As you may or may not know, I went up north to help out family. I’m back sooner than anticipated and I brought home a cat, her name is Leah. She was my grandmother’s cat. But now that she’s in a care home, Leah needed a place to stay. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. So when I was offered her, it was a no brainer. However that came with its own set of problems.
Currently, all of my animals are rescues. Ava was abandoned outside PetSmart on the first snowfall of that year. Jacob came from Kuwait, after his owners left him at the sea wall. And Leah, along with the rest of the litter, was rescued from the Williams Lake dump. Now, keeping in mind their backgrounds, it became quite the process to introduce all the animals properly. Ava doesn’t really like other cats, Jacob is large and in the way, and Leah is scared out of her mind cause she was taken from her home.
At first Leah lived in our master bedroom with Amanda and me. Spending most of her time under the bed or in a closet. She hissed anytime Jacob or Ava came too close, and sudden loud noises made her run. Ava was better than I thought she’d be, where normally she’d do a deep growl, she followed and watched. However, this got her a claw to the face when she followed Leah under the couch.
I decided we should focus at introducing one animal at a time, and since Jacob sleeps in our bed, that’s where I started. With Leah hiding all the time, I let Jacob in the room at night. I figured he would just be sleeping and she could wander around at night when she felt ready. It took a little over a week, but eventually Leah and Jacob were in bed together, and they even touched noses.
Next was the more difficult Ava. Sight swapping, feeding on either side of the door, nothing was working. Leah was so scared of Ava all she did was hiss. So I put them both in crates and made them face each other. I’d do that for like an hour and then, one at a time, I’d left them out. Didn’t want a repeat of under the couch. This took much longer than it did with Jacob, but now they are fine together. They aren’t best friend by any means. However, both cats and the dog can be loose in the apartment and no one dies. And I think that’s a win.
