Thinking about getting a kitten

[Samz5]

My Aunts cat had kittens 4 weeks ago, yesterday we went over to see them with absolutely no intention of offering one a home... but.... one kitten seemed to single both my and my boyfriend out and she was all over us, it turns out shes the only one who hasn't been given a home yet.

We've lost 2 cats to old age related illness this year and had discussed getting another at some point, my b/f wanted to get another female cat as we now have just the 3 boys left here and I wanted to get another ginger cat and this kitten is both ginger and female (against all odds)!

However we are concerned about the cats we already have, Rags and Bones are 14 and slowing down in older age, how will they react to a kitten in the house?
Domino is a bit younger i think he'd be fine after introductions.

Any experiences with adding a kitten to a household with older cats would be gratefully received at this point.

[dinahsmum]

It looks like fate!

I brought 2 kittens into a house with an oldie. That worked fine as the kits played together and the oldie ignored them. If Domino will be happy with a little sister I think the older two will be OK - they'll just keep out of the way of the little pest :)

[Samz5]

Ok we've agreed to have her!! :shock: :D

[Mags]

Brilliant news Sam.......looking forward to seeing and hearing all about her!:D

[angieh]

It's a lovely trick of fate. I await pictures ...........

[niki71uk]

hi sam, i like u have an older cat already who is 14.i thought they'd be ok as i also have a 3 n half yr old border terrier,the cat was 11 when the dog came along at 8 wks,and now i have the kitten who was 6 wks wen i brought her home,she is now 6 mnths.

the kitten and the older cat get on ok long as the kitten dont push it too much

the dog loves her and vice versa.


btw the kittens getting spayed on wednesday,so hopefully that'll calm things down a bit

[dandysmom]

I introduced a male kitten to two elderly females; one hissed a bit initially and primarily ignored him (as much as it's possible to ignore a kitten!) afterwards; Misty hissed at first but soon became his surrogate mom!

[Moli]

I introduced 3 kittens over a few years to my oldie Leo, he has never taken much notice of any of them, now and then will give them a thick ear, but mainly takes himself off somewhere quiet to sleep...

[Samz5]

Thanks for your encouraging stories, we are going to take the introductions very slowly.
We also plan to take over a towel covered in our cats smells to her a week or so before we take her and also take something and rub it all over her so our cats can smell her and start to get the idea.

We suspect Rags will be the one who takes convincing, he is definitely the top cat and it took a lot of convincing to let Domino stay, although Domino first entered the house as a stray Tom cat so we think a kitten should be seen as less of a threat.

[dandysmom]

Sounds as if you have it well planned! And a kitten is definitely less of a threat to the resident cat.

[Samz5]

Sounds as if you ave it well planned! .

We just really want our current cats to be happy with her, we talked through everything in great detail today before making a final decision!

[kado]

My friend got a kitten 3 years ago and introduced him to is then 16 year old cat, they are fine. Two weeks ago the got a 10 week old chocolate lab (phoebe) who was the runt of the litter and she is fine with her too. They also have 2 other cats as well.