The Way of Cats

Many times I’ve run across situations where my best advice is my favorite advice: the solution to your cat problem is… more cats!

In each case the family had gotten a kitten who was harassing the older cat. In each case the older cat was a quiet, shy, withdrawn type. In each case the people wanted to know, “How can I get the two cats to like each other?”

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Unfortunately, that’s not always possible. To do that, we would have to change the cats in question. Which is not going to happen.

Part of it is that people often choose a kitten who is lively and friendly. Of course we choose such kittens, they are so appealing! However, this is exactly the kind of kitten who needs cat companionship; exactly what this kind of older cat cannot give. The stage is set for constant stress, which makes the situation worse.

Choosing a Gamma kitten will help head off this kind of problem, but that has already not happened. Now that the kitten is here, and has stolen our heart, what can we do?

We get the kitten, a kitten.

Let’s not compound our error by getting the wrong kind of kitten. In these cases, we should match our kitten’s personality type by getting them the right kitten. Get a Beta another Beta, an Alpha another Alpha. If we haven’t already, we should look for the opposite sex of the older cat, which is less likely to trigger territorial issues. This will ensure that the kittens will get along, and continue to get along. This is how we take the pressure off the older cat.

Two personality-matched kittens will form a social unit which meets each other’s needs. The pressure to try and get this from the older cat will diminish. We can help it along by making the older cat off limits, just as we do with other objects and areas. We let the older cat keep their special places, and the kittens will be warned away from those places, so the older cat always has a place to retreat to and be left alone.

This also lets us put the kittens in a room to play together while we enjoy quiet times with the older cat. This will let us feel better about locking them away for a while, because they won’t be lonely. They will have each other, and can get their play activities to wind them down for bedtime.

One kitten cannot leave the older cat alone.

Whether it’s play, or friendship, or just a communication moment, whatever is driving the kitten to keep making overtures to the older cat will not stop as long as the older cat is the only other cat. We cannot transform these forces. We must divert them into other channels.

What if the kittens gang up on the older cat? Well, that was happening before, but now we can do something about it. We shoo both kittens away, we lock up both kittens if they don’t listen, only this time there is something else for each kitten to do. They can divert their attention to each other, and that is a much easier task.

Adding new cats to the household can be a tricky challenge. This is the dreaded Second Cat problem. Think outside the box. Jump over the Second Cat problem by getting two new cats, and we’ll be on our way to a functioning cat civilization.

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There’s more about multiple cats in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See more posts on the MULTIPLE CAT ADVANTAGE.