I am THIS close to getting a Quarantine Kitten

[ktgrok]

Just to have something joyful and happy. 

But I won't because I seem to remember that kittens are a PIA, lol. 

Also, does anyone know anything about bringing a new kitten into the house? I have two cats, one is about 5 I think, the other is 12 and honestly, not likely to live out many more years. He's scrawny despite thyroid being normal, we now think he has feline asthma, his lungs have scarring, etc. He's the BEST old man orange cat (orange cats are the best!) other than meowing constantly for food. But he could live a few more years, or have something happn to him next month. 

The other cat, the 6 yr old, is a bit..weird. He was an orphan that showed up literally on my doorstep meowing to get in at about 6 weeks old. He um..."has his way" with my other cat on the regular, with much hissing and spitting involved. Sometimes the tables are turned, but not usually. I have no idea how "brokecat mountain" became a thing here, but it has. Anyway, they don't play together, sometimes the snuggle, otherwise..yeah. 

Any way, I have no idea if it is better to get another cat before the old guy goes, or after. He is certainly a better cat role model than weirdo grey cat. But I know in households with 3 cats sometimes two gang up on the other? 

Thoughts? 

We are blessed that DS21 works at a vet and gets an amazing discount, which helps. 

[mommyoffive]

Do it.

[Selkie]

Get two so they keep each other occupied and don't bug the older cats.

[Shoeless]

Do it!

We brought a new kitten into the house 2 summers ago, to live with our then 4 year old lab and the other cat who was 2-ish.  The other cat was a female that showed up on our door and had been used to scavenging for food, (so now she has anxiety about food).

New kitten mostly lived in the bathroom for a few days, while everyone got used to each other's scents and sounds.  He came out for supervised play time.  We gradually increased his time on the outside until he was only sleeping in the bathroom at night, (he was into everything and could not be left unsupervised). It went really, really well. The dog LOVES the cat and was overjoyed to have another cat living here.  The female cat was reserved at first, but now they run around and play together.  It's been really good for her; she seems happier and has lost a little weight having a friend to play with. The male cat is now about 18 months old and is starting to get into a snuggling routine at night with us.  It's nice 🙂 

[Terabith]

I really would like a quarantine pair of kittens.  This is a terrible idea, since our house is kind of full of cats and Obama the cat pees on the floor when he's mad or scared, and he'd certainly be both about kittens.  

But still. 

[stephanier.1765]

I cannot tell a lie. The best thing that has come out of this year was us taking in a pregnant stray cat. Watching those kittens grow, and play and change and get kitty attitudes has been the perfect stress reliever ever for a pandemic. Who can be stressed when a tiny little kitten is chasing it's tail around the living room. This year has seen an explosion of kittens being born so it would be a lovely thing to do just for the rescue aspect of it.

[prairiewindmomma]

2 dogs, 2 cats and 6 people (including a toddler) in your house that already feels a bit small? 

I'd be inclined to wait until the two older cats go and then bring in a pair of kittens. 

I think kittens are REALLY cute but I can't be excited about the idea of cleaning up litter box misses with all of the current chaos.

 

[gardenmom5]

I found Jackson Galaxy on youtube for cat info.  He also has a bunch of info under Animal Planet.

We're introducing dd's dogs to him. We've reached the stage now, they're all loose.  He runs under the sofa - but will be out in the open.  His choice.  Interestingly enough, it's the hyper puppy that is most calm when attempting to interact with him. (he was a super shy puppy that thought other tiny dogs were scary.)  The "playing machine" 2 1/2 year old tries to play with him exactly how he'd play with another dog.   they're all starting to ignore each other.  which I figure is good.

The dogs do clean up the kitten food as soon as they arrive. . . . good thing I feed him four times a day (with kibble always available, since he's a kitten.).

[Carrie12345]

I want a quarantine dog, since I’m so over cats, lol.  I’ve *been wanting a new dog, but shelved that idea when we thought we’d have two foster kids and kept it shelved when we thought we were going to list our house. I HATE the idea of new dogs in winter (we’ve only ever done spring/summer initial training), but ooooooohhhhhh!

[Laurie]

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

 

Also, does anyone know anything about bringing a new kitten into the house? I have two cats, one is about 5 I think, the other is 12 and honestly, not likely to live out many more years. He's scrawny despite thyroid being normal, we now think he has feline asthma, his lungs have scarring, etc. He's the BEST old man orange cat (orange cats are the best!) other than meowing constantly for food. But he could live a few more years, or have something happn to him next month. 

 

I agree with you about orange cats!!!   Our orange boy is 16 and has health problems.  He's a wonderful cat and there's no way I'd bring a rambunctious kitten into our house because I know it would be too stressful for him.   He keeps his distance from my daughter because he values his tail, etc. but it would be too difficult for him to hide out from a kitten.  

I vote for letting the orange cat have a kitten-free home.

[Ditto]

I am horribly allergic to cats.  But I still encourage you to do it!!   My 1 year old (not a puppy...yet so not a grown dog yet) has truly been the highlight of this trash heap of a year.  We have to grasp happiness where we can find it these days.  Plus, kittens are precious!

[Terabith]

I have twice accidentally brought a kitten into a home with an older adult cat.  

Thirteen years ago, I had two cats who were about 7 and 8, when a stray showed up on Christmas Eve, starving and emaciated and desperate to come in.  We let her in, took her to get spayed, and found out she was very pregnant.  She had kittens on our bed.  We found new homes for Mommy cat and all but one kitten.  This was extra complicated because Mommy cat was super aggressive to our cats and we were pretty clueless about cat introductions at the time.  

Then, we found Obama on the road when Scout (the kitten we kept from story above) was 8 and Ursula was 15.  We did keep kitten separated from older cats and did the gradual introduction thing.  Scout was kind of intrigued by kitten Obama but was also easily intimidated by him.  Ursula actually was grumpy about him but handled him fine and tried to teach him manners.  

I think both older cats would have been much relieved if Obama had had a fellow kitten to play with.  I think he wouldn't have pestered them so much, and the cat politics in our household would have been much improved, and I think Obama would actually be less of a jerk.  I really regret not getting a second kitten when we found Obama.  

[East Coast Sue]

Can you get one (or two) for me?  I want sweet & cuddly kitty!

[Pen]

Wait.   😉😁 

 

No guarantee of new one getting along with old ones and beating up on oldest cat can happen. 

 

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

2 dogs, 2 cats and 6 people (including a toddler) in your house that already feels a bit small? 

I'd be inclined to wait until the two older cats go and then bring in a pair of kittens. 

I think kittens are REALLY cute but I can't be excited about the idea of cleaning up litter box misses with all of the current chaos.

 

 

[Laurie]

P.S.

I'm sorry that your cat has lung problems.   

Has your vet recommended an inhaler for him?  The Aerokat spacer works really well in case he ever needs an inhaler.   

 

[ktgrok]

Ok...reading all this, I'm thinking the best way to go is to wait until poor Stripes (we didn't name him) is gone, and then get two kittens? That way they can play with eachother, if Oliver (the weird grey one) doesn't want to play?

Oh, I forgot! Oliver is FAT. He needs more exercise, and doesn't like to play with people. Or dogs. He waits until the house is quiet at night to find things to play with - so I do wonder if a younger, more energetic cat might get him moving more? 

What's funny is I'm totally confident introducing dogs and cats together, or dogs to dogs, but cat to cat? They didn't cover that really, in any of the vet behavior seminars I went to. I think the consensus was that cats are cats and nothing you can do, lol. 

[ktgrok]

1 minute ago, Laurie said:

P.S.

I'm sorry that your cat has lung problems.   

Has your vet recommended an inhaler for him?  The Aerokat spacer works really well in case he ever needs an inhaler.   

 

That's out next step. We got his teeth cleaned a month ago as the stupid last vet - different clinic - tried to "save" several teeth that should have been taken out. So there were a few that sort of looked okay, but were NOT okay. He ended up getting FIVE removed this time around, and that seems to have helped the chronic cough he had developed. Thinking the bacteria spread though his system - we had tried allergy meds, antibiotics, etc and he'd do better for a bit on the antibiotics and then get worse again. We didn't think the teeth were the issue, thought it was sinus, since we'd taken him to have a dental cleaning not that long ago. And he's had another a few years before that. But it must have been a big part of it because he's not really coughing anymore. Or, the seasonal thing he was allergic to is better? 

Either way, if he starts coughing again we are going to put him on an inhaler, yes. Just waiting to see if it was part of an allergic reaction and it comes back, or was mostly triggered by the bacteria in his mouth that never really cleared up since they left rotten teeth in. (they noted in the chart about the bad teeth at the time of that last, incomplete, dental procedure - I'm not making it up - I guess they wanted to save me money on less extractions...but far cheaper to extract them than me pay for chronic health issues!)

Oh, and Thank you for the info on the spacer!

[Laurie]

Poor kitty.   I hope the dental work takes care of the coughing problem!  

I wonder if orange cats and bad teeth go together.  Our cat has the resorptive teeth issue.  His most recent extraction was in May after he broke a tooth.  (And that happened while on an already soft, wet diet!)

I envy your family discount at the vet clinic!

[Terabith]

2 hours ago, ktgrok said:

Ok...reading all this, I'm thinking the best way to go is to wait until poor Stripes (we didn't name him) is gone, and then get two kittens? That way they can play with eachother, if Oliver (the weird grey one) doesn't want to play?

Oh, I forgot! Oliver is FAT. He needs more exercise, and doesn't like to play with people. Or dogs. He waits until the house is quiet at night to find things to play with - so I do wonder if a younger, more energetic cat might get him moving more? 

What's funny is I'm totally confident introducing dogs and cats together, or dogs to dogs, but cat to cat? They didn't cover that really, in any of the vet behavior seminars I went to. I think the consensus was that cats are cats and nothing you can do, lol. 

Obama did make our old cats get slightly more exercise, mostly by harassing them and chasing them a bit.  I am convinced that the reason Ursula lived to the age of 19 despite a bunch of health issues was the power of her rage at Obama.  

[RootAnn]

When you decide to get 2, let me pick them out of DD's TNR non-profit & drive them down to you. It truly has been a kitten-explosion year...

We just dropped off a foster to her forever home on Saturday & I have 4 more in my garage waiting for a yes/no from a potential foster family. If no, then I will try to convince DH we can foster them for a month until DD comes home & needs her room (where they quarantine) back.

[TechWife]

6 hours ago, ktgrok said:

Ok...reading all this, I'm thinking the best way to go is to wait until poor Stripes (we didn't name him) is gone, and then get two kittens? That way they can play with eachother, if Oliver (the weird grey one) doesn't want to play?

Oh, I forgot! Oliver is FAT. He needs more exercise, and doesn't like to play with people. Or dogs. He waits until the house is quiet at night to find things to play with - so I do wonder if a younger, more energetic cat might get him moving more? 

What's funny is I'm totally confident introducing dogs and cats together, or dogs to dogs, but cat to cat? They didn't cover that really, in any of the vet behavior seminars I went to. I think the consensus was that cats are cats and nothing you can do, lol. 

I think it would be best to wait until Stripes isn’t with you anymore. We had two cats and one died. We brought two kittens into the house and our scardy cat girl never took to them. She spent the last few years of her life in our bedroom by her choice. We left the door open, she just didn’t want to go out to where the younger cats were. I felt really bad for her and wouldn’t have done that if I’d known how she would react.

[ktgrok]

7 hours ago, TechWife said:

I think it would be best to wait until Stripes isn’t with you anymore. We had two cats and one died. We brought two kittens into the house and our scardy cat girl never took to them. She spent the last few years of her life in our bedroom by her choice. We left the door open, she just didn’t want to go out to where the younger cats were. I felt really bad for her and wouldn’t have done that if I’d known how she would react.

I'm actually not worried about Stripes, he is the confident take no crap kind of cat. We've had foster weimaraners who he totally ignored even when they got up in his face. He'd pretend he couldn't see them, at most turn his head, lol. If need be he's not above a bop on the nose I think. He handled Oliver coming into the house as a kitten very well - he just wouldn't play with him. It was harder on Oliver than Stripes. But Oliver kept trying, and eventually Stripes gave in and let Oliver snuggle him.

 

[Hilltopmom]

I don’t know, but I want kittens AND a dog now after watching everyone else I know get them over the shut down. 5 teachers at my school all got Golden’s from one of the other teacher’s dogs’ litters and they all share stories and photos every day!

half my students have new kittens too this year!  I’m jealous.
 

We are pet less for now (ours all passed a few years ago), but I definitely want to do kittens this year... and then a new dog. I said no new pets because the kids were such a handful... but now one moved out, one is a senior and the little ones are getting bigger.

I started looking at local rescue sites last week so I know it’s only a matter of time 🙂
 

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Hilltopmom