Feral Catradora Screams

Okay so, the longer version with anything I can possibly think of that might be useful.

Thomas and Corvo:

I got Thomas in college in mid 2016 as a kitten. He lived with me, my roommates, and one of my roommate's cats (Toni, 2ish year old male). He had no issues with any of this. He also had to spend breaks with either my family and my childhood cat (Angel, older female) and dog (Taylor, older female), or my roommate's family and HIS childhood cat (Pablo, older male).

I got Corvo after moving in late 2017, also as a kitten, and he and Thomas were introduced well and got along just fine. Again, they had to spend some breaks at my family's home and spent some time with Angel and Taylor. No real issues beyond some discomfort of being moved around and having to deal with new places.

Moved again 2018 and my new roomie had a dog and a cat (Male, roughly their age?). No real issues with either.

Another move in 2019, no new animals.

Another move to live with my dad 2020-2022. Taylor and Angel were back in the picture. I lived with them full time through 2020, then spent a lot of my time going between my dad's home and Jay's (who lived in another state) up until I moved in with her full time in April/May of 2022

Basically all this to say that both Thomas and Corvo have moved several times and had to be introduced to new people, new cats, and new animals in general over and over and have always been able to handle it with minimal issues. Corvo was always a little more willing to buddy up with other critters, but Thomas was never fearful or aggressive. Generally just acknowledged their existence.

Thomas has in the past had some issues with non-recognition aggression after vet visits for him and Corvo, but it never lasted more than a few hours.

Thomas has always shown a little more anxiety about changes, but again, nothing so bad as right now. That said, he's settled into the apartment itself fine at this point. He's confident and curious and wants to be with people... so long as the girls are not involved.

Juno and Jester:

Jay got Juno back at the end of 2020, when she was about 8 months old.

Aside from coming to her parents' for Xmas and being in the general proximity of her childhood cat(Female, scaredy cat) and dog (male, 3ish?), Juno didn't interact with other animals until we got Jester in summer of 2021

Juno took a little while to get adjusted to Jester, but the two of them are now wonderfully bonded.

Juno had an autoimmune issue that caused us to have to remove all of her teeth in early/mid October of 2022. Not exactly ideal timing, as we had already planned a move for later that month.

Both of

The initial situation:

We got a new apartment to move into at the end of October 2022. Two bedrooms so we could handle quarantining the cats better. Ahead of time we put in Feliway spray and diffusers for a solid week.

I had to drive Thomas and Corvo down from my dad's home for a full day, but the cats were essentially introduced to the new environment at the same time. There were more objects with the girls' scents on them as most of the furniture was Jay's, but I brought all the boy's beds and towers and scratchers and toys to get their scent in the new place too.

Everyone got set up with their home bases and we got to work introducing everyone. Feeding on opposite sides of the doors, more Feliway, swapping objects, swapping rooms, rubbing everyone with a towel and brushes to get scents mixed, sniffing and playing under the doors or through cracked doorways, etc. Slowly ramping things up

Juno was the most grumpy about the situation at first, which is more or less what we expected, given that she'd just had surgery and had had the most time as a single cat. She was standoffish and hissy and slappy, but would still exist in the room with everyone. Everyone else seemed to have gotten to the point of acceptance with one another.

The Haircut and Reintroduction:

As mentioned, Corvo needed his mats shaved out because my father is old and did not keep up with his grooming. This wound up happening mid November 2022.

We knew to expect some issues with everyone not recognizing him at first, since he'd smell weird and look weird, but by golly the poor little guy was OSTRACIZED.

Thomas reacted the most violently, chasing him down and attacking him upon first seeing him, and not wanting to be anywhere near him. The girls were less upset but still untrusting.

However, at this same time, Juno decided she was done playing hard-to-get with Thomas, and wanted to be buddies. Thomas, who was already freaked out, did not like this, and responded with hissing, slapping, and running away.

While we were busy reintroducing Corvo to the crew, the girls (and later Corvo once he was interacting in person again) decided Thomas' running away was just a great game and continuously chased him. Everyone seemed pretty into the idea of chasing Thomas every time he made an appearance, which did not help his fear.

Despite our best efforts, no amount of playing everyone out ahead of being together seemed to really detract from their interest in chasing him. At least the girls and Corvo were getting along once again.

Finally though, we got to a point where Thomas and Corvo could be together and play and chase each other like normal. This took pretty much the entire rest of November and into December, however.

Re-re-introduction (ongoing):

So, that brings us to the status quo we've been living in since early December.

We completely separated Thomas and the girls again in late November to restart the introduction process. Door feeding, swapping rooms, etc. Corvo is able to be out and about all the time because he's the only valid child he gets along with everyone.

The only times the girls and Thomas are together are during entirely supervised and guided play times. We have to be very involved to keep the girls from trying to pounce on Thomas. Any time that that has happened, Thomas has gotten very upset and run away and hidden.

We can't really feed them together because the boys eat slowly and the girls are gluttons who inhale their food instantly.

But yes we have multiple daily play times together with every distraction we can think of.

Yes we have Feliway. No, I have no idea if it's doing anything.

Outside of those interactions, we have either the girls or Thomas out in the main area of the apartment with us and Corvo, and the other in the bedroom or office.

In December both Jay and I were sick for most of the month, so unfortunately we were not as consistent with our playtimes with the cats during that month.

Also in December we got Thomas over to our vet to be checked out. He got a clean bill of health and a prescription of Gabapentin to chill him out.

The gabapentin helps (he's able to exist in the girls' proximity and even play with toys or approach them to sniff them), but he's still clearly uncomfortable. Even while drugged, he hides at the slightest provocation, hisses and slaps at the girls when the approach him (usually), or walk past him, or move slightly too close to him, or react to him sticking his entire nose in their anus. You get it.

So at this point, a solid month and a half into our more intensive re-introduction and two and a half months into the reintroduction at all, and 3 and half months into them all living together, we're... struggling. It seems like we've hit a plateau with what we can accomplish. We can't have the cats out together without strict supervision, which is taxing on us, because the girls want to pounce on Thomas, and Thomas is still reacting to their general EXISTENCE with fear. He's not at a point where he could tolerate them trying to play with him like that, and we don't want what minor progress we've been able to make taken away.

That said, we're pretty sure the more realistic thing is to desensitize Thomas to the girls than to try to get the girls to ignore him completely. But we just. Don't know how to do that, as what we've already been doing doesn't seem to be creating any more progress.

We have Feliway dispensers in every single room in the multicat flavor. I want to emphasize we live in a two bedroom apartment. This is MORE than enough for coverage.

We have cat trees in every room. And scratchers. And hidey holes. And beds. And water bowls. And toys. And windows. And litter boxes. There is no shortage of resources for these guys. And we've done our best to create multiple pathways for everyone wherever we can. It's not always possible, there's not always room, but we try.

We have specific meal times. We can't feed them together because the girls will finish first and try to eat the boys' food cuz they are empty pits, but everyone is fed at the same time and they eat on opposite sides of the doors.

We play with them all together at least twice a day for at least 20 minutes or so a pop, which is sometimes all we can manage since we both work full time and it's a two person job to handle all four at once. We can't get them out together while we're both gone, it's just not possible, and we also need time to do the other general household things we need to do and REST.