Multiple cat people...a question for ya!

[December99]

Not that I would do this and if dh sees this I might never do this but....several questions....

Did you get your cats around the same timeframe or did you add them gradually?

Did they fight at first and do they now get along or did they always get along?

Do you let your cats roam around your house all day if you are not there or are you pretty much stay at home people?

Do you let them roam at night while you are sleeping or are they "confined" to one bedroom?

I know eventually I think I would like Candi to be able to roam around the house during the day but right now she's too much of a wild woman to do that - I can't imagine what I would come home to. But then again - she might spend all day lounging on the back of the couch in front of the window soaking up the sun. And I can't imagine having more than one cat right now because she IS such a wild woman....seeing her and another one or two chasing each other around the house - we'd be peeing our pants from laughing so hard!!!!

 

[CourtasanSatine]

My kitties(Doyle and Cordeila) came along 2 months apart and they get along well for cats

 

[Meriweather]

Number one and number two were not friendly at first (they are a year apart). They became friendly when MIL brought her cat to visit That made them gang up together agains the "intuder".
When number 3 joined.........they didn't like her. ....they still don't like her.......and probably never will.

They roam around the house when someone is home. Number one gets shut in the basement when no one is home (and at night) because he makes messes everywhere.
The girls get to roam around all the time.

 

[FOJMO]

We had Ren & Stimpy (litter mates, females) as kittens and then we had to put Stimpy to sleep at 3 yrs old of lung cancer.

Shortly after Stimpy left us, we got Cinder (male) as a kitten, and Ren (then 3) did NOT like Cinder in the house at all and hissed at him all the time. But it was only a few days of that, and they acclimated themselves to each other.

That was 6 yrs ago and they pretty much keep to themselves and only get after each other once in a blue moon. They both sleep much of the time.

At night, Cinder sleeps with our DD (16) and she keeps her door closed all night. On the weekend, if DD sleeps too long, and Cinder can't get out, we might find a "surprise" (#2) by the bedroom door, cause he couldn't get out to visit the litter box.

Ren sleeps with DH and me every night.

And, by the way, both of our cats are declawed, so there's no worry about leaving them alone all day. When we're on vacation, the pet sitter visits and spends time with them and feeds them.

Good Luck!

 

[shep]

My kitties stay in the basement when we aren't home(they tend to jump on the table and set off the alarm) and run around the house when we are and at night...

We had my oldest cat for 7 years beore we got our second, and we've had her for over a year now and they still fight..

 

[catsrule]

We had Simba for about 2 or 3 years, then a starving little Calico showed up on our doorstep. She is fat now, and her and Simba roam freely. Sometimes a knicknack may be on the floor, from them chasing each other, but I think they sleep most of the time.

 

[SuiteDisney]

We got all of our cats at different times. They all get along except for the kitten, Teddy, who has turned out to be a kitty terrorist. He attacks all of the other cats. We have a 17 y.o. female who never hurt a fly and is completely deaf. Teddy attacks her whenever he gets a chance and she doesn't even know he's coming because she can't hear him. She now has refuge in Rachel's bedroom full-time. Teddy is the bane of my ragdoll, Toby's existance.

To make matters worse, Mickey, the Westie is in love with Teddy and defends him from everyone and everything. We have an indoor-outdoor cat who came in and hissed at Teddy and Mickey attacked the poor cat. Now he won't come in at all.

So we're living in an animal soap opera. The kitten attacks a cat.... the other cat cries or hisses.... and then the dog goes after the innocent cat. Teddy is the only cat the dog won't snap at, the only cat who can eat the dog's food, the only cat who can sleep with the dog, the only cat the dog will play with. In fact, the kitten chases the dog around the house, jumps on him from on top of furniture and even makes the dog cry, but the dog loves him. This has been going on since we first brought the kitten home and he was about as big as my hand.

 

[goofy4tink]

We've usually had two cats at once. We had two littermates. Then my dd's cat had a litter. Who could resist? So, now we have 3 of the little devils. Well, one of the original two died at the age of 13. Down to 2 cats. Well, the other 'old' one died a year later. So I feel badly for the poor remaining kitty. Go to the shelter and get him a friend. BAD idea. His name is Bootsie, but we call him criminal cat. At this very moment he is bapping the screen, chasing my letters around and chewing on some mail.
We always introduce the new cat to the old cats very slowly. Leave the new cat behind a closed door for a few days. Then let him out, slowly. There will be hissing/snarling. After a week or so it will all work itself out. This newest cat, Bootsie, is a terror. WE have to hide all loaves of bread or he eats it. He knocks stuff off counters and the dog eats it. Even non-edible stuff! The cats stay on the lower level of the house at night. They drive me nuts at night with all their jumping on bureaus and knocking stuff around.

 

[Sonya]

We have to have 2 cats at once, they need the company!

Did you get your cats around the same timeframe or did you add them gradually?

Did they fight at first and do they now get along or did they always get along?

Do you let your cats roam around your house all day if you are not there or are you pretty much stay at home people?

Do you let them roam at night while you are sleeping or are they "confined" to one bedroom?

1. We had 2 at the same time, not littermates, and then added one more just last year after 5 years of just the 2.

2. The 2 we got together didn't fight. But adding the 3rd! They fought so much! Especially the kitten and the alpha cat. They have since gotten over it and although they don't sleep together I have caught them washing each other's ears.

3. They have the roam of the house. We did keep them in the "nursery" (re:bathroom) until they were old enough not to get lost or forget where the litter box was. We have also cat-proofed our house.

4. They roam all the time.

Here are the kitten and the alpha cat, aka Leigha and Moly, "playing":

 

[noel]

hmmm let's see....

Did you get your cats around the same timeframe or did you add them gradually?
My Pugsley is 9 1/2 and we added Daisy who at the time was 12 weeks old last February.

Did they fight at first and do they now get along or did they always get along?
Because Pugsley had been an "only child" for so many years and also has a less than happy personality, we were very careful to introduce them to one another slowly. It was about 10 days before we even let them catch a glimpse of one another. It's funny because now she's definitely the dominant cat, which is the exact opposite of what we thought would happen. They fight, but usually not the knock down drag out type of fighting. More like she'll jump on him and run away....sometimes there's a little hissing, but overall they tolerate each other well and even nap together sometimes!

Do you let your cats roam around your house all day if you are not there or are you pretty much stay at home people?
Our cats have the run of the house all day long and can go wherever they want.

Do you let them roam at night while you are sleeping or are they "confined" to one bedroom?
If we tried to keep them out of our bedroom and off our bed, I don't think we'd get any sleep!!! Both cats get snuggly at night and typically I'll wake up without a pillow or wearing one of my cats like a hat.

Hope this helps Chris....I'm glad you're enjoying your new cat!

 

[helenabear]

I have two cats and they are about 7 1/2 years apart in age and when I took them home. I don't think there was a time ever that we brought two cats home at the same time. They might fight at first but trust me, they will adjust. I have also known brothers and sisters to hate each other through their life (from friends) so bringing them in at the same tme doesn't mean they will be okay with each other.

They didn't really fight at first. The little one annoyed the heck out of Cleo and she is such a princess that she still pretends to be annoyed now by Gwenie. But they play together, cuddle together and get along just fine. Very much like siblings though. There is some "whining" from each of them, but you can tell deep down inside they really like each other (and I have pictures that I snuck in on them to prove it )

Both roam all day long around the house and neither one of us stay home. I have always done it that way and never had a problem. And the same goes for at night. We don't even close our doors to any of the rooms. I can tell you that Gwenie was a holy terror around the house as a kitten and never had a problem with her tearing up anything. I think she mostly slept during the day (as most cats seem to do) and was a terror at night But never anything bad where we worry about her hurting anything.

I honestly think you might be surprised if you let Candi go roaming. I wouldn't be shocked if she was perfectly content to sleep or roam quietly during the day. I think it is best for cats anyway to let them have freedom like that

 

[Jcricket Fan]

Sorry my answer is soooo long but it's a question I can finally answer and I'm just so darn excited!

We have 5 indoor only cats. 4 females and a male. All found stray cats.

First cat was BeeGee (F) stayed only cat for five years (Loves DH, tolerates me!) Then we moved to our house and brought in Rapunzel (F) who hid under the china closet for over a month. When she did come out she never really went near BeeGee.

A year later Billy (M) came to live with us. Other two cats liked him...he is just so sweet (He is my baby....don't tell the others though!)
Billy & BeeGee would play and chase each other but there was never any serious fighting. Rapunzel continued to ignore everyone.

Fast forward 6 years...added Inky (F) along with her sister Tabby.
They are only a year or two old so they brought some kitten like behavior back into the house.

All cats seem to understand the pecking order...BeeGee is the queen of the house and no one has ever tried to remove her from that spot.

The house is at it's maxium! All get along great...Rapunzel ignoring everyone and no one caring. They all take turns chasing each other. BeeGee has slowed down some as she is 15yrs. old but Billy can still temp her into a game of run up the stairs!

The cats have free reign of the house all day while we are gone and at night we just keep them out of our BdRm. because we can't get any sleep with 5 cats on the bed!

I can't imagine not having these cats. They all have such unique personalities....they are like children to us.

Colleen

 

[Carl the Bartender]

We had a 10 year old cat when we brought in a new kitten, then when the kitten was 3 we brought in a 4 year old cat, then a year later added one more kitten. The only one that runs free when we are not home is the oldest one and she's separated from the rest of them because they beat her up. The other 3 get along fine. They are kept in an office that used to be a 3 car garage, so they have plenty of room. They roam the house when we're home. I kept the 4 year old contained for about 4 hours when I first brought him home, but the other cats were so curious about him that I let him out sooner than I planned to. There was no trouble at all. We've never had any major incidents with fighting.

 

[Kitty 34]

I already tried posting to this once so here goes again!


Chris, I have three cats, a Momma Cat, her son and then another female cat that we got a couple of years later. The only one that really doesn't get along with the others is the Momma Cat.

They are indoor/outdoor cats.

 

[Saffron]

All my cats are ferel that we've tried to tame, so it may be different for us than for you. Long story short, of the 7 , one, Grumpy Old Man or King, will try to kill either of the other males. He sometimes is nasty to the females, but he doesn't go after the females like he does the males. All of the cats are between a year and 3 years old. The other two males are starting to fight now too.

They all roam freely in the house (they are all inside kitties), but when King is out, the others are away or when the others are out, King is away. It's the only sure way we know there won't be any blood shed. He is sweet as anything to me and he adores my dog, he just wants to be King!

 

[Pooh Girl 71]

We originally only had a male cat, Precious. He was 4 or so when I brought home a female kitten, Sassy. They got along ok. But, Precious was never a really nice cat. After many months of Sassy going into heat, Precious, attacked her on the stairs. A couple of months later, we had 4 kittens.

Precious died of some weird bladder thing a month after the kittens were born. We now have 5 cats. 3 females and 2 males. The kittens all get along with each other really well. Sassy tolerates them. Sometimes she is pretty loving but she's never mean to them or vice versa. (oh yeah and they have all been spayed/neutered)

They all have the run of the house. The only thing that gets on my nerves is one of them likes to attack the toilet paper roll sometimes....haven't figured out who the guilty party is yet.

 

[Rajah]

We got Blaze and Sage in December. Lost Sage in January, so Blaze was an only for several months. Got Skye that June, then in October got Sienna.

There was hissing, growling, and posturing at first, a little fighting but not much, but they got along much better than I expected for initial introductions. I think a large part of this is due to the general nature of Siberians, and due to how they were raised. I don't think introductions would be that easy with shelter cats, but they can be.

For the first few weeks with Blaze and Sage, we left them confined during the day and at night. Once they got to where I could "trust" them (ie: they didn't chew on cords, were decent around trash cans, etc), they were allowed out at all times. Skye was confined for only the first few days because we didn't want to leave him and Blaze together unsupervised until they were getting along. Once they got along, Blaze kept Skye in order pretty well. Sienna was confined full time for the first few days until Blaze stopped growling at her, and then again any time we weren't there to supervise or were asleep for the next few days. After about two to three weeks, she was allowed to roam free. All three kitties roam free during the day and night now.

 

[NCRedding]

I love cats and hearing about cats. We have 3 cats. Last spring we had 3--one we had had for 12 years (since a kitten) who was indoor only, one who indoor/ outdoor who had attached herself to my DD , and an old "inherited" year old cat--who basically came to our house to die, when her original owner was called to submarine duty. Then our 12 year old died. I missed her so we found a sweet male kitten and brought him home when he was 8 weeks old--so adorable, but he wanted to PLAY. Old cat was not having any of that. The indoor/outdoor cat wasn't interested. So, to keep the kitten entertained and the old cat happy, we got the kitten's littermate. Those 2 play together quite well and avoid the old cat. The indoor/outdoor cat took off the day after we brought the 2nd kitten home, and refuses to stay home when we find her in the neighborhood and drag her home. She's now been adopted by a neighbor whose child is house-bound--she spends the day with her and goes out at night, so everyone is happy, and we still have 3 cats, including the one who was supposed to die--and we have had her over 3 years--she's now 21. To answer the questions: they roam free and sleep where ever they want. They are clearly in charge of our house.

 

[d.kurz]

***********: LOVE those pictures!!! SOOO cute!

 

[one_cat]

We have two cats. We got Penny as an adult cat shortly before the kids were born. We were assured that she was a great "kid" cat which is totally true. She lets them drag her all around the house. 2 years later we got Patriot as a kitten. He is now full-grown and is twice the size of Penny. He is the most loveable cat you've ever seen. Penny adopted Patriot from the beginning and they've never fought other than playing. They have the run of the house during the day or when we are gone. At night they sleep in the laundry room. They sleep together in one cat-basket.