When we tried adopting Henry, he was an aggressive stray tom whose
hormones were still kicking after being recently neutered. The
introduction went well for a few weeks, but after going too quickly
with the intro, and a major knock-down dragout with Louis (where Henry
was the aggressor) the introduction got away from us. Luckily Megan
stepped in and saved the day.

Now we have another situation where my son's girlfriend is moving in
with us from LA, and bringing her cat along. Chloe is a six-year old,
spayed and front-declawed female. She has an incredibly sweet
disposition, and is a definite lap-cat. We've consulted with Megan and
the newsgroup archives and are in week one of the intro.

When we brought her in the house, Louis was out being walked in the
back yard, so he hasn't seen her yet. She went directly up to her
room, and has been settling in for the last few days. We spray Feliway
on the bottom of the door once a day, and have all the diffusers
going.

At first when Louis howled (the characteristic Siamese or Bengal
caterwaul) Chloe would growl and get defensive. Now her ears just perk
up and she's otherwise unperturbed.

Louis and Tiger both notice that something's different, but neither
camps outside her door or seems otherwise upset.

Chloe likes her little room, and is acclimating herself. We've started
"trading fur", where one of us will pet one of the cats and then pet
the stranger cat. This has earned some curious sniffs, but no growls.

This weekend we're installing a screen door on Chloe's room, and
starting the process of giving the kitties treats on either side of
it.

It's a godsend to have Megan helping out - we went too quickly with
Henry, and didn't have the skills or time to make it work. This time,
we're doing everything by the book - which is really hard, actually.
You look at each cat and say "they seem pretty happy, surely they'd
get along if we just tossed em all in a room together".  The episode
with Henry was painful, but at least it taught me the lesson that you
have to go slow.

The plus side to all of this is that if necessary, my brother seems
willing to step in to adopt Chloe if things get out of control here.
The upshot is that when my son's girlfriend moves out to start
college, she'll be taking Chloe with her. So it's only a temporary
arrangement.

Wish me luck - I'll keep you folks updated.

BLink