There are cats everywhere!

And I kinda like it. Well, I would if they’d all stop hissing at each other.

I’m looking after a friend’s cat for the week, and this is something of a repeat/new experience. I’ve tried bringing other cats in before, but we’ve always abandoned the experiment due to a whole lot of feline aggression.

Basically, Min would hiss at the new cat, Chet would try to sniff the new cat, and Min would swat at Chet when he got too close to the new cat.

The first cat I tried this with was a kitten…he was small, cute, and very friendly. He just sat there while Min hissed and swatted Chet. But we feared for his safety, so we didn’t keep him around. And besides that, we already had two cats and a dog.

The second cat was older and more territorial, so she didn’t take well to being in a new place where there were other cats, and Min didn’t take well to her. So we never felt confident about leaving them alone together, and pulled the plug quickly.

Which brings us to the latest attempt, wich a cat whom is named, amusingly, Max. This cat is older and, perhaps more importantly, bigger than Min or Chet, which I think gives them some pause. He’s a pretty chubby cat, and he’s also super-friendly. And after two days, there’s still a lot of hissing going on.

Min started it out on the first day while Chet hung back. She kept following Max around, always keeping an eye on him. Then she got kinda-sorta comfortable with him, to the extent that they’ve gotten within sniffing distance before hissing at each other. In the meantime, Chet’s ramped up the hissing.

My hope is that by Saturday they’ll all be comfortable with each other. I don’t expect them to be sleeping on top of each other anytime soon, but maybe the hissing will stop after they’ve gotten accustomed to each other.

Then Max will go back to his owner, and then he’ll come back for a few weeks. I anticipate that there will be more hissing upon his return. Maybe it won’t last as long next time. I guess we’ll find out.