A Cloudy Goodbye and a Rusty Hello....
Pet ownership is generally a very positive experience – which is why we have them! However, there are times when this isn’t the case particularly when a pet is unwell or in event of bereavement. Sadly we found ourselves in this situation earlier this year when one of our rescue cats, Cloudy, aged only two, unexpectedly passed away with no apparent cause. Cloudy belonged to our younger son, Owen, who was understandably devastated by this unforeseen event. Occurrences of this kind are rare, but they do happen and are generally impossible to predict.
When a pet does pass away, many owners find themselves in a quandary as to if/when it is acceptable to get another. My advice is to do what is right for you and your family – a new pet is not a replacement but is a new addition to the household and there is no right or wrong in terms of the interval between two pets. In our case, Owen started making noises about getting another cat within a couple of months and the specific request was a “big fluffy ginger one”.
So, we kept our ears to the ground and when a friend made us aware of a 16 week old Maine Coon who needed a home and had a kink in his tail, it was hard to say no.
“Rusty” arrived about four weeks ago and bought with him the challenges of having to integrate a new cat into a household with three dogs and two other cats – and many challenges there are! However, there are two primary considerations.
The first one is how to introduce a new addition to existing family members. Initially we separated Rusty in his own room away from the other pets. A safe space with somewhere to “hide” is good for cats while they accustom themselves to their surroundings. The next part will really depend on the attitude of your new and existing pets in terms of how confident they are. We were quite lucky as our two existing cats seem to have accepted Rusty without too much of a fuss. He has certainly been put in his place a couple of times, but only to show where he stands in the pecking order. Introducing dogs and cats is a different dynamic. The advice here is to control the first meeting as best you can. Make sure the cat has an escape route if needs be and consider the temperament of your dog. Most will actually be respectful of a cat – especially once they have had a swipe on the nose! However, there are some dogs with a high prey drive who could be a danger to a cat, so make sure to have control of the dog in this situation. In our case, the dogs already had respect for the cats, so they didn’t see any need to push the boundaries any further!
The second consideration is feeding. Adult cats want to eat kitten food, kittens want to eat adult cat food. Dogs want to eat everything, including helping themselves to the contents of a litter tray – they can be thoroughly disgusting at times! To solve this problem we have employed microchip cat feeders – which means cats can only eat the correct food and dogs can’t eat cat food. Unfortunately it hasn’t resolved the fact that the cat litter tray can serve as a doggy delicatessen – that has to be settled by simply shutting the correct door!
The final advice when taking on any new pet is to use pheromone diffusers in the space that they will generally be occupying for the first few weeks. Plug these in a couple of days prior to the arrival and they should help to smooth the way by reducing anxiety and stress in both your new pet and any existing pets. We stock these products at all of our surgeries and if you need any advice on introducing a new pet our staff are on hand and very happy to assist – just contact us by phone, email or via the app.
Time for me to check the litter tray, but judging by the breath of one of our labradors, I think the door has been left open and they have beaten me to it!
