Today started out fairly normal. I dragged myself out of bed, got ready for work and met Sue at the park n ride. We got to work and I headed toward my office. Right before I got to my office I ran into our associate director holding two kittens. She informed me that someone had dumped four kittens at our library. One black kitten, one grey, and two white. They had managed to catch three of the kittens. However, the fourth one was extremely wiley and managed to avoid capture. Well, the associate director couldn’t spend all day trying to catch the fourth cat so she decided to head to the humane society with the three she had already caught but encouraged us to keep trying to grab the 2nd white kitty.
It took us a while but eventually our ILL lady managed to catch the white one. She boxed it up and intended to put it in our associate director’s office. About the time we finally managed to catch the white cat, our associate director returned from the humane society and informed us that they really didn’t want to accept anymore cats (due to a distemper outbreak). However, they would make a special exception for us since we’re a library and the cats were strays. I’ve heard from a couple people that the humane society in that area isn’t very good because they are chronically overcrowded. So, a bad idea formed in my head.
I’ve had a couple of people suggest that Five might be happier if she had some companionship while Jaeger and I are at work. However, I’ve been hestitant to get a 2nd cat for a couple of reasons:
1) Jaeger’s allergic. What would the result of 2nd kitty be on his health?
2) What if Cat5 doesn’t want a cat companion?
3) Do we really want 2 cats?
4) Do we want to pay the humane society for another cat?
It occurred to me that this kitten could be used as a test case. I could take her (I don’t know the gender yet, “she” is being used in a generic sense) home for a couple of days, see how she does and if it doesn’t work out I could take her the humane society where she would end up anyway.
I emailed Jaeger (who is currently in Boston) to see what he thought. He seemed dubious about the idea but willing to give it a shot (at least while he’s gone 
).
I brought her home and put her in the main level bathroom where she will remain in quarantine until tomorrow after I have the vet check her out. After that, we’ll see how well Five adjusts to having a second cat. Right now, I’m dubious. Five did not appear happy to discover there was another cat in the bathroom. She hissed at it a couple of times until I coaxed her away.
It’ll will be fascinating to see how this experience turns out.
For pictures see Jaeger’s site:http:–jaeger.festing.org-changelog-920.html< -a>
Anya and I have learned several things regarding cats and your situation.
First of all, introducing a kitten into a house where there is a much older more established cat is hard, period. Cats get along much better when they grow up together.
One thing you can do to alleviate some of the tension is to give the kitten less attention. I know you want to give it more because it is so cute, but think of it from Five’s perspective. She already feels like she doesn’t get enough attention, and now here is this cute little thing that will soak up some of her already depleted personal attention.
Five is also worried that you will like the new kitty more than her. This challenges her place in the all-important (to cats) pecking order. If she feels threatened she will take it out on the kitten to make sure the kitten understands she is still the boss. If you then discipline Five for beating up on the kitten it will initiate a self-perpetuating downward spiral of behavior.
In many ways cats are like little human children. We have been amazed at how our cats, when they feel they have been neglected too much, sometimes resort to doing something intentionally bad just to get attention, the same way a child might.
If you make sure to give Five more attention than the new kitten, Five will feel secure and less likely to make life hard on the new kitten, and also more likely to truly accept the new kitten as a playmate.
Sorry if you already knew all this, I just thought I’d share just in case. I hope something helps.:-)
How are things now that you’ve had the kitten longer?
Things are going pretty decently with Willow. She is definately a cat (as opposed to Five whom we have doubts about). Willow very obviously wants to be friends with Five but Five doesn’t share this feeling. Willow will sneak up and try to get as close to Five as she can and eventually Five will notice her and start hissing. However, they haven’t physically fought yet. I have a theory that Five is afraid of Willow.