How to help the Iriomote Cat?

Help with an over-excitable cat?

• I've had two cats for five years, and recently one of the two died. The other cat sulked around for a bit so my mother, sister, and I decided to adopt another cat to prove as a companion for the first. We adopted an eight-month-old cat. Here's a quick overview of their general personalities. - Five-year cat: Loving beyond hope and hell, scared of six-month cat, playful. - Eight-month cat: Very energetic, lacking in brains, chases "nothing" around the house constantly, playful would be a serious understatement. * Both cats are de-clawed and neutered. The eight month cat was put in his cage and put in the middle of the house for the older cat to inspect. The three of us would be sure to watch their interactions just to be safe. After two days (when the five-year-old cat stopped hissing) we let the eight-month-old cat out of the room and cage to explore the house. Here's where trouble began. The eight-month-old cat is hyper beyond belief and often chases literally nothing around the house and gets into everything. I can understand the second part, and even the first part to an extent, but he's very excited about having another cat to play with. Very excited. Actually, this cat isn't scared at all of the five-year-old and tries to play-fight with the five-year-old quite often. This terrifies the five-year-old and he often smacks the eight-month-old in the face once or twice every encounter to defend himself. The five-year-old isn't aggressive-- oh no, he's scared of the eight-month-old. He's not aggressively defensive either, he just defends himself enough to get the eight-month-old to back off a little. I'm thinking of putting a baby gate between an unused room, leave the eight-month-old with food, water, and a catbox (doing proper maintenance for the cat of course) and leaving the two cats to interact through the gate for a couple days. I don't know if it'll work though and I'm literally at the end of my rope as to possibilities to get these two cats to get along. I'm worried that the five-year-old would be too scared of the eight-month-old to get along, or that the eight-month-old won't cut his behavior out. Please help! What would be a good way to get the two to get along, or does this look like a lost case? TL;DR: Two cats were in the house and the first one died. I adopted another one since the second cat was lonely. The young cat is play-fighting with the older cat and is actively scaring the older cat away from any place but the top of a cat tree.

• Answer:

  Part of the situation is the energy difference. Your five year old is an adult cat, and the eight month old is a turbocharged kitten, acting like kittens typically act. A baby gate won't work, as cats can jump over most gates. Cats can jump quite high, so you would need it double stacked. What is seems to me is that the pecking order has not been established. Your older cat has either not submitted to the kitten, or the kitten does not accept the statement of alpha from your older cat. It is not a lost cause, although it may take longer for a detente to occur. Your older cat has a safe place (top of the cat tree) so he has a choice.