Lucy has found her place

Lucy is our problem child. She's not really a problem to us, but she's
had the most trouble of the three adapting to her new home and her new
'siblings'.

When the problems became evident back in December, we segregated the
cats and put Lucy in the basement while Ty and Indie shared the
upstairs. When we realized that it was going to be a long hard road to
harmony among all three, we started bringing Lucy upstairs during the
day and sectioning off the bedroom end of the house so she could have
some window time and the other two could have more basement time which
is considered play time because there is much more room to run. At
night, Lucy would go back into the basement.

I did some reading about others with a like situation in rpch+b. I
emailed Meghan as she had a similar situation where she had the same
problems -- 1. One cat chasing and 2. one cat running. After emailing
back and forth, we decided our problems were not as alike as we first
thought, but I still decided to quit moving Lucy back and forth every
day. We moved her upstairs on a full time basis giving her the three
bedrooms and the bathroom. At the same time, we moved one of the cat
trees back to one of the bedrooms in front of the window. That became
'Lucy's spot'.

We have kept Lucy contained by way of a baby gate in the hallway. When
we were not home, we stack two gates as she can jump/climb the one with
little effort, but a lot of noise.

After a week or two, we started to feel bad about Lucy not getting use
of the quality play space. We did close the basement door and kept Ty
and Indie in just the basement giving Lucy all of upstairs at times, but
Lucy just doesn't play as hard upstairs. Probably because we have some
hardwood and tile floors upstairs, and she tends to slide a lot. I
don't think she likes that.

Brian decided to take her downstairs to the basement one night. He left
the basement door open and put up a gate. In short order, Lucy was up
the stairs and had jumped the gate. Brian took her back downstairs, and
stacked both gates. Again, in short order, Lucy went back upstairs and
got over BOTH gates. That's the first she's done that. She walked past
a hissing and spitting Ty, and then just laid down in the middle of the
hallway--her hallway. Brian got the message. Since then, we've only
put up one gate, and there has been no gate jumping.

We do feel like maybe there has been some progress. Lucy and Ty will
now stare at each other through the gate while sitting about 6 inches
apart. Ty hisses, and Lucy does her heavy breathing thing and every now
and then hits the gate trying to scare Ty off with the noise. But
they're talking at least. Indie still avoids the gate area, and
sometimes still runs to the basement when Lucy comes out to the gate.

So Lucy has found her place and we'll let her keep it. She's still a
bit skittish at times. However, yesterday she spent over an hour
sleeping in my lap and this morning I found her in my bed when I woke up
for the first time ever. I was stoked.

Lorraine

"Lorraine" wrote in message
...

Lucy is our problem child. She's not really a problem to us, but she's
had the most trouble of the three adapting to her new home and her new
'siblings'.

When the problems became evident back in December, we segregated the
cats and put Lucy in the basement while Ty and Indie shared the
upstairs. When we realized that it was going to be a long hard road to
harmony among all three, we started bringing Lucy upstairs during the
day and sectioning off the bedroom end of the house so she could have
some window time and the other two could have more basement time which
is considered play time because there is much more room to run. At
night, Lucy would go back into the basement.

I did some reading about others with a like situation in rpch+b. I
emailed Meghan as she had a similar situation where she had the same
problems -- 1. One cat chasing and 2. one cat running. After emailing
back and forth, we decided our problems were not as alike as we first
thought, but I still decided to quit moving Lucy back and forth every
day. We moved her upstairs on a full time basis giving her the three
bedrooms and the bathroom. At the same time, we moved one of the cat
trees back to one of the bedrooms in front of the window. That became
'Lucy's spot'.

We have kept Lucy contained by way of a baby gate in the hallway. When
we were not home, we stack two gates as she can jump/climb the one with
little effort, but a lot of noise.

After a week or two, we started to feel bad about Lucy not getting use
of the quality play space. We did close the basement door and kept Ty
and Indie in just the basement giving Lucy all of upstairs at times, but
Lucy just doesn't play as hard upstairs. Probably because we have some
hardwood and tile floors upstairs, and she tends to slide a lot. I
don't think she likes that.

Brian decided to take her downstairs to the basement one night. He left
the basement door open and put up a gate. In short order, Lucy was up
the stairs and had jumped the gate. Brian took her back downstairs, and
stacked both gates. Again, in short order, Lucy went back upstairs and
got over BOTH gates. That's the first she's done that. She walked past
a hissing and spitting Ty, and then just laid down in the middle of the
hallway--her hallway. Brian got the message. Since then, we've only
put up one gate, and there has been no gate jumping.

We do feel like maybe there has been some progress. Lucy and Ty will
now stare at each other through the gate while sitting about 6 inches
apart. Ty hisses, and Lucy does her heavy breathing thing and every now
and then hits the gate trying to scare Ty off with the noise. But
they're talking at least. Indie still avoids the gate area, and
sometimes still runs to the basement when Lucy comes out to the gate.

So Lucy has found her place and we'll let her keep it. She's still a
bit skittish at times. However, yesterday she spent over an hour
sleeping in my lap and this morning I found her in my bed when I woke up
for the first time ever. I was stoked.

Lorraine

Sounds like you're making progress, congratulations. It may take more time,
but hopefully they will, if not play and cuddle, at least tolerate each
other!

Hugs,

CatNipped

Good luck with Lucy and your other babies I do hope they eventually become
friends. Jean.P.
CatNipped wrote in message
...
"Lorraine" wrote in message
...

Lucy is our problem child. She's not really a problem to us, but she's
had the most trouble of the three adapting to her new home and her new
'siblings'.

When the problems became evident back in December, we segregated the
cats and put Lucy in the basement while Ty and Indie shared the
upstairs. When we realized that it was going to be a long hard road to
harmony among all three, we started bringing Lucy upstairs during the
day and sectioning off the bedroom end of the house so she could have
some window time and the other two could have more basement time which
is considered play time because there is much more room to run. At
night, Lucy would go back into the basement.

I did some reading about others with a like situation in rpch+b. I
emailed Meghan as she had a similar situation where she had the same
problems -- 1. One cat chasing and 2. one cat running. After emailing
back and forth, we decided our problems were not as alike as we first
thought, but I still decided to quit moving Lucy back and forth every
day. We moved her upstairs on a full time basis giving her the three
bedrooms and the bathroom. At the same time, we moved one of the cat
trees back to one of the bedrooms in front of the window. That became
'Lucy's spot'.

We have kept Lucy contained by way of a baby gate in the hallway. When
we were not home, we stack two gates as she can jump/climb the one with
little effort, but a lot of noise.

After a week or two, we started to feel bad about Lucy not getting use
of the quality play space. We did close the basement door and kept Ty
and Indie in just the basement giving Lucy all of upstairs at times, but
Lucy just doesn't play as hard upstairs. Probably because we have some
hardwood and tile floors upstairs, and she tends to slide a lot. I
don't think she likes that.

Brian decided to take her downstairs to the basement one night. He left
the basement door open and put up a gate. In short order, Lucy was up
the stairs and had jumped the gate. Brian took her back downstairs, and
stacked both gates. Again, in short order, Lucy went back upstairs and
got over BOTH gates. That's the first she's done that. She walked past
a hissing and spitting Ty, and then just laid down in the middle of the
hallway--her hallway. Brian got the message. Since then, we've only
put up one gate, and there has been no gate jumping.

We do feel like maybe there has been some progress. Lucy and Ty will
now stare at each other through the gate while sitting about 6 inches
apart. Ty hisses, and Lucy does her heavy breathing thing and every now
and then hits the gate trying to scare Ty off with the noise. But
they're talking at least. Indie still avoids the gate area, and
sometimes still runs to the basement when Lucy comes out to the gate.

So Lucy has found her place and we'll let her keep it. She's still a
bit skittish at times. However, yesterday she spent over an hour
sleeping in my lap and this morning I found her in my bed when I woke up
for the first time ever. I was stoked.

Lorraine

Sounds like you're making progress, congratulations. It may take more
time,
but hopefully they will, if not play and cuddle, at least tolerate each
other!

Hugs,

CatNipped