Moving in w/ brother & his cat (3 of our own!)

Hi all! I know this has probably been asked before, but I am new in the past week and not good at getting around on this site yet. Just looking for a little advice - of course! :D

My hubby and I are moving and the brother will be moving in with us. Thing is, we have 3 cats and his brother has one of his own... BIL (brother in law) has been living next door to us for a while now. We tried introcuding our cats with his a while back, but it was not successful. 2 of our cats hid from him and our eldest one (who likes everyone, even dogs!) hated this cat. BIL's cat ended up trying to play with Jesse (the eldest), but a little too rough and took hair out. BIL has had a roomate since then, who had cats... He got along with the female okay, but not the male - he terrorized him on a daily basis.

We wanted to try introducing them, slowly, again before we move in hopes of them getting used to one another. Thing is, Jesse has been recently diagnosed with renal insufficiency and has started medications... He is already stressed with two daily times of giving meds and I don't want to stress him out more...

We were thinking that it might even be better to do the introductions at the new home, where everything is neutral territory - not the scent of one more than the other... Do you think it might work? Is there any hope?

I was thinking about asking BIL to keep his kitty in his room for a week or two, so they might get used to each other's smells first. And let them interact, under supervision, a little bit each day after the first week to see how it goes. I am not sure how BIL will react to this request, but it makes more sense to me to house up one cat in a room than 3... Especially, since our cats are the laid back ones that don't have socialization issues...

Any suggestions?

It is unrealistic to keep them apart for very long... Not sure what to do...

Help!:yell:

Thanks:cat:

I'd suggest doing the introductions in the new home. Doing anything now will probably just be undone by the stress of the move anyway. A separate room for your BIL's cat is the best idea. Here's a pretty extensive description on how to introduce cats to each other: http://www.squidoo.com/multi-cat-management

And some more articles:
http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/aggression4.html
http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/moving.html

I agree with sugarcatmom, a move is very stressful on a cat, better to wait until after the move.

Thanks sugarcatmom! The links are fantastic and have even sent them to the BIL:D