Tag: sabrina

I Want Another Kitty

We adopted Ms Patches in October 2010. Her name was Panache then. It took a little while for her to get used to the house. That’s okay. We had just moved in and it was taking us a little while to get used to it too.

Later, in April of 2014 we adopted a second cat. Sabrina.

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It ended very badly. We tried hard to keep the two cats separate from each other until they could get used to having the other around. We failed. We hid Sabrina in Bellana’s room. Patches would guard the door so we couldn’t get in and out of the room without her trying to get in.

On one of the first days, Patches and Sabrina came face to face and immediately hissed at each other. It was bad. After that it got worse. We made the decision to take Sabrina back to the shelter when Patches started running full speed, head first into the bedroom door. I guess she was trying to break the door down. She would hiss the whole time. She wanted to hurt Sabrina and she was going to hurt herself in the attempt. We couldn’t have that. Patches is family. Sabrina went back. It was very sad.

The kids have a new kitten at their Dad’s house. One of my co-workers just adopted a kitten too. I’m jealous. I want a second cat. By no means do I want to get rid of Patches, I just want another one.

Last time we had two females, and Patches was maybe six years old or so. I don’t remember how old Sabrina was, but she wasn’t a kitten. She was probably two or three. Patches is 12-13 now. She’s much mellower than she was in her crazy youth. Maybe if we got a kitten… a male kitten. Maybe she wouldn’t see it as a threat. Maybe she’d see it as family.

I don’t know cat psychology.

I just want a second cat.

Sabrina

Here are the dirty details.

Patches was hissing and growling.  Sabrina was nervous and clearly scared.  We did what people suggested.  We put their food bowls on either side of Sabrina’s safe room’s door.  The idea is to associate the smell of the other cat with something positive, ie food.  Jen rubbed a clean sock on Sabrina and gave it to Patches.  When Patches didn’t freak out she got a treat.

All of that was going well, but today Patches started throwing herself into the safe room’s door, all while hissing and growling.  The fear of the two cats fighting and possibly hurting each other was compounded by the fear of Patches hurting herself.

Add to that, the kids were at their dad’s house through all of this.  Tonight was the first night they would have been home with Sabrina.  If we didn’t do it tonight, we would never be able to do it.  At least not without breaking the kids’ hearts along with mine and Jen’s.

So I took Sabrina back to the shelter today.  The staff at the shelter told me that we were doing the right thing.

I shall now drown my sadness in my Les Paul.

Saddest Thing Ever

My beautiful wife Jennifer walked out of the living room and went into her daughter’s bedroom. That’s where our new cat, Sabrina, is staying until she and our first cat, Patches, get used to being in the house together.

As soon as she opened the door, Patches ran to the corner of the living room furthest away and literally hid behind a box. She looked so sad. I called her over to me. It took a few minutes but eventually she came. I pet her across the back once and then she took a couple of slow steps toward the door.

She hissed. She wasn’t even in the same room as Sabrina, and she couldn’t see her, but she looked in that direction and let out a long, loud hiss. I yelled out, stop and then Patches ran and hid under the couch for a couple of minutes before hiding in the corner again. This time I couldn’t coax her out. When I walked over to her she ran away.

I’m pretty sure it was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. I really hope that adopting Sabrina wasn’t a mistake. I feel like we broke Patches’ heart.

Hiss

We aren’t having much luck with the whole integrating the new cat into the house thing. As I was writing the first new cat post, Jen opened up the door to leave Sabrina’s temporary room, and Patches snuck up on her. The two cats stood about three feet apart, looking each other in the eye. Sabrina started to hiss. Patches backed off a few feet and then she started hissing too. We got the door closed without further incident.

Later, we had Ms Patches locked in a bedroom so we let Ms Sabrina wander around. Where was pretty much the first place she went? Patches’ litter box. Oh good. Eventually she did a lap around the house and we got her locked up again. We were feeling confident after that.

Our luck more or less ran out though. Jen took a shift sitting with Sabrina. When she tried to leave the room, Sabrina bolted for the door. I caught her before she got out, picked her up, and placed her back on the bed. Safe. Until she bolted again and slipped out the still opened door. Again, the two kitties faced off. This time Patches didn’t back off and the two of them hissed at each other again. I had to yell to get Patches to break off. This time I managed to pick up Sabrina and get her locked away again.

I’m a little worried about how things will go tomorrow while we are at work. Will they tear through the door to get at each other?

Calm down, ladies!

New Addition

On October 17, 2010 we went to the MSPCA at Nevins Farm in Methuen and adopted a cat.

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Her name was Panache. Not long after getting her home we changed her name to Patches. She has been the single best cat in the universe, both known and undiscovered. She’s the best.

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However, pretty much since the day we adopted Patches, my beloved wife has been saying she wanted a second cat too. After over three years of saying no, today I stopped fighting it. We went back to the MSPCA at Nevins farm and met a five year old cat named Sabrina.

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From the first moment we saw her she was super friendly. She practically tried to squeeze herself through the door of her cage to let us pet her. We asked to take her into one of the get-to-know-you rooms and she instantly started rubbing up against us and being all affectionate. She even let Jen pick her up.

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After 10 minutes or so of being showered with love by this cat, Jen asked the kids’ father if we could borrow them for a few minutes so that they could meet Sabrina too, and if they liked her as much as we did we would adopt her. I drove up to their house and got them. Needless to say, they were more than happy to have Sabrina come home with us.

She’s hiding now. We’re going to take the whole integration thing slowly, as Patches can be a little skittish around new people, never mind new cats. Once the two of them are comfortable together I will (of course) blitzkrieg you all with pictures. Until then, here is a little Spark video I took in the get-to-know-you room.

Post script: Jen was in the room with Sabrina. She opened the door to come out and Patches tried to get in. The two cats stood eye to eye and started hissing at each other. No one said it was going to be a quick transition.