When one of our kitties passed away last year, we thought his bonded bestie Cassie seemed lonely and in need of feline companionship. We adopted a pair of kittens named Miles and Ezri with the thought process that she would be very excited to have some friends to play and snuggle with. Cassie’s reaction was less of excitement and more of “hiss, grrrr, why are these wild babies in my house?”. It was not our senior cat Luna’s first rodeo with new cats and she acclimated to the kittens quickly. Cassie unfortunately continued to be very upset and we had a divided household - she could not tolerate being in their presence, so every few hours, we shuffled cats from room to room so no one felt left out. I began to feel hopeless and wondered if our cats could ever coexist.
We tried to get everyone integrated on our own for seven months before we found Ingrid. I’m a lifelong cat owner, a volunteer with a rescue, I had read every article on the internet, and I had bought nearly every supplement or product on the market. I figured I had nothing else to lose.
I wish I had reached out to Ingrid from day one. When we had our first phone consultation, Ingrid helped me realize I hadn’t even been trying to solve the right problem. I was trying to make Cassie less “aggressive”, when in fact Cassie’s hisses and growls were her trying to say “Hey, I’m feeling unsafe. Please give me some space.” The kittens were not picking up on these social cues and were obsessively pursuing their cool big sister, which only increased Cassie’s distress.
Ingrid provided us with a detailed treatment plan and strategies we could implement right away to help Cassie feel more confident and to help the kittens refocus their energy in more adaptive ways. Our senior cat Luna got in on the fun too - she out-forages all of the younglings in our house!
Perhaps of equal value to the wealth of knowledge on cat behavior I received, my conversations with Ingrid made me feel hopeful. It can feel sad, scary, and isolating to be a guardian for animals that have big emotions. Talking to Ingrid helped me realize that I am not alone and that other cats and their humans had overcome similar obstacles with work and patience.
It has been 11 months since we brought Miles and Ezri home and 4 months since we started working with Ingrid. Cassie has gone from hissing and viciously growling from even hearing the kittens through the door to seeking them out, rolling around a few feet from them and playing. We can hang out on the couch together and when Miles is running on the wheel, Cassie is usually a front row spectator. These are moments I thought we would never get to have. Are they making cuddle piles? No… but they just might some day. Their relationships will only grow and I’m forever thankful to Ingrid for getting us on the right track for a lifetime of feline friendship.
Katie Rose-Burt
Warren, MI
