We are having some problems with Olliver. With our past introductions, it only took a few days for the "new" cat to either ignore the others or at least tolerate the others. Oliver is doing the opposite, he gets worse every day.

Day 1: Oliver gets home and is fine in his new room. Before bedtime, David introduces Oliver to Basil. (I know, he still doesn't understand cat timing.) Oliver freaks out and David has to pull Basil out of the line of attack. Oliver sulks away growling.

Day 2: Oliver spends some time in his room, resting and eating. Everytime to door is opened, he cries. After realizing there aren't any cats, he calms a bit and plays with us. Once, again, when we get up to leave, he heads for the door, ready to lunge! That night, he went to lunge and hit my legs instead of Basie.

Day 3: Oliver begins to cry...he's bored of his room. So, we allow him to stay in our bedroom with either I or David for a few hours. He love it. BUT....gets REALLY territoral of our bedroom door. The last half of his time in there is spent gaurding, hissing and growling at the door.

Day 4: Same as Day three...more hissing at his closet door though.

Day 5: We decide to take the screen door from the patio and put it in front of his door. We thought he would like the air and it would help in realizing the four other cats own the apartment. It gave them a chance to safely meet him. He growled and hissed all night.

Day 6: Oliver was doing OK....until about 2:45 a.m. He was banging on the closet door, crying loudly. He wouldn't stop so I had to go sleep on the floor with him. Daytime was filled with hisses amd lunges to the door. Its especially worse in our bedroom.

Day 7: Went to vet and bought a Feliway room diffuser and Feliway spray. This is suposed to put the pharamones that calm them in the air. It worked a little bit. We went from him hissing violently to a soft cry/growl through the screen door. When he got too excited, I sprayed extra...with calmed him. Decided that for us to get any sleep, Oliver would have to switch rooms...he and David now live in our bedroom and I'm on the couchbed. The other four couldn't deal with me being locked in the room at night (my sweeties).

Day 8: Feliway was plugged in and he seems a bit calmer. We still have the screen up, but at least he has the bed to hide under. Still hissing, but I think he now feels a bit better in a bigger room with lots of hiding places. BTW, while sleeping with David, he's cuddly and sweet. Same with me, he's a total sweetie to us, unless he's growling at the cats...he turns on us a bit too.

Day 9: Today. Feliway is still plugged in and he was nice last night to David. Although...David came out a few hours ago and said "I don't think this is going to work out." He said that he took Basie into the bedroom (READ: VERY SUBMISSIVE cat) and put him on his lap while David was on the bed. Oliver was in the window cat bed. He said Oliver sat and hissed and growled at Basie. David talked soothingly to Oliver and pet Basie...trying to show how nice Basie is. Oliver began to swipe at him!

During this time, I've:
*Talked to the cats while sitting with Oliver through the screen door.
*Sat outside the screen with the two or three cats that care he's in there and talked, cuddled and pet them. To show Oliver.
*I've left Oliver alone when he starts his hissing...trying to teach him not to.
*We close his closet and bedroom door and place the screen against the door, so the cats aren't always annoying him under the door. So he feels safe.

Olivia was very much like Oliver when we got her...but it took her three days to realize that she'd have to tolerate or ignore the other cats. Yes, she would hiss (and still hisses at Noah), but that was the end of it. No lunging, no swatting. When Olivia and Noah get into it, I cover Olivia's head with my hand (gently) and tell her to stop and then pet Noah. I tried this with Oliver and he growls and hisses at me.

The thing is, our cats are doing OK with this. We've given them a ton of extra love and playtime. Its Oliver that I'm worried about. I hate that he's so on gaurd all the time, and that's WITH the pharmones.

HELP??? The lady at the vet said that she was in love with him and that if things didn't work out, she would totally take him in a ssecond. That's really nice, at least I know if it came to that, he'd have a great home. But still....I love him....

What makes me mad is the shelter said he got along with other cats....

Help???