214 AppendicesGood signs: Vertical raised tail. General relaxed body posture. Slow eye blink.
Rolling. Interested in play.
Bad signs: Staring at the other cat. Ears flattened to the side or rotated backwards.
Low body posture. More interest in the other cat than in play or treats. ‘Swishing’
tail. Growling. Hissing. Attempting to get away. Urine spraying after meeting the
other cat.
Keeping the Peace
After initial introductions, if all goes well, the cats may not necessarily develop a close
bonded relationship, where they seek out each other’s company and sleep wrapped
around each other, but more commonly they may have a relationship where they are
tolerant of each other and can live together with minimum stress or conflict. The
following advice can help to support and maintain this relationship:
● Ensure that the new cat still has access to his safe room and continues to be fed
and have access to all other resources in the safe room for as long as necessary.
● Make sure that there are always lots of easily accessible hiding places or high
places around the house that the cats can retreat to if feeling threatened.
● Ensure that there are always adequate resources for all the cats in the household.
● Feed the cats in separate areas and supply additional food dishes in other
areas.
● Provide extra water dishes in areas away from food.
● Cats can be reluctant to share litter trays and many prefer one area to urinate
and another to defecate. The general rule regarding the number of litter trays
to provide is one per cat plus one extra. The litter trays need to be located
some distance away from each other. Two or more trays placed side by side
will be regarded by the cats as one litter location.
● Ensure that they all have access to plenty of warm and comfortable resting
places so that they are not forced to share sleeping areas, which might be
stressful for them, unless they are closely bonded.
● Ensure that they have plenty to do to keep them entertained and allowed to
engage in normal feline behaviour. For example: interactive games, such as
wand toys, and things to chase, bat and grab; food foraging toys, such as food
balls and, if possible, puzzle feeders; and outdoor access (see also Appendices
1 and 2).
© Trudi Atkinson.
This appendix is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-
nc-nd/4.0/)