Because one troublemaking cat was not enough

About a month ago, right before we moved into our new house, a stray kitten appeared under my housemate's parents' house. She was very thin and nervous and the parents set to making sure she was fed and had a safe, warm little place on the back patio. She couldn't come inside because there are already five very territorial cats in that household, but they got in contact with a church friend to come and take her.

That was put off until it fell through. So, now, Dragon is going to come live with us. We had talked about the possibility before we moved in, but assumed we would never get a chance because the church family seemed very determined to take her. But they dropped the ball and it's getting cold out, so we are going to gain a second cat and Dragon is going to gain a home.

We have a lot to do and very little time to do it in, but we're in high gear now. We're calling some vets to see if anyone would be willing to work out a decent price for her check-up, vaccinations, tags/micro-chipping, and her eventual spay. The spay might actually be the easy part since our health department is giving out vouchers for free/cheap spays and neuters to low-income households, which we technically are. Daily cat costs, we can do. It's all the vet visits and the pet deposit to get her into the townhouse that's going to be a pain.

Hopefully, in a week or so, we should be able to bring her home and get to work introducing her to Bachhsephyr. We're not worried about him, since he's proven to be very happy to meet and interact with other cats, but we are worried about her. She's very friendly, but we've never seen her with other cats, so we're going to have to tread carefully. We're hoping that since they are both so young and there's a lot of space in the house for them to have their own space, it will all go well.

This will be our second rescue cat added to our home, and final, since we can only have two cats/dogs in these houses. We think she'll be a good fit for our home and we're pooling our resources to make it happen as soon as possible.

Update: Dragon has an appointment at the vet on Thursday to get her check-up and shots. Then, she can come home and lay low until we get her tags and get her registered with management.

Dragon is fresh from the vet and home.

oh what a pretty girl!! congratulations to you, and to her, for finding a great home!

Thank you. We are so glad to finally have her home and safe.

It sounds like Dragon had her guardian angel watching out for her! What a lucky girl to have a wonderful, safe home to live in. I'll bet your boy will enjoy the company and they will be zooming around the house in no time!

Oh, he likes her. He's so excited. We've just got to convince her that he's okay. She's a little nervous around him still.

While she gets used to this house and Bachhsy, Dragon has a little safe haven in the spare bedroom. Since she can't sleep in the basement with Lisa and Robey, we've been having someone sleep with her at night. Tonight is my night, so here's a picture of Dragon in her new little bed.

Very cozy!
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I understand why my roommates needed a break from sleeping with her. Dragon is so clingy. If you stop interacting with her, she gets upset and meows and cries until you wake up and hold her. When I get up to go to the bathroom, she stands by the door and meows until I come back. She's worse than Bachhsephyr was his first week home.

She's afraid of being abandoned again. Lots of love and attention will hopefully cure her of her clingy-ness.

We hope so. Bachhsephyr had a similar problem when he first moved in. Hopefully we can get her more comfortable here soon.

Dragon's normal reaction to someone moving even a couple of inches from her.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioW2Ir6icJM"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioW2Ir6icJM[/ame]

Last night was actually much better. She felt more secure without constant contact. However, she was even louder last night because she's getting adventurous and resents being confined to one room with only one human all night.

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Hopefully fixed it.

That's pretty needy. Why are you keeping her separated from your boy? The sooner she bonds with him, the easier it will be on everyone.

During the day, they both roam the house together. But at night or when everyone was gone, we kept them apart so there wouldn't be any serious fights while we weren't there. They sleep in the same room now, and she's established a lot more independence since that video. She even seeks out alone time every once in a while. She's doing much better, aside from picking on Bachhsephyr sometimes.

Here's a more recent development. They see each other all day and night now that we're not worried about him hurting her. This is what I see first thing in the morning when I leave my room now. They're not best friends yet, but they put up with each other, and even team up to harass me in the mornings sometimes.

Excellent progress!
When I got my kittens to keep my old lady company, she hissed at them for two weeks straight. Then I caught them snuggled up together and that was it. It sounds like they will be best of buds in no time.

We really hope they become friends soon. He's still really excited to have a buddy, even if she was unpleasant to him at first.

We knew that she would be distrustful of him because she has been a stray since she was little and of course he just seemed like a threat or competition for resources to her. What we didn't expect was how willing she was to initiate fights with him. She wanted to make it clear that she was in charge. Except, she's much smaller and softer than him. Our little man's growing up and he's very broad and muscular now, and getting larger than her. And he actually has sharp claws. She hasn't been declawed, but the vet trimmed her nails when they were prepping her for her spay, so she's got little stub claws. She's smaller and less capable of defending herself, and when she would attack him, she would calm down quickly and he would still be aggressive. We had to keep them separate at night because if they got into it and we weren't around, he could really hurt her.

Recently, though, they've been roaming the house together all day and night and she starts more playful spats now. They even slept on the same couch for a bit the other day. When I came back from the bathroom this morning, he was lying on my bed and she was playing with a paper bag she found on my floor. It was cute. They went to every room together, and not because she was chasing and harassing him. Hopefully, there'll be some cute cat buddy pictures soon.