Our schools still have not called what will happen in the fall and they are just done waiting so have decided to homeschool for one year only (hopefully). They don't mind if it takes effort but they really just wanted me to give them some vetted curriculum recommendations and any general tips on what to prioritize. 1. I gave some specific curriculum suggestions based on what worked (or didn't) for us and what kind of time/effort the parents had available. Specifically Singapore Math 6A and 6B, Story of the World, WWS, and Analytical Grammar. That exact content of science and history are not likely to matter as long as there is exposure to new concepts, ideas, and skills. 2. Then I told them not to stress a whole lot because 6th grade is kind of a "lost year" in our local schools. I am close to a family who went on sabbatical for one year in a foreign country when their child was in the 6th grade. She learned a great deal about a lot of things, but she attended a non-American school that did not align with what was happening at her home school. At all. She was 100% fine returning as a 7th grader. She "lost" a year of math but that just knocked her down from "advanced" to "normal." Basically telling them to not fret. If it is only for one year and it does not go well, it will be OK. 3. Don't let the school bully them. Our local district is notoriously hostile to homeschoolers. They have no power over them and are very unlikely to be a help. Just do your thing and be confident that it will be OK.

The cats do now smell like cookies so there's that.

I plan to get some Feliway as soon as I can get to the feed store....because to top everything else off, my car decided to crap out on me yesterday. The introduction processes we have done in the past are really hard because we live in a small and old house. The only rooms that have doors are the bathroom (which is very frequently in use, obviously) and one bedroom. The other two bedrooms have "doors" but they no longer close/latch due to house settling. We tried stacking tension baby gates last time and our older cat figured out how to push them out with her feet. So even short-term isolating is hard because the person who lives in that room is very much compromised. This is partly why the very thought of having to do weeks of reintroduction is so stressful to me. We have done it and will again to some extent, but this cannot become a permanent situation. I am very much hoping my runaway anxiety is overreacting and all will be well after a 2-3 day break from each other. Darn cats.

Oh my goodness! Ha ha! I cannot imagine. My mom lives in assisted living so I have to stay in a hotel. And if I am there, it is likely because I am dealing with hospitals and/or doctor appointments, therapy, evaluations, etc.... But the crazier part would be 20 hours (round trip) in car with a cat that yowls when she even SEES the cat carrier.

Yeah, when I googled, I got many "Redirected Aggression" hits. But all of them are so grim...suggesting that this happening just once means weeks of reintroduction and STILL may not be successful. I vanilla-ed them both and the one is still locked up. They are currently growling at each other through the closed door. We spent 8 weeks unsuccessfully trying the textbook introduction approach with the failed cat adoption we had two years ago. I am nearly having a panic attack as we deal with the same steps. I cannot go through that stress and then the heartbreak of having to return the cat that we had already bonded deeply with....after only 8 weeks. I cannot even fathom the thought of having to rehome either of these. But, I have an elderly mother with dementia who lives ten hours away. I have and will have to travel, often unexpectedly, to assist with her care. These cats have to co-exist in our home with twice-daily cat sitter visits. I am just sick with worry about this.

This is good to know. I will keep them separate for a few days. If this is true, what can be done about this perhaps happening when we are not home? Any chance this might get less likely as the kitten gets more mature?

We have always had multiple litter boxes in varied locations and they eat on a schedule so always have their own dishes. I live in a city neighborhood....on a busy corner with no fence, so keeping strays out is impossible. But I did already cover the bottom half of the sliding glass door with paper so they are least can't get face to face like they did this morning.

I am appreciating the hopeful stories. I will try the vanilla for sure. I plan to keep them separate for the rest of the day. The younger cat is currently locked up and the older cat is slinking around the house and appears to be frightened. Sigh.

That does help, thanks! I am just at one of those close-to-the-edge moments in my life and am easily spooked. We also had an epic fail at bringing a new cat into the house a couple of years ago and we are all pretty traumatized by it. I am also worried the next time this happens, we may not even be home!

Yep. My googling calls it redirected aggression and the outlook is quite grim. I am also reading that aggression sometimes appears as a kitten reached maturity, which would be about right for the younger one. I am hoping people will have some BTDT stories that were successful because everything I read on Google involves elaborate multi-week re-introduction plans that would have to be repeated any time a cat walks into my yard again which is simply not going to work in my household right now. We are dealing with a whole pile of much larger stressors and honestly don't have the bandwidth for this right now.

We have two female cats. Both are spayed. One is about 14 years old, the other just over a year. The older one never warmed up to the younger one but they tolerate each other. Other than the occasional hiss and swat they have coexisted fine up until now. Early this morning, a stray cat was in our yard and appeared on our deck, near a sliding glass door. This used to happen often with random neighbor cats but it may be the first time it has happened since the younger cat joined our household. I did not witness this, but my dd says the younger cat was sniffing at the outdoor cat and seemed curious. The older cat joined her and the started the low growl she likes to do to outside cats. Instantly, our two cats started an epic blow out that was very loud with a great deal of fur flying. Somehow my dd got one of them locked into a room. We waited about an hour and assumed they would be calmed down enough. I (luckily) picked up the younger cat to bring her out of the room. As soon as she saw older cat, they both immediately started yowling and hissing, tried to get to each other again. I managed to hang on to the younger one and stuff her back in the room. We tried again after a couple of hours. Same thing. So, younger cat is still stuck in the room. Has anyone had this happen? Any tips for getting back to normal here? Will they do this every time a cat wanders into my yard? Should I just let them have at it and work it out?

Yes. I have been in ongoing discussions with Admissions over the last 24 hours. I does now appear that they will consider waiving the test requirement based on her DE record. We are awaiting a final ruling. Meanwhile, it does appear dd would likely qualify for merit-based aid if she can test. They will allow test score submission up to right before she starts, so that is good news. So, we are going to go with (new) option 5, which is to change her ACT registration to the December test and plan to figure out a spring test time if that gets cancelled. This does not help if dd decides she wants to go elsewhere, but with everything as uncertain as it has been, limited option s might be the least stressful for everyone.

Is that reflected on the College Board website? Or did you get that info elsewhere. I am not in CA but don't want to believe, and therefore plan based on the website, if I know it is not accurate.

It's a somewhat competitive school but dd's grades, PSAT, and practice ACT scores are well above their admission criteria, so I do think she could be admitted up to the last minute assuming she does not completely bomb whatever test she may take. She has been, and currently is, dual enrolled there so she also has an established GPA of 4.0 (so far) which I thought would be enough for petitioning the waiver of test scores, but that is not the case at this time.

Ah, I was mistaken as I thought it was very different. In that case, the SAT should be fine enough for her. Now I just have to try to guess which one is more likely to cancel.

What kind of a test do they give in house? When I talked to the admissions person, she did not mention a provisional acceptance option. I'll have to ask about this.

She did well on the PSAT but I believe I recall that the PSAT is not very similar to the SAT? She doesn't "need" a very high score to be admitted to her target school. And I doubt she would be a candidate for merit aid anyway. So maybe taking it cold would not be terrible?

The school does not have an application deadline, so I assume this means it would not be too late. Good tip on calling the SAT test school. They might already know what is happening for the fall tests.

I thought of a fourth option: 4. Switch the ACT to the local December test and register for earlier SAT test. Cancel ACT if SAT goes well enough but have ACT as a back-up in case cold SAT goes as poorly as I fear.

I have. At this point there are no exceptions but they said the "discussion is ongoing," whatever that means.

Dd is a senior. She has not taken the SAT or ACT yet. She was registered for the April and June ACT tests, which were cancelled, and did not even get a slot for the July test. She has been rescheduled for September....two states and five hours of driving away! Assuming it does not also get canceled, this is a bad situation. We would have to stay the night before in a hotel, which is stressful under non-pandemic circumstances, and will also be hard for my dd who already struggles with test anxiety and insomnia. Not to mention, we really cannot afford the travel costs or time. I went to the site and found that there is nothing closer to us until the December test. I will absolutely lose my mind if we do travel to the test and we arrive only to find out it is cancelled! The nearest SAT test site is two hours away. Still not ideal but better. There are seats open in September and October. I have not been following the SAT at all. Have they also been cancelling tests? Dd has lightly prepped for the ACT. Not the SAT. She is dual enrolled and already very much overcommitted right now so if she were to take the SAT, it will be 100% cold. There is simply no time for prep. The main school dd is interested in went "test optional" except for homeschoolers. Sigh. I see a few options. Which would you do: 1. Plan to take the ACT 5 hours away and just deal with the stress and cost. Also register for an SAT test as a back-up in case the ACT gets cancelled again. 2. Forget the ACT altogether and register for the SAT. 3. Forget both tests and hope dd's school changes their policy for homeschoolers.

No. They are housemates (with their own bedrooms) and mine will be living at home and is still in high school (although almost completely dual enrolled). Judging by the behavior of the college students who are in town this summer, I expect fall semester to be a complete disaster. Our bars and restaurants are open (with completely disregarded "guidelines") and hopping while we don't even get take-out. The students DO mostly follow the mask mandate, unlike the locals, but most are living on top of each other in private rental houses and definitely not avoiding parties, the bars, or other activities. But that is a whole different worry. I am trying to tackle one anxiety bomb at a time. Our positive numbers are super low but as I said, test results are taking 14 days. We called about getting a test for our suspect and they could not assign an appointment until next Wednesday and warned results are taking 14 days. There is simply no point in testing given these constraints so my guess is we will not know when numbers spike until well after they have. Maybe they have already? We are living with that assumption. The parties involved have been very very cautious, partly because they wanted to be sure they could do this event.