Hi All,
I'm new here but did post on cat chat and couldn't believe it when i saw it wasn't running anymore!
Is everyone here from cat chat? I've see a couple of names I recognise!
The following posting is quite long but please read it if you can.
We've had a traumatic time 2 weeks ago, I'm still very upset about it and need a bit of support :-)
We have 2 darling female cats aged 8 & 9 that we rescued 13 months ago, no relation to eachother but we brought them back home at the same time, we drove 320 miles round trip to get them from a CP rescue. They are both indoor cats. After having made friends with a Lady who throughout her years has taken on lots of cats she found herself with 3 beatiful toms back with her. I met up with this Lady and we decided to take them, they were so wonderful. We brought them back home and within the first hour they settled in, they are also house cats. They were so loving and showed no malice or agression to our 2 whatsoever as they had been used to over 20 cats. However after 5 days we had to take the cats back. We took them 'om approval' to see how our 2 would get on with them. I'm devastated and beside myself with guilt. It was nothing whatsoever to do with the wonderful boys, they were such gents and never raised a murmer to our girls they were stars, but one of our cats was petrified and didn't stop growling and spitting and even kept weed on our bed a few times with fear. We tried most things during the days but to no avail. Our other cat who we thought would be the problem as she's very timid actually came out on the first day and although spat at them she did get used to them a bit but the other wouldn't come out of our bedroom or off the bed to poo or anything. We were very concerned with the stress it was causing her as she was diagnosed agrophobic when we got her last year as she had lived in a single bedroom for 4 years as she didn't get along with the family dog. I feel so guilty when they settled in on their first day straight away I couldn't have asked for more wonderful cats. I've been sick physically with it all and feel dreadful with what we've had to do by taking them back. I've been in tears all the time, I just can't stop crying, cats are my life. I have so much love to give to them all but it seems we just can't have anymore with our cat reacting the way she did, and after all she does come first. We are going to pay for the feeding of these other cats with the Lady we got them from. Reading up on things and cat behaviour is it possible we could have gone about things the wrong way? I think we possibly 'comforted' our cat a little too much when she was growling and spitting so therefore she thought by doing it she'd get comforted? If we hadn't have fed her in our bedroom she would have never come down to eat anything. I've also read lots of stories from people saying that sometimes cats will never accept newcomers, no matter what you try. On the last day we had them our cat wanted the litter tray and was so frightened ctarted a fight with one of the boys resulting in our cat running to take cover in the bathroom with a bloody nose, it was so upsetting. I can't bear to look at all the photos I've taken of those gorgeous boys, they fitted in so well. Any advice/support much appreciated.
Tabx
