That all sounds very positive.  I'm sure the hissing will lessen as
time goes on, and they will become good friends.

Kate

Owned by Fudge, Caramel & Meg
Pictures: http://www.geocities.com/kate_dunn/miaow.html

Silver

snipped

Karen, part of the reason for the gradual process is not only to ease
introductions for Scouty and Silver, but for Tessie also. You don't
want her to feel terrorized.
I'm writing this because I was taking in cats long before I had the
benefit of advice of others who were experienced at integrating, and I
made every mistake in the book.
One cat in particular really illustrates this. I thought because the
new cat had pretty well learned to stay out of the path of the existing
cats, (because he learned they'd beat him up if he got too
close)...things were fairly peaceful. Until the new cat started pooping
under the dining room table. With the tablecloth hanging down, it was a
secure place for him. He had stopped using the litterbox because, a cat
feels the most vulnerable when squatting in the box, and he was too
afraid of being attacked.  So, it is very important, if you plan on
keeping Tessie as a part of your family, that Scouty and Silver have a
chance to get completely accustomed to her and accept her, not just
that they intimidate her by confrontation, or teach her to run from
them.
Good luck. I really hope this works out.

Sherry

<snip>

That sounds great!
Continued integration purrs and best wishes,
Polonca and Soncek

<snip>
Karen,

This is the quickest way to ruin this introduction and result in you having
to find a new home for Tessie. If you want to be successful, you must never
allow aggression to form among the cats - you must never allow your resident
cats to chase Tessie down and attack her. I don't understand why you are
ignoring the advice that many of us have given over and over. It is vital
that an introduction be made with great care and that your cats NEVER be
permitted to have aggressive interaction. A few people will say to just let
cats get together, but that is a recipe for disaster in cases like yours.
You have already seen the results of trying to bring the cats together too
quickly, and you have actually cost yourself extra time and work by not
taking this slowly, step-by-step. You need to be very careful when entering
and exiting Tessie's room to ensure that the cats do not slip past the door
and get together too quickly.

I posted a link earlier describing my experiences when I went through the
introduction process with Holly and Duffy. I am going to include the entire
description here, in case you did not see it at that time. I do want to
emphasize that it is not too late for you to succeed with Tessie, Silver,
and Scouty. I really think you are going too fast; you *must* proceed slowly
and not try to set an artificial timetable for this process. After all, what's
the rush? You have the rest of Tessie's life, and several weeks (or more) is
not too much to invest. Your situation actually reminds me of Holly. As you
will see in this message, Holly was so aggressive that we called her "the
black tornado." I was afraid that she never would accept any other cat in
our home. However, Holly and Duffy are now good friends. It took a full six
weeks to complete the introduction, and it was definitely time well-spent.

Here is the original message:

Holly had been my "only child" for seven years and was used to being spoiled
and pampered. She also had shown a real dislike for other cats - so much so
that we called her the "black tornado" because she would immediately attack
any cat on sight. She became especially aggressive if another cat was
anywhere close to me. I did not plan on adopting another cat, so Holly only
came into contact with others when we visited my sister in another state.
Then I saw Duffy's picture on Petfinder. He is blind and his picture just
tore at my heart. He had been at the shelter for several months, and I knew
that he probably would not survive once kitten season arrives and the
shelter becomes overcrowded. So, I decided to adopt Duffy and do whatever I
could to bring the two cats together. My two cats now get along together
fine, but they were brought together very slowly and cautiously. The
difference is that Duffy was considerably older than your kitten (estimated
to be 3-5 years old at the time of adoption), but there appear to also be a
number of similarities in our situations.

The first thing to be aware of is that it is important to take things very
slow and proceed with caution - do not try to "rush" anything. In my case,
this meant that it took a full 6 weeks from the day I adopted Duffy until
both cats had the full use of the house and were "together" throughout the
day. I set up a bedroom just for Duffy, partly to give him time to learn his
way around and partly to give Holly time to adjust. I arranged for the
adoption on a Tuesday and picked up Duffy two or three days later. In the
meantime, I set up three plug-in Feliway diffusers (one in the room that
would be "Duffy's room" for awhile, one in the hallway outside Duffy's room
where Holly would walk by the door to Duffy's room, and one in the living
area where Holly spends a large part of the day). If you don't have a
Feliway diffuser, it would be money well spent to get a couple of them.
Feliway is used for behavior modification and can be very useful in reducing
stress. Incidentally, I bought my Feliway from ValleyVet
(www.valleyvet.com). They have free shipping, which saves significantly on
the cost. I have also seen some good reports from people who order from
www.petguys.com. Do not get the one that says "with D.A.P." because that
formulation is for dogs.

Duffy learned his way around his new room very quickly. Holly did a bit of
hissing and growling outside his door, but it was pretty mild - none of the
"vicious" sounds she made in the past, and this was really pretty normal for
an "only child" who suddenly has a sibling in her home. I spent a great deal
of time with Duffy, and I alternated nights so that one night I would sleep
in my regular bed where Holly could join me and the next night I would sleep
in Duffy's room. I also left a radio in Duffy's room, tuned to a station
with classical or "soft" (soothing) music when he was left alone. I made
sure that Holly got lots and lots of love and attention through all of this.
Every time I left Duffy's room, I gave Holly an excessive amount of love and
attention. I wanted her to know that she was not going to be displaced in my
affections.

After a week, a friend located a damaged unfinished door. He cut a large
square out of the bottom of the door and covered it with metal mesh
(actually, the type of grill that is often mounted on the bottom of screen
doors to protect them from damage - sturdy and smooth, with no rough edges).
He temporarily replaced the bedroom door with the new screened door so that
Holly and Duffy could get up-close without any danger to either of them. He
removed the hardware (hinges and doorknob) from the permanent door and
mounted them on the temporary door, a process that was later reversed when
we replaced the permanent door. This worked well, but an inexpensive screen
door could be used for this same purpose. In fact, Megan has done this a
number of times, and she spends less than $20.00 by buying a very cheap
screen door and using the hardware from the permanent door for this purpose.

Duffy was eager to get together with Holly, but Holly wasn't at all sure
about the situation. She gradually began to show some interest and would
often rest outside the door; but she did not seem to be at all upset - very
different from previous attempts to introduce Holly to other cats. A couple
of days after the door was installed, I began to leave the door open for a
short time each evening, and gradually increased it to 2-3 hours each
evening. During this period, I kept Holly in a separate room - I still had
not brought them together in the same room. Duffy was quite adventuresome
and quickly learned his way around the house. This also distributed his
scent, which gave Holly time to become adjusted to the scent before I tried
to bring them together. Next, I placed tuna on two ends of a long platter
and slipped it under the door so the two cats could eat "together." The idea
was to place a plate with special-treat food under the door (with food on
each side of the door) so the cats would learn to associate something "good"
with being in close proximity when they ate the treats. Be sure to keep this
in mind when you install the screen door because you should cut enough off
the bottom (about 2 inches or a little more) so the platter can be slipped
underneath - and also so the two cat can eventually play "pawsies" together
under the door, as mine did.

Eventually, I began to give Duffy the run of the house along with Holly, but
only under close supervision. I gradually increased the amount of time the
two were together, and soon didn't need to supervise them. However, I did
not leave them alone in the house. I was careful to give Holly lots of extra
love and attention any time I had been playing with Duffy - I didn't want to
cause feelings of sibling rivalry.

After about five weeks into this process, I had a week of vacation. This was
the ideal time to let them really get to know each other. Throughout the
week, I gave them more and more time together - first all day, then both day
and night. By the time we approached the sixth week, both cats had the full
run of the house at all times, and then I began to leave the house for short
periods of time (first only an hour at a time, then would go back to check
on them). By the end of that week, they were together at all times. This
very slow, gradual transition has really paid off. My two furbabies are now
very comfortable together. They are usually both in the same room, they
frequently play together, and there is a real sense of companionship between
the two of them. They always eat together with no problems and sometimes
even share the same bowl. It took several months before they reached this
truly companionable stage, but they got along well enough for me to call it
a "success" after 6 or 8 weeks.

I hope this might give you a few ideas for your cats. Please let me
re-emphasize this point: take it very slow, and don't try to rush things.
Whenever you think it's time to move to the next step, you should probably
stop and wait it out for another week. It took about 6 weeks for us to work
through the entire process. I "thought" I going slow when I tried to
introduce Holly to my sister's cats some time ago (we took about two weeks),
but that was a disaster and led to the "black tornado" references. The
difference this time has been remarkable. Friends who knew how Holly had
reacted in the past really could hardly believe it. They were sure that it
was never going to be possible to place Holly with any other cat.

I have posted a "pictorial history"on a friend's web site showing our
progress, including pictures of the temporary door that helped so much. If
you would like to see it, go to this location: <http://tinyurl.com/6amr>.
There are also some later pictures in a second album that shows the progress
we have made: <http://tinyurl.com/8y56>.

MaryL