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Helping a New Cat Adjust?

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litter box
3K views 17 replies 12 participants last post by  Trickiesmurf 
#1 ·
Hi all,
I am a very experienced dog fancier, but I need some feline advice! I have had cats, and in fact have three right now. Two are females which adjusted to my household with no issues. One was adopted as a six year old. She acted like a friendly dog and jumped right into life at our house with no stress. The other was adopted as a seven week old kitten and the same occured with her. No problems...
The third we adopted yesterday. He's an 18 month old male. He's very well cared for and social, but is clearly terrified here. He's gone into hiding under the sofa. I'm putting food under there b/c he won't come out and I am concerned. I don't want to push him. He hasn't touched the food, though, or gone to the bathroom. He has his own familiar litter box available, and I showed it to him when I first let him loose. We live in a spacious big roomed apartment. There's no small area to let him go and slowly adjust. My others sniffed him and were not interested. He's lived w/another cat before too. All are indoor and always have been, and all are spayed and neutered. He and the older female came to be declawed. The kitten is not (I would not declaw a cat myself, personally). Any tips on helping him come out and get to know us? In his old home he was a lap kitty and very friendly. He's also used to dogs, and mine are farm more docile, calm, and uninterested than the one he lived with, so they're not the problem either.
 
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#4 ·
Dena said:
Thats good to hear. More than anything sometimes its just a matter of time.
Yes. I find some cats are more 'people' oriented and others are more 'house' oriented. Those that fall into the house category tend to take some time before they will come around. As long as your girls don't seem to mind him and your dogs are treating him well, I think he'll come to be his old self in no time. :yes:
 
#7 ·
He's doing great. He's a people kitty for sure. I guess he was just confused/scared. The old grouchy one actually really likes him! The young one is curious and initiating play. The dogs couldn't care less. He's a sweetie. Here's some new pics I took since he's not scared anymore:



 
#9 ·
This happened to me and my grandma both. We both had cats that weren't social. But with a lot of coaxing we got the cats to come around. When I was younger I had a kitten that was shy, and I pretty much made her the social cat. It even got to he point where she didn't want to be called boo anymore (which was her name) she would only come when you called her boo boo
 
#10 ·
He is such a handsome fella! Nice pics. When Meow first adopted us she was the same and hid for at least a week before she ventured out to make up with the rest of the family. After that she's a typical manx and definitely is the "boss" around here now as she believes we are her people pets. She knows how to put everyone including us in our places lol.
 
#11 ·
we had a feral cat and it took a lot of patience and love to get her to come around to not only us but the dogs as well, she ended up being a big fat lazy lap cat in like 7 months lol she lived to be 14 and always wanted to be with someone...I am glad he is coming around and wow is he handsome
 
#12 ·
Most of the cats we had were prison cats. My mom worked at the prison and the inmates would feed them. When they guards found them, they went to my mom and she could never say no.

We had a cat that lived to be 20. He was here when we moved in. He had gone through 2 other owners and the ones before us refused to take him with them because they didn't want him to get stressed...he was old then..lol...He eventually died, just from old age.
 
#18 ·
He is Very cute... I was going to suggest maybe teh bathroom or a walk in closet but it sounds like you live in a studio appartment. Im glad he came around. When i go down to GA and get my own place in about a year I want to get another kitten but dont know how my cat will take to it. Since she has had lots of change in her life (shes a year old) she moved from my place into seattl then i moved to a room in a ladies house then back to my parents place as well as going home every weekend getting reaquanted with numerious animals and differant people shes very well socialised. By the way your cat is very handsome
 
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