It worked out fairly well for us. Lengthy story follows, so you can consider the details:
We had two cats, Bunny (dominant cat, fairly sedate) and Nixie (extremely timid, somewhat slow of mind, probably both due to a really childhood accident before she joined the household). They got along fairly well, didn't interact a ton.
We brought Maggie in as a kitten right before we moved to our current house. Bunny didn't care at all. Nixie /hated/ the idea for a couple of weeks -- she yowled, complained, and hissed. We kept Maggie isolated in one bedroom for two weeks or so, and didn't really let them mingle until we moved, if I recall correctly.
Nixie did get over it within a month. She's definitely the bottom of the totem pole; Maggie is far more outgoing than Bunny, and Nixie doesn't always like attention, so Nixie winds up trying to bat off Maggie's grooming from time to time. But not always, and they're happy being in the same room. It's more than Nixie shies away from any contact than that Maggie picks on her.
Maggie is at least half Maine Coon, and has the sociability you'd expect of that breed, which I think helped.
Bunny is very self-assured and confident and doesn't interact with Maggie a lot, which probably also helps. We've captured Maggie grooming a sleeping Bunny on film.
I suspect it's also helpful that there are three of us. Maggie imprinted very firmly on me starting with the ride home -- I kept my hand in the cat carrier for the whole drive, and spent a lot of time with her in the first weeks. Susan is Bunny's human, and Wyatt is Nixie's human. It might have been more difficult to assimilate the kitten if there were only two of us, not sure.
The size of the house doesn't seem to be an issue. Our place isn't huge, although it's bigger than an apartment, but the cats congregate in the same room as often as not.
We are very glad we got a third cat, all in all, and the cats all seem happy about it as well.
The rest of the household may have further comments or corrections to this. :) I'll point 'em at this entry.
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Date: 2008-08-25 04:23 pm (UTC)We had two cats, Bunny (dominant cat, fairly sedate) and Nixie (extremely timid, somewhat slow of mind, probably both due to a really childhood accident before she joined the household). They got along fairly well, didn't interact a ton.
We brought Maggie in as a kitten right before we moved to our current house. Bunny didn't care at all. Nixie /hated/ the idea for a couple of weeks -- she yowled, complained, and hissed. We kept Maggie isolated in one bedroom for two weeks or so, and didn't really let them mingle until we moved, if I recall correctly.
Nixie did get over it within a month. She's definitely the bottom of the totem pole; Maggie is far more outgoing than Bunny, and Nixie doesn't always like attention, so Nixie winds up trying to bat off Maggie's grooming from time to time. But not always, and they're happy being in the same room. It's more than Nixie shies away from any contact than that Maggie picks on her.
Maggie is at least half Maine Coon, and has the sociability you'd expect of that breed, which I think helped.
Bunny is very self-assured and confident and doesn't interact with Maggie a lot, which probably also helps. We've captured Maggie grooming a sleeping Bunny on film.
I suspect it's also helpful that there are three of us. Maggie imprinted very firmly on me starting with the ride home -- I kept my hand in the cat carrier for the whole drive, and spent a lot of time with her in the first weeks. Susan is Bunny's human, and Wyatt is Nixie's human. It might have been more difficult to assimilate the kitten if there were only two of us, not sure.
The size of the house doesn't seem to be an issue. Our place isn't huge, although it's bigger than an apartment, but the cats congregate in the same room as often as not.
We are very glad we got a third cat, all in all, and the cats all seem happy about it as well.
The rest of the household may have further comments or corrections to this. :) I'll point 'em at this entry.