new kitten

It's harder but not impossible to introduce an older cat into a home with an 8 year old cat. Usually kittens are accepted quicker by an older cat. My suggestion (because your cat is 8 years old) would be to get 2 kittens. Many shelters offer a discount if you adopt two. This way they will have each other to play with. The older cat might join in or she might want to watch from a distance.

Or she might absolutely hate the intrusion of a kitten or an older cat. It can take up to 30 days on the average for harmony when introducing new cats into a home with a resident cat that's been alone for so long. They may never be friends but if you're careful on the introduction, you can get them to live in harmony as long as you're patient and don't throw them all together. Keep the new cat or cats separated for up to a week. Each cat is different on how long it takes for him to adjust to the new scents and sounds of a new home. It can be a couple days or it can be a week. We always put an adult cat into a room by himself for at least 3 days. It can take up to a month with some cats. Don't ever put the new cat right in front of the resident cats to introduce them. When you do the introduction period, let the new cat walk out of the room by himself to investigate his surroundings and any cats that live in the house. Have a spray bottle with water handy if a fight erupts. You don't want to get into the middle of a cat fight. Don't yell or discipline any of the cats if they hiss or swat at the others. Just pick that cat up gently and put him back into the room. If it's a resident cat that hisses and swats, take him to another room for 10 or 15 minutes. Play with the cats with a laser toy or a fishing pole toy to get them interested in something fun and take their attention off the newcomer. Even if things go well the first couple of meetings, put the new cat back into that room at night for awhile longer. The key is to avoid any confrontation and ease them all into the transition slowly. It's well worth it in the end to have harmony for the rest of their lives. Give them treats while they're in the same room together in separate dishes. Good luck! We have 30 inside cats and have introduced all ages into our household including feral cats. Some have been harder than others and the last one attacked our dogs and our cats! Full blown battles! It took over a month for her but she's fine now and the ferals adore her. We have never had a problem introducing kittens into the household. Many were accepted the minute we brought them into the house. Some of our adults might hiss but never do they hurt the kittens. We had a litter of 9 kittens that we fostered without any problems. Many of our adults took over grooming them.