Some furry progress!

[phoozles]

As some of you know, I've had a hard time trying to get all my kitties to get along already. Ethel has been in the house for over a year now, and is still in her own room. As I have been consumed for the last year and a half with my wedding, we didn't really have the time to fully dedicate to introducing the cats - and the few times we did didn't really have good results..

Well, I'm all married up now, and we decided to give it another go..
We waited to feed them so they'd be nice and hungry (it was recommended by our vet).. We put both Ethel and Jake on a leash and let devil Alley run free.. We got them eating in front of each other.. the good news was that there was a LOT less hostility than there was before.. Alley was growling and hissing a bit, and Jake did too, but for the most part they were pretty calm.. Eventually Ethel got worked up and swatted at Alley, but I'd say they had a good 15 minutes of peace before that happened..

That was last week - since then Alley has been going up to Ethel's door but not growling (I was convinced that before she'd do it just to Ethel off) and Ethel hasn't been lunging back (her 'door' is a well secured doggy gate, so they can see each other).

We did another introduction last night, and Jake seems to be fully at ease now.. He actually lay down and had his back to Ethel, and even when she was moaning he didn't turn his head! Alley was a lot calmer too, but Ethel got a little tense and swiped at Alley.. Still, the aggression was much lower than it had been!

I'm feeling pretty optimistic! We're going to go slow with this, and the leashes aren't coming off until I'm ridiculously confident, but I finally feel like we might be getting somewhere! Soon I might actually be able to have pics of all three of them in the same room!