Cat Introductions: Does your Senior Need A Friend?

I’m still not sure what to do. I have a very very affectionate but lazy ten year old that I adopted as a kitten and it’s pretty much always been the two of us, except for a brief stint with my parents and their two senior cats (who my boy liked, but they mostly ignored him as he was much younger then and they were very very old). I didn’t know at the time that it was better to have a companion and I thought my unit would be too small for two cats to live comfortably. Since learning that cats do better with other cats, I’ve considered getting him a companion, but the small unit problem still bothers me (he’s indoor, though sits with me outside when I’m working in the garden, but that’s not often) and I can’t help but wonder if he’d even like it since he’s so attached to me after all these years of only having each other in the home. I can’t figure out if the stress of introducing a new cat when he’s so settled in life would be worse than any stress of being alone, especially now that I work from home a lot and am around to entertain him more.

My 21-year-old, healthy, siamese cat LOVES LOVES the new seven-year-old, ex-stray, ex-shelter, ex-mama siamese cat who joined us a couple of years ago, after another sweet cat died. The two lady cats enjoy, LOVE each other, and are great friends.

Cannot imagine one cat being truly happy. Every cat I've known or visited over the years really need at least one cat friend. All the cat's I've known who live alone get so, so WEIRD, disfunctional, and SAD if only one cat in house.

I know this is an old video but we just recently brought home a 10 week old kitten and we have an 11 year old male cat already. He did live his whole life with our cat who we had to put down a few months ago at 17 years of age. We almost almost wound up with 2 kittens from a rehoming place but fell in love with this ragdoll and had to get him. We were worried, felt guilty, everything. Within 24 hours the older cat was cautious but super curious ..within 48 hours they were eating next to eachother for meals and within 72 they were curled up asleep on our bed together. Now our 12 year old cat is super healthy and was still very playful and used to having a feline friend so that's probably part of it but in all honesty we have introduced kittens to older cats my entire life and it's always wound up at least ok. This time though we're super proud of our 11 year old he's been soo soo good with the kitten abd the kitten does have some manners and knows when enough enough. We also make sure to spend a lot of time playing with the kitten to take some of the responsibility off the older cat. I won't use senior I mean he could still have another 10 wonderful years left with us and I think having the kitten around has really perked him up. I do believe he missed his older sister still and this helps him heal. Helped us heal too 🙏

I just rescued a cat today , Luna calico 1.5 years old never had a home always been in shelters so I just had to get . Now I’m slowly introducing her to my lovable nebalung kitty who’s 1 years old :3

In my experience senior pets are appreciative of a younger sibling it seems in our family the younger one seems to perk up an older pet and they have even tried to play with the younger one this is just the experience we’ve had over the years 😮 we currently have a senior Golden Retriever with 2 torn ACL’s so we are debating if it would be beneficial to our older dog especially since she still wants to play sometimes and we’re worried it could aggravate her knees 😢

Wished to see more videoa like this. On of my cats had to be putted down bc of a very aggressive cancer, only around 12-13 years old.

My other cat is turning 9 yrs and trying to figure out if she wants a friend or not. My cats tolerated eachother but never really become friends. And its been two horrible days with just one cat and she seems to be… unchanged? Shes the same as she always been. What does that mean? 😅

So hard.

My adorable, people loving, best buddy senior cat HATES the 3 kittens I brought home and is even now swatting at me. 😭😭😭😭 I’m devastated my buddy is miserable and storming off outside.

I personally, would go the additional senior (even if only an 8-10 years 'senior'!). But it really is as much about temperament and personalities. A more submissive cat as the newbie will hopefully slot into the #2 position in feline ranking.

Previously I had a male Maine Coon about 9-10 (adopted when he was 2), and introduced a 13yo very smart tabby female, and a British Blue female about 10 perhaps a bit older. The three, as I discovered, were all used to being solo cats. Whilst they never fought, they were never besties either. But I think they all didn't mind the company of each other, particularly when I was at work.

I adopted a 5yr old because I thought he'd be a better choice for my resident (13yrs) I feel like I've just made an expensive mistake

KENISHA GIRL YOU ARE READING MY MIND AS YOU ASK THIS QUESTION haha i paused to write this, excited to watch the rest