UPDATE! Help us name her. Adopt a kitty question

[Chim Chiminy]

We are looking at adopting another cat from our local shelter. We brought Mikey home in early June, he fit right in as though he was always meant to be with us. We also have a hamster (Cleopatra--a boy), guinea pig (pegasus--a boy, who is quite mad at me for bringing in the hamster and cat), and two betta fish (Herc and Petra). Sometimes I feel like we live in Dr. Dolittles house...................

We have been toying with the idea of adopting another pet for a couple of months and Saturday my son and I went out to the shelter, just so he could spend time with all the animals. He applied to volunteer there, we are waiting on approval.....(fingers crossed!).

So after a weekend of discussion, we decided that perhaps another cat would be best.
Mikey (the cat we have) is part Siamese, so said our vet from looking at his face, lean body, his meow is quite distinctive.

He is my baby.........

We will be going back on Thursday to visit with the cats, and with Mikey being the way he is I am not sure if a male or female would be best. Young kitty or older cat......
I will talk about it with the staff, they know Mikey and how he did with the other animals, but was wondering if anyone here has had a part Siamese cat.
All my friends are saying that they are territorial.

I am just worried how to introduce him to another cat? Am I crazy??
I keep thinking cats need a playmate, two are certainly no more "work" than one is, etc.
Ugh!!!

 

[chrissyk]

We have a part Siamese cat also (he's 10). He is very, very aggressive. We got a second kitten when he was 18 months old. She's a ragdoll mix with a very amiable personality. They get along fine, but occasionally the male part-siamese cat will attack her for no reason. We have him on Prozac now, so that is helping. He is not territorial with her, but I wonder if he would have been if we had gotten a male kitten instead.

 

[Laura]

Here's a Cat Fancy article on the subject--hope it helps!

http://www.catfancy.com/catfancy/detail.aspx?aid=18432&cid=3598&search=

 

[Chim Chiminy]

Aggressive with the other cat? With you and your family?

The only issue we have had with Mikey is he hates having other cats in our yard. It makes him a little nutty. He will run wildly back and forth between windows.
We had one incident where he was laying in our window and a cat jumped up toward him and scared the crap out of him. What a racket! And he ran crazy from our room.
Second incident, a cat came up onto the porch while Mikey was in the living room window. We think it may have been the same cat.....It jumped up again toward Mikey and we "think" (don't know for sure because we were in bed asleep!) that in his haste to get away, Mikey fell through the screen and out onto the porch!
OMG!!! The sounds they were making. DH thought a little girl was on our porch screaming! It woke us up darn quick!!!!
DH went out on the porch while I was calling to Mikey, the cats were crouched down staring and yelling at each other. Mikey then leaped back up through the window screen. He was shaking! I picked him up and it was just like a terrified child.....
He is a big scaredy cat!

I guess maybe I am worried he would be scared of another cat being in the house?
OR would he be territorial with me? He is my baby, always follows me, always on my lap. The day we got back from vacation, he slept on top of my chest and head!!

 

[denisem]

In my experience, adopting a younger, opposite-sex cat works the best.

We had a part siamese female that adored her "brother" but she never did warm up to a second female even after 6 yrs. together. Luckily, it just involved hissing when they crossed paths.

 

[eclectics]

In my experience, adopting a younger, opposite-sex cat works the best.

That would be my suggestion also. Off the subject a bit, I always thought cats "liked" to have cat company, but actually cats are solitary in nature and not "pack" animals like dogs. They do just fine by their lonesome.

 

[CheshireVal]

I have had two siamese mixes. Sydney (on the left) is no longer with me He was my baby-- had a lot of typical Siamese traits. He got very jealous when I brought Sebastian (on the right) home, though he was never mean or aggressive towards Sebastian (other than typical cats-getting-used-to-each-other stuff). I don't think he ever liked his new brother, though. (Sebastian just adored Syd, though!!!)

After Syd died, it was just me and Sebastian for a while, but then my DH moved in and we got a new female kitten (Chloe). They fought for a few weeks, but really haven't had too many problems since. They play all the time and while they're not the best of friends, they get along pretty well. Sebastian is more mellow and good-natured than Syd ever was, so maybe that's why.

Here is Chloe bathing Sebastian :

The biggest thing to remember is that all kittens are going to initially annoy older cats. They're just too playful-- they'll attack your other cat relentlessly just because it's "fun." Your other cat will be really irritated at first, but eventually will get used to it.

As for adopting an older cat, I have no experience with that....

 

[Chim Chiminy]

Here is the update, hope I did this right!

Well, I took the kids on Friday back to the shelter. The intention was simply so they could interact with the cats and provide some playtime, company for them. There are so many cats at the shelter, it is just heartbreaking.
My son did get accepted as a volunteer, we go in to help clean and feed on Sundays, but there really isn't enough time on those days to "play".

So, we are talking and playing with all the pretty kitties there. And three in particular caught my eye.
We spent some time alone with the cats and the first one we had out just seemed like she "belonged" to us. All three of us were instantly in love with her. What a little angel she is.........

Anyways, we put her on hold. She was scheduled to be spayed next week already, so we can come back and pick her up next Saturday. I am so anxious.
I came home and told DH he was going to be a daddy again!

The shelter named her Nev, which is okay, but we really wanted to give her a name that means something to us. Problem is, we can't decide!
"Nev" is four months old. Grey tiger with a cream underbelly and pastel patches throughout of cream and buff. Medium length crinkly hair, her eyes are gold and olive with a blue ring right around her pupils. I wish I had a picture to post, she is so beautiful.
Can't wait to go visit her on Monday..........I want her home right now.

Help us choose a name! Dh wants to call her Kitty.....

Nala
Sarabi
Tigerlily
Tinkerbelle
Hermione
Ella
Arly
Poppins
Aurora
Teagan
Sara
Jasmine
Minnie
Kanga
Roo
Tiki
Rosita
Sparrow
Eliza Swann

 

[chyam]

Good luck with the new kitty...........you sure have alot of names to narrow down but I liked Tiki with Tinkerbelle second I think I liked that name since I had a greyhound named that but we ended up calling her TinkyB!

 

[denisem]

Hey - maybe Nev is short for "Neverland"? (Keeping with the Disney theme...)

I like Poppins, probably because it reminds me of my former white cat "Popcorn".