I think I may be adding this young lady to the household:
That is Ariel, who was is living with my sister in Connecticut until she can find her a forever home. My mom is up visiting, and informed me that Ariel is just the sweetest, neediest cat ever, and what can I say, she had me at needy. So I am very seriously considering heading up to my sister’s in March and bringing this young lady home and adding her to the tribe.
FYI- her original name was Oreo, but my mother thinks she is way to feminine and sophisticated to be an Oreo, so she changed her name to Ariel.
Maybe she’ll teach Tunch how to use the cat tower. Yeah, right.
Yutsano
KITTEH!!
Comrade Mary
HOLY SHIT YAY!
I was just thinking Tunch needed a kitten of his own.
Yutsano
You’re getting a girlfriend for His Tunchness??
(And FYWP)
Mnemosyne
Tuxedo cats are, of course, the bestest in the whole world, so I obviously think this is a good idea.
You may want to use one of Werebear’s techniques and have your sister rub a couple of Kleenex around her jowls (the cat’s, not your sister’s) and mail them to you. Have Tunch sniff them and see what his reaction is. If it’s not hostile, you’re in.
ETA: Also, too, in my experience a boy/girl cat pair gets along splendidly as long as the boy is willing to become her minion. Otherwise, not so much.
WereBear
Bless you, John Cole. Ariel is a beautiful name.
Now, your Mom is always right about the heart, amirite?
khead
Do it.
You know you want to. You and the tribe will be better for it.
Violet
Oh….I wonder how Tunch will feel about a new Princess in the house.
gussie
Disaster looms.
j
In my experience with “forced likey” with cats, as long as they both know where the food is, the younger cat adds years to the older cats life. And they become each others’ personal trainers.
(I touched your nose…No, I touched YOUR nose… RUN!!!)
They will be sweatin’ to the goodies in no time.
bemused
We got a puppy when our overweight dog who was several years older and the older dog dropped to her normal weight in just 3 months from all the doggie play time…just saying.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
The things you do to amuse us, Cole… Honestly, your dedication to the cause is magnificent.
@Mnemosyne:
Time to invest in popcorn shares then?
EL
How old is the kitteh? She looks like a darling, and you NEED her. And we need the stories that will come from throwing a new cat in the mix.
Violet
I can’t edit my above comment–FYWP–but just embiggened the picture. She is gorgeous. Definitely need to add her to the crew.
RobertDSC-iPhone 4
Just don’t lock her in the safe, please.
Anne Laurie
Ariel should count her blessings. Our ‘foster’ rescue Papillon-cross bitch was called Oreo, until it became clear she wasn’t going anywhere, at which point the Spousal Unit dubbed her “Gloria”. To be honest, ‘dainty & feminine’ does not describe our Gloria, who lifts her leg to pee, and would totally be the Alpha Bitch if I didn’t have prior claim…
Keith
Don’t panic when Tunch hisses at her. It will pass in a week.
Leszek Pawlowicz
Just a thought: Borrow a neighbor’s calm, well-behaved cat, and see what Tunch’s reaction is. Might spare you some headaches further down the road, if you find out he’s not crazy about company.
RoonieRoo
I would be mentally prepared for two things.
1) This might disrupt the cat harmony of your household pretty thoroughly or might not. But just be mentally prepared that this might not work.
2) If they do fight, I would give it at least a month or so to let them work it out before throwing in the towel.
In all honesty, my experience is that in a two cat household, you will have better luck with a boy/girl pairing. Once you get to three, then the mix is not good at all. My boys have always gotten along with the normal can disharmony that comes from multi-cat households but I have rarely had a boy/girl get along. But I usually have at least three cats, so YMMV.
You need to have a very slow meeting. I’m talking days here. She needs to be in her own room so they can sniff under the door and all that rot. It’s hard to do and it’s annoying as all get out to take it slow but speaking from many years of cat experience, you will be happier if you do it that way.
Also know that once you go from 1 cat to multi-cats – you have increased the likelihood of litter box problems in the respect that someone might start peeing elsewhere. It’s just a fact of multi-cat households that with the addition of each can, you have to accept that your odds of someone peeing where they shouldn’t goes up exponentially.
I’m not saying don’t do it. Just be informed. It might all work swimmingly but as long as you know all the angles it will be much easier to deal with any problems that do crop up.
khead
@RobertDSC-iPhone 4:
Full of win.
Todd
I have a tuxedo cat named Oreo. He’s a fat bastard, and has a lot more personality than we ever noticed when the dog was alive. The fatty sings to me all the time, now.
cbear
Hell yeah you should do it.
She’s a cool looking cat, she needs a home, and we’ll have a 20% better chance that the Cole Tribe will suffer another unfortunate, but hilarious, household incident. Those are always good for shits and giggles.
CatHairEverywhere
What a pretty girl! She looks like female version of my Jones, who is also an affectionate, needy boy. We have an assortment of kitties of both genders, and they all get on well. It didn’t work in our household to keep them separated while they got acquainted, so we just kept our eyes peeled for trouble, and it worked out fine.
WereBear
In case it is pertinent:
Does the new cat pass the smell test?
We don’t have to go into these things, clueless.
jeffreyw
The Kitteh Bowl!
soonergrunt (mobile)
Go for it! You know you want to!
sg +5
Just Some Fuckhead
Don’t do it. 4 is too many.
Jennifer
Bringing a new cat into an “old” cat’s territory is not at all like adding a dog to a household where there’s already a dog. In most cases, things settle down within a few weeks, but in some cases, it just doesn’t work. I had to give away a cat that I added to my one-cat household once because the new cat was trying to run the “old” cat away. And I’d had the original cat for 5 years and she was a tiny sweet thing…the new kitty would hunt her down to attack her, once even climbing into the linen closet to get at her. That doesn’t sound like this cat’s temperament though.
Be aware that Tunch might find the need to mark the territory as his own and start spraying walls and furniture. If you can get through a few weeks of hissing, growling, and general assholish behavoir without running into the above, it’s probably a good match.
JPL
You just purchased that expensive looking contraption, so you might as well get a cat who will enjoy it.
anne cole
yay!!!!! You will love her. I wish I had her so she could have grown up with the beast. but since she didnt, she is simply a victim in his eyes. the two cats may hiss and butt heads at first (Crosby and she did that) but most likely it will pass. ty!!! I know you arent doing it for me which you will surely say at some point, but ty anyway!
RSA
One of the lines from Brave New World that’s stuck with me is that “‘Ariel could put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes.”
How long would it take for Tunch?
scav
@RSA: Tunch would keep sitting and eyeing and the world would girdle itself, thank you very much.
Harold
Put some cat treats on the cat tree and Tunch will adapt.
Violet
@RSA: I dare you to put a girdle on Tunch.
gogiggs
Go for it!
I adopted a shelter cat two weeks ago and I couldn’t be happier about it.
I picked Sam because he was one of only two cats that actually came to the front of their cages to be petted when I was choosing and because, as a big golden tabby, he reminded me of the first cat I ever lived with, back when I was a toddler (also named Sam).
I brought him home on the first morning of my vacation, so I’d be able to spend lots of time around him while he was adjusting to his new home. At first he ran into my bedroom and hid under the bed, which I expected. I went to bed shortly after that (I work nights) and when I woke up a few hours later Sam was curled up against my hip. I reached down and gave him a scratch behind the ears, he crawled up into the crook of my arm, put his head on my shoulder, his front paws on my chest and started purring his head off. That’s some good kittying there! He’s turned out to be a fantastic cat. He likes to be held, he loves to lap sit and he really loves to sleep with me. He’s curled up in my lap purring his head off, right now, in fact.
beltane
I’ll add my vote to all those who are saying tuxedo cats are the best. Also, I’ve lived with cats my whole life and I’ve yet to encounter a situation where an old cat hates the newcomer so much that they cannot live in the same home together. The closest thing I’ve seen to this is the situation I have now where we recently adopted the sister of of young female tabby, and because they are sisters they have sporadic outbreaks of hatred. Our overweight male cat would be quite content to live in a house full of young females as long as it didn’t interfere with his eating habits.
WereBear
The point to remember is that we are asking these two cats to share territory.
To do that we must ask hem to act from a position of abundance.
If there is plenty, they can share. If there are insecurities, there will be barriers to acceptance.
Do not expect the cats to “work it out.” They need support and understanding.
Anne Laurie
To be perfectly honest, JSF has a point — it’s not Tunch you need to worry about, it’s Rosie. When we introduced Piper, Ninja Cat, to our household, we put up the 4×4 cat condo in the main room with his bed, food, water, litterbox on various levels. And our above-mentioned rescue dog Gloria went absolutely insane, snarling & snapping & clawing at us as well as the bars, for several weeks. She’s okay with cats in general — right now, she & the Ninj are play-chasing each other — but we didn’t leave them unsupervised until we were sure she’d understood that nothing the cat got would be taken out of “her” resources (not her food, not her toys, most important: not attention from ‘her’ people, or even the other two dogs).
Having another foor-foot introduced into the ecology just resurrected a lot of her rescue/abandoment issues, and she’s not even a JRT. So be sure that Ariel has a ‘safe room’ where Rosie can’t reach her; one solution would be to set up a dutch-door-type “gate” to Tunch’s Personal Bedroom (the guest room) that Ariel can climb over but Rosie can’t.
wasabi gasp
Luck is on your side.
rikyrah
Tunch has never taken anything other than a creep me out picture.
this one looks sweet.
WereBear
@gogiggs: That is so wonderful! I am happy for you.
linda
OMG. Tuxies are wonderful, but did you notice the bit of black under her nose? A kitler! See their website: http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com
And grown male/ juvie girls are generally a less disruptive mix than most.
amk
tunch to cole – “What were you thinking, you muttonhead ? I said get another dog, not a cat.”
different-church-lady
DCL’s first rule of pets: never let your pets outnumber you.
beltane
@linda: In my experience it’s the females who get along with each other the worst, aside from un-neutered males who are likely to inflict serious injury on each other.
liberal
@WereBear:
Speaking of cats and territory, it reminds me of this bit from The Onion:
Yeah, I’m sure catlovers here will like that. Not.
gogol's wife
My tuxedo male is an incredible sweetie. I think Tunch would scare the life out of him. But girls are spunkier.
liberal
@beltane:
LOL…is that cats or humans?
Suzanne
DO IT. Tunch will adapt.
And your loyal readers deserve the amusement.
linda
@beltane: Very true. Same sex mixes don’t work easily. But my neutered males–after years–still scrap sometimes, because 1 of them is a stinker
Luci
Good job on thinking of getting this new cat. I’ve always lived in a multi cat household, and sometimes there is some getting used to that has to go on, but eventually… peace returns and all is good. It will add years to all your lives… or maybe it will just seem like it. Good luck with Ariel. :)
Redshirt
I like cats in theory, but can’t be near them anymore due to allergy. When I was young/teenager, I had no problem with cats. WTF? Is there any way to safely have a cat if you have a SEVERE allergy to them? I mean, within 45 minutes I am destroyed – eyes, nose, throat, tongue going numb, it’s incredible.
Co-incidentally, at the same time I developed a severe allergy towards fruit. Plums, peaches, apples, cherries, anything with fruit skin. I can eat the fruit in cooked or dried forms.
What happened? These are allergies that developed after age 30 and were not present prior.
WereBear
@Redshirt: Here’s many ways to try:
Cats and the allergenic human
beltane
@Redshirt: I used to be horribly allergic to dogs, sometimes to the point where my eyes would swell shut just being in the same room as one. When I moved out of the city the dog allergy went away completely. It makes me wonder if it was really a species of dust mite I was allergic to rather than dog dander itself.
jayjaybear
There are cheaper ways to get Tunch a snack, Cole…
notoriousJRT
@Anne Laurie:
This.
I have never owned cats so cannot speak to issues Tunch may have. But I am on my second Jack, and sweet as he is (especially for a Jack), I would be very wary of bringing a cat that could not absolutely hold its own in even for a visit.
Jibeaux
I don’t know how you gotta JRT that won’t mess with cats. For my terrier mix, cats are serious prey. Of course, an elk would also be prey.. More bravado than sense, that one.
YellowJournalism
@linda: Maybe then John should rename her Godwin.
Anne Laurie
@Redshirt:
The human immune system is a strange & wonderous ecosystem, at every age & in every era. But from what I’ve read, This Modern World has us all under such a non-stop bombardment of possible allergen stimulants, now people are developing “new” allergies even in their 70s and 80s.
Barring new technology, you probably can’t live safely with a cat. People who are slightly allergic to pet dander (like me) usually adapt to their personal pet’s IgE signature after a few weeks… I’m okay with our dogs & cats, but whenever I go to a dog event I pay for it the next day, even though I take allergy pills in advance. Just hope you don’t fall in love with someone who’s already a cat owner!
Redshirt
Bummer.
To add another fold in my diagnosis, I used to be incredibly affected by hay fever and other springtime pollens. To the point of literal incapacitation – knocked out by pollen. But then around age 19 it just disappeared and never returned. Now (and for a long time now) I experience no seasonal allergies whatsoever. I mean, nothing.
Garbo
Is there room on the bed for all of you? Tunch on the pillow, Lily in the crook of your arm. Rosie down by your feet. Whither Ariel?
Anne Laurie
@beltane:
According to the last allergist I ran a situation like this past, living in the city had your ‘overresponsive’ immune system on a continued state of high alert, and every novel allergenic stressor — like pet dander — sent your body into Defcon 1 mode. Now that you’re away from whatever-it-was-back-there (urban pollution, car exhaust, dust mites, tower ventilation, other people’s perfume) your immune system is capable of handling pet dander, at least from your personal pets…
JoyfulA
@Garbo: He’s got two arms; he’s just got to crook both of them.
AnnaN
Oh dear, there will be blood. Two litter boxes. Definitely two litter boxes.
Darkrose
She’s a lovely lady, and you should definitely bring her into the family if possible.
Everyone says you have to introduce a new cat slowly, and that may be true, but we’ve never been able to do that and after a couple of days the older guy settles in, except in the case of the older female/younger male, where she wasn’t about to cede an inch of territory. (The fact that it was a house with four cats, one dog, five women and one bathroom didn’t really help.)
With our himkitties, after some growling, the older one decided that it’s his job to take care of the kitten. Be prepared to have Tunch start bringing treats for the new girl and the big furless one who’s clearly too dumb to hunt for himself. (After we got Ogdred, Joxur became terribly concerned about the stuffed mouse deficiency in our diet.)
Nikolita
Doooo iiiittttt
I have two cats and the older one is a tuxedo. She’ll be 11 this fall.
Raenelle
She looks like a Buffy to me.
debit
I don’t know how Tunch rules the roost, but Oliver, my Turkish Van mix is extremely dominant. He’s younger than the other cats but has made it clear: this is his house and we are all lucky to live here. Also, too, everything is fine as long as you respect his authority. Our other cats are easy going, and Chloe is extremely submissive, so it’s worked out fine. But I worry that any new cat might find herself bullied upon invading Tunch’s heretofore unchallenged territory.
FLRealist
As the adopted mother of 13 feline children, 3 of whom are tuxedos, I can’t recommend them enough.
As far as introducing them – we’ve never had trouble bringing in any aged cat to our tribe. We normally put the new cat in one room with a door for a day or so, then gradually let them out into the main house.
Regarding litter boxes – the formula is 1 box for every cat in the house, plus 1 extra. So, 3 total.
Debbie(aussie)
She looks like a keeper. Look forward to pics & stories.
I thought I read in times past that Tunch is actually female?
AxelFoley
Tunch gonna tap dat ass.
SiubhanDuinne
Ariel is a beauty! I love WereBear’s smell test suggestions, and you have plenty of time to check out Tunch’s reaction.
If memory serves, weren’t you actually looking for a cat companion for Tunch when you went to the shelter that time and fell hard for the mangy, scared, sad, bedraggled thing that was Lily? Weren’t you supposed to be bringing home a kitteh that time? Ariel is that kitteh!
WereBear
The “box for every cat, plus one” rule is a good one; however I regularly break it with the “2 cats to one Litter Robot” rule.
We have 4 cats, 2 ‘Bots, and it works fine. It is now the 21st Century :)
WereBear
Acquisition delayed is acquisition NOT denied!
ranchandsyrup
Unforced error by our good pal Tbogg on the twitter machines
@Tbogg 32 years ago my wife and I had our fist date. Yeah, I put out #totalwhore
https://mobile.twitter.com/tbogg
Maybe more of an own goal
different-church-lady
Maybe Tunch will teach her how to shun the cat tower. Difficult to say…
Maude
I’d get her for that tail alone. At most it’s about 6 weeks of hiss and yowl.
She’s Lily 2.
Rosie Outlook
I suggest you make sure this cat can defend herself against a terrier before you go off to work and leave them alone. And remember that if Rosie decides to attack, Lily may very well join in. And be prepared for the possibility that Tunch will start spraying.
punkdavid
Tunch is gonna eat her.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@WereBear:
We need to see footage of Tunch using a Litter Robot.
Cole owes us that.
Bill Arnold
I had a tuxedo cat named Oreo, originally a barn cat taught to hunt by his mom. He was a bunny killer and eater (hunted furry critters and frogs just fine without front claws). Once survived a great horned owl strike.
Current cat (“Panda”) is a boy tuxedo as well.
ilsaLund
Oh, yes!!! Cole, if you feel a connection to this girl, she, you and all your other critters would benefit so much having her join your household. A cat whose disposition is described as you described hers is a treasure that should be snapped up asap and you are a perfect fit. PLease update us, as you always do. Darling little girl!
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
That’s been our experience, too — we try to keep them separated, but they’re just so curious about each other that they won’t stay away.
And when I say “they,” I really mean Mr. Charm & Personality, who insisted on playing with Charlotte before she was released from the bathroom.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Jibeaux:
I have a cat that has never run from a dog. She’s a tiny Manx and dogs don’t scare her. I’ve seen her face down labs, pit bulls, shepherds, retrievers, dust mops, rat dogs and whatever variety decides to confront her. She’ll either sit there and look bored or if she feels the need to send a message, she will squat, urinate and give a hiss that will make your hair stand on end. It confuses the fuck out of the dog because she isn’t running away from them. She’s almost always on her property and if a dog isn’t welcome she has no problem chasing it off. The people who have dogs in nearby houses are excepted, she tolerates them sniffing around the place.
One time a young lady was walking her old retriever and our Manx trotted out of the garage and went out to the sidewalk to sniff the dog’s front leg. The owner looked confused (as did the dog) until I explained to her that the cat has a strange relationship with dogs and isn’t afraid of them. She then rubbed against the dog’s leg and came back to the garage. The young lady just laughed.
The dog still looked confused.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
We never had a problem introducing a new cat into the household until Pixel. With him, we have to go through reintroducing any cat who has been out of the house for any reason. He flipped out when I took the kittens to get their last set of shots. I had let them out of the carrier in the foyer and had to add scoop them up and dash off to their bedroom when Pixel went for them. He figured out who they were within a few hours, and they were back to piling and washing like littermates, but I’ve learned how lucky I was all those years with my other kitties.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Cole, this is how it starts. You get one cat, then a dog, then the next thing you know you’re an ANIMAL HOARDER! It’s too late for me (3 dogs, 4 cats), but there’s still time to save yourself!
low-tech cyclist
Just had to sneak in here that I had a dream about Tunch the other night. And it’s not like I’ve ever met John Cole or Tunch, or am particularly active in this community.
But in the dream, Tunch had been riding in my car, and had snuck out when I parked it and opened the door. So I was going, “Where’s Tunch? Where’s Tunch? That fat cat couldn’t have gone far,” when I woke up.
This place is leaking into my subconscious.
Maude
@SiubhanDuinne:
I don’t know why but she looks like her name is Tam.
Pre Lily, he was looking for a cat.
Paddy
I worry about any dog that has an instinct to catch small prey. I’ve seen my lab/chow mix DECIMATE a small toy as if it’s an animal she’s hunted, and the beagle/basset mix is the same. I’m not sure I’d trust them around a cat, let alone a young one. Scooby, my dear departed beagle/rott mix was intro’d into a house where the cats (Iggy a kitler and Pop a big floofy orange tabby) were well established and dominated. They would chase him around, but other than that, never really interacted.
As everyone above said, YMMV. Hope it works out!
ellie
I had a tuxedo kitty. She was the most beautiful kitty even though she was so skinny and sickly; she was a lab cat who ended up on my doorstep one day. So beautiful and lovely.
Jay C
@cbear:
You mean like the ones that require the intervention of EMTs, or send John to the hospital?
Laff riot, fer sure….
Xenos
‘Oreo’ is derived from a greek word for ‘beatiful’, but is inappropriate here because it is the masculine version. The feminine would be ‘Oreà’ (pretend that last letter is an a with an upward-pointing accent – damn azerty keyboard won’t let me do it right).
That is not such a bad name for a kitty, is it?
Xenos
@RSA: Puck declares he will put a “girdle around the earth in 40 minutes” in Midummer Night’s Dream — Huxley must have stolen/borrowed it from Shakespeare.
Mnemosyne
@Xenos:
There are a ton of Shakespeare references in the book, including the title, which is from The Tempest.
Tokyokie
I’ve never had any female cat do much more than tolerate the other cats in the household (except litter mates), and some not only will not socialize, they’ll deliberately try to be wherever the other cats aren’t. (We eventually had to give up the most extreme example, the calico who self-restricted herself to the guest bathroom (specifically, the towel cabinet most of the time) for several years.) The male cats will tussle and growl and hiss for a while as they work things out, but then they’re largely OK with one another. The alpha Siamese will still harass the others, but the elderly Balinese, who’s the most passive cats I’ve ever known (I’ve heard him hiss/growl maybe twice in 14 years), helps keep things on an even keel. But our lone remaining female scrupulously avoids the males, and for that matter, the spousal unit and me (although that could be because at least one of the males will usually be near one of us, with the Siamese following from room to room).
Rosalita
Connecticut meet up while you are here?
So happy you are giving another furry a forever home.
Kay Eye
There is a way to get a new cat accepted by the household pets, but it takes some time. Set the new cat up in her own room (and incidentally, her name is clearly Ann Elizabeth Arlington, not Ariel), where she will live for at least two weeks. Tunch will be well aware of her presence but will retain alpha cat control of the rest of the house. After two or more weeks, swap them out. Put him in charge of her room and let her have his space for a couple of weeks. If Tunch hasn’t sliced you up by then, the two cats should at least be tolerant of each other.
And you should go get her immediately.
The dogs might be another issue.
Kay Eye
There is a way to get a new cat accepted by the household pets, but it takes some time. Set the new cat up in her own room (and incidentally, her name is clearly Ann Elizabeth Arlington, not Ariel), where she will live for at least two weeks. Tunch will be well aware of her presence but will retain alpha cat control of the rest of the house. After two or more weeks, swap them out. Put him in charge of her room and let her have his space for a couple of weeks. If Tunch hasn’t sliced you up by then, the two cats should at least be tolerant of each other.
And you should go get her immediately.
The dogs might be another issue.
ET
You are going to have quite the menagerie.
Ann Marie
She’s beautiful! She needs a home and I bet yours is the right one.
parsimon
Oh, adding another member to the household: my housemate and I have come to be harboring an outdoor cat who showed up right around Christmas, and it sure looks like he chose us.
It’s such a tough decision: we were a four-cat household until about a year ago, when the last of the four cats died. They all passed in a two-year span, and I was done for a while. Too much heartache, living and loving over nearly 20 years with those four cats.
This new guy – who I decline to name yet — I find myself critical of. He’s kind of young and stupid. He doesn’t look you in the eye, you know? Maybe he’s not very smart! He also thinks there’s some sense in rushing along around your feet as you walk from one room to the other, biting your foot. I am not down with that.
I don’t know. If we’re to take this blonde kid in, I’m going to need to explain a few things to him.