One Cat or Two (or more...)

[Mila's Mommy]

What is your opinion on having more than one cat in the home?

I really want a second kitty to keep Mila company. My husband and I work work all day and she spends a lot of time alone.

Mila is a very social. She is with us all the time. When we get home at night she greets us at the door. She is always hanging around nearby and even sleeps with us.

My husband think that Mila become much less socialable if we get another cat.

What advice can you give me?

[Laura]

I got another kitty to keep my Bouja company. She has stayed just as sociable, and has even increased her want to be around me. They play with each other during the day, and are waiting by the door when I get home.
Good luck!

[margaret]

I adopted a second cat in January of this year to be a playmate/snugglemate for my first cat. I'm afraid in my case the two cats (both females) did not get along at first. They would battle and hiss daily. Now things are much better, but the two kitties still aren't the best of friends. I DO recommend that you adopt another cat, though! It's so worth it to have another beautiful cat around, and I love my second cat as much as my first. They are both my babies. My first cat is still just as affectionate and sociable with me. Fortunately that did not change... Of course another good thing about adopting another cat is that you would provide a loving home to another needy kitty out there. So many cats need a home! Perhaps you might think about getting a male cat to be Mila's pal. I've heard that two cats are more likely to get along if they are of different sexes. Good luck to you, and let us know what you decide! And if you do get a second kitty, tell us all about him/her!

[Logan]

Mila's Mommy,
I haven't been very lucky bringing in a second cat. Mimi is 12 years old though, and I probably waited WAY too long to try it. Butter is a big, tough boy, and he is much younger, and he wants to play rough. And she doesn't! They both get a scratch a week at least on their beautiful little noses... She has yet to stop hissing at him, and he has been here for 7 months now! And his nerve is getting better and he likes to hide and pounce. And he always loses his collars, so she doesn't have any bell ringing to warn her of his attack. I feel like I have twin two year old children sometime, always having to keep my eyes wide open!!!!

But notice, I haven't tried to find Butter a new home, so its not that bad!!!

Good luck to you in your decision.

Logan

[Pam]

Yes, by all means get a second cat! You don't mention how old Mila is and I think that may make a difference as to how well they might get along though. If Mila is older and has been an only cat for quite some time the adjustment may be a little harder.

I got Trevor, my first cat, 8 years ago. At the time I had two dogs and I figured that my fur family was complete. Wrong! When Trevor was 3 years old I met Andy and that all changed! Andy was about 8 weeks old and weighed a little over a pound. Their first meeting scared me to death. Andy was so tiny and Trevor hissed at him. Up until this time I had never heard him hiss. We took it slow and easy introducing them, and in almost no time at all they were sleeping in a little "cat pile" and grooming each other.

I would think that Mila would be happy to have another kitty around to play with while you are away during the day. Let us know what happens!

By the way, tell your hubby that Mila will still be her lovable old self. My husband was afraid that Trevor and Andy would become such great friends that they would prefer each other's company to ours. That turned out to not be the case at all. Now we have TWO cats in our lap at one time!

[ July 09, 2001: Message edited by: Pam ]

[TheAntiPam]

I vote for two cats in your house as well. My first cat was not having problems with being home alone, but I did notice that he enjoyed having a companion.

In fact, we are on our third "second cat" (two others are at the Rainbow Bridge). By chance all of the second cats were kittens. But I would not hesitate to try with an adult cat.

Besides, you'll get double the laughs and love if you have two! Best wishes!

[Gio]

I am all in favour of having more than one cat. My Titti was 4 when we found an abandoned kitten, noone wanted him because he was black so we kept him. They lived together for 14 years and when she died he became quite depressed. Only a few months later we found a 4 month old kitten Maya and took her home. He hissed once (she did most of the hissing) but the following day I surprised them sleeping next to each other. She was a bit of a pest but that gave him a new lease of life.

Some time later my sister and her 2 male adult cats came to live with us for a while. One of them and my male cat disliked each other at first sight but after a couple of days decided to mostly ignore each other (there were a couple of fights but nothing serious, once I had the two of them and another on my lap simultaneously). Prema (a very young kitten who lost a leg in an accident) joined the group a year later, so for a while I had 5 of them in the house and to be really honest I had a lot more fun (especially at dinner time)than problems. They all had their preferences but if one of them wanted to play could always find someone willing to to do so (leaving my poor old one in peace if he wanted to sleep).

My sister was with us for well over a year and has since then moved and also adopted a young female. She also had no major problems with the introduction.

I always tried to have a couple of days at home when I introduced a new cat into the household so I could spend some time with them. I personally found that giving lots of attention and praise to the "first cats"(it's so easy to concentrate to much on the new addition especially if it's a young kitten) helped. Perhaps it's my imagination but this way they don't feel left out or that I care less about them.

I never regretted taking any of them in, especially because they were all badly in need of someone to love them, now I will never have less than 3. I hope this helps.

[ July 10, 2001: Message edited by: Gio ]