I recently picked up my kitties from my ex-wife and brought them to WV with me. They're staying at my girlfriend's place. We've been separated for about two years now, really, but they still remembered me when I picked them up. Of course, it was a bit traumatic when the goodbyes were said by my ex-wife and the kitties. But they didn't have too much of a problem during the car ride, so I took that as a good sign.
When we got to WV, I fixed them up with the spare bedroom at Rhonda's place. They get a bedroom and a full bathroom to themselves for now. At first, Bear hid under the bed and Snickers wouldn't come out of his cat-carrier. Then, I got Snickers to come out, but he just hid under the bed w/ Bear.
A day later, they were both still skittish, but they would come out and let me pet them (w/o scratching me, thank goodness). From there on out, it's been smooth sailing.
Rhonda has two other cats and a little dog. The first introduction to the dog didn't go so well. Bear just hid, and Snickers hissed at the dog and scared her. The dog generally ignored the cats in favor of playing w/ the cat toys I had scattered around the room. So we eventually gave up on getting anywhere with that introduction.
I've introducted Bear and Snickers to both of the other cats now. So far, there's been a moderate amount of hissing, but no fighting or anything else untoward. I'll open the door to the back room and let Bear and Snickers out to meet-n-greet, and Samson and Smokey (Rhonda's cats) just kinda sit under the table and watch. Bear is much more interested in exploring than Snickers is. She'll normally trot right out and make a circuit around the living room while Samson watches her. Snickers, on the other hand, tends to just stand in the doorway and look around.
Today, Snickers came out and sniffed around the computer desks. While he did that, Samson snuck into the back room (where Bear and Snickers are staying) and went into the bathroom. When Snickers started back into the room, I thought "this might be the first big confrontation". But, when Samson saw Snickers, he just growled and hissed a little bit, and then ran past Snickers to get back out into the living room. No fighting, clawing, or batting each other around. I think that's a good sign.
Looks like we'll just work on getting the cats all introduced, and then finish working on getting Snickers and Bear to meet the dog. Really, things are going a lot smoother than I had dared to hope.
