Feline Integration

We have three cats.

Bear, Beeper and Shadow.

Shadow is the newest and we found her just after she'd been kicked out of the nest.

She is terrified of Beeper, who will pounce on her when she runs.

We'd let it sort itself out, but Shadow panic pees when Beeper catches her.

For the past two months we've been doing "prisoner exchanges" and letting Shadow out of my room and locking Beeper in.

For about a week we've been leaving all the doors open and holding Shadow while we watch a movie or Hockey on the back porch in the evenings.

Beeper is becoming less interested in Shadow and Shadow is getting less terrified.

We're making steady, if slow, progress.

At first, when Beeper would "attack" (we think she's just asserting too hard) Shadow would disappear for hours and would have to be coaxed out of hiding.

Now she's good mere moments after we separate them.

Progress!

What's interesting about Shadow is Beeper is the only thing she's afraid of.  She uses Bear like a jungle gym, he's grudgingly tolerant of this.

Bear is also a, belated, protector.  After Beeper goes after Shadow and she screams bloody murder; Bear will go after Beeper.

Bear is a BIG cat.  17 pounds of not much fat.  He's 15 when he's totally slim.  Beeper just barely breaks 10 pounds.

When Bear is done, he's DONE.  He'd knock his brother, the dear departed Dingus, to submission and Dingus was 20 pounds without fat.  Dingus was HUGE.

I've been through cat introductions before and this has been the hardest one I've dealt with, but we're getting there.