Fuzzy317 - you forgot about Morgan...

Some cats will never get along. NEVER. When we adopted Jackson, his previous owner also had his sister, Morgan. She was having a difficult time adopting out Morgan because the PetsMart adoption days were far too stressful for her. After a couple of weeks, she talked us into taking Morgan. Since they were brother and sister and had been together (in an "outdoor cat only" home) all their lives, the transition should have been smooth (even though I'm an "indoors only - outside on a leash when trained" home).

That's when everything that could go wrong did. Those two hated each other and the two weeks before she slipped out the door and ran off were the worst hell I've ever been through trying to bring a new cat (she wasn't even a "new" cat!) into my home.

They did everything they could to antagonize each other. She didn't care for catnip, but he did, so if we put some out for him, she flop her fat butt on it so he couldn't roll in it. She was rather fat and couldn't squeeze behind the water heater, but he could and he'd hide there, while she's sit in front of the heater and howl. Jackson, Fuzzy and I were "sleep at night" people, but Morgan would start yowling around 2AM and wouldn't stop. Nothing made her stop, so Fuzz and I'd throw pillows over our heads until we fell asleep. Jackson also figured out how to get into the cabinets, but since Morgan was so fat, she couldn't. Jackson found every hiding place he could to get away from her. The only time he would spend with us was when we three would go into the bedroom and close the door. And even then, he wouldn't get anywhere near the door and she'd stay right outside of it yowling the whole time.

Yes, these were brother and sister who had been together all of their lives and were around 7-8 years old. I'm guessing the "being together" part was only because they were outside cats who were fed off the same porch.

Morgan eventually ran out of the door one evening while we were bringing in groceries. We did try to find her for two or 3 months, but after she left, Jackson and our home returned to normal. In all my years of doing rescue work and having multi cat households (I've never had a NON multi cat household - at least 3, sometimes a dozen), I've never had a case as extreme as this. This integration was one of only two failures I've ever had. (The other involved an FIP infected cat that infected a dozen cats/kittens - and even then, that cat had a physical reason for being a jerk.)