Oh my luvlies, I am a veteran of the feline battlefield. My oldest is 11-13 (we aren't sure as he keeps lying about his age), and my youngest is about 3 (or so we guess as she was still in older kittenhood when we welcomed her to our home). Tazzy, the oldest, is the biggest pile of BS you ever met. He struts and fluffs and hisses and acts like Billy Badass if you are watching, otherwise he's over at the new cat (whomever the new cat or dog or mouse or hamster or spider or snake the list just goes on happens to be) and wants to be it's best friend. When my KoKo had to go to Kitty Heaven, Tazzy walked into KoKo's kennel and fell into a deep depression. Enter Sasha, my youngest. She is a street bum. She will always be a street bum. This is the type of cat that will just as soon whip out a switchblade and threaten to spay you as she would run up to you and purr and kiss and knead your neck! (She will only kiss me and my best friend, otherwise, back off!)

The reason I tell you this is because I am a habitual rescuer. Well, more like an addicted rescuer. Tazzy has seen em come and seen em go. He's been all over the world with me and tolerates the change rather well. Sasha is a bitch. So, if an animal will live inside my home and not just be a stray that I feed, befriend, trap, spay, innoculate and release, then we have a format that works for us. I bring the animal into the house in a cat kennel and leave it in the middle of the room. My cats then strut around hissing and cussing and threatening a most foul death. The whole time I instruct them to "be nice babies, be nice". Once my cats lose interest I shoo them outside and then allow new animal to roam the house. The reason for this is to let the new animal smell the house and leave it's smell all over the house. Once the cat comes back for food or water of whatever then I place it in a bathroom and put my cats into their kennels. I place the kennels in the middle of the room and let the new animal out. Thus proceeds more posturing and threatening. Once everyone has calmed down (with me saying Be nice babies, be nice), then new animal goes back into the bathroom (or other room if I happen to have one wherever I am living) with it's own food, water and litterbox. I might do this for a couple days depending on the length of time it takes for everyone to relax. I use the same ritual each time so that my animals know that this is an animal who will stay for awhile.

Ritual is extremely important with cats. You ever notice how your cats get ticked at you if you go on vacation without them??? I just got back home after being gone for a week, and let me tell you, there were some ugly looks for the first hour, but as I write this, my oldest is looking at me like "I can't believe you left me alone with that Sasha wench! Where were you, you, you , you ogre you!" Pick a ritual that you feel comfortable with and force your cats to comply. It will not be easy at first, but once they get the picture, then you have established something they can be comfortable with.