I have three gorgeous cats and I have made up my mind that I can offer one more rescue cat a loving home at the start of April- during the school holidays, as I am a teacher. I am in Hampshire and have my own house away from very busy roads and my cats only have access (via a catflap that was specially planned into a build in kitchen even before they came here) to an enclosed garden area-in fact my two older ones have never been anywhere other than the garden area since they have been here.
My two older cats are 8 in April and I have had them for over five years now and the young one will turn 1 in April. (they all have birthdays together...) There are two male(one is the younger one) and one female. They are all triple vaccinated, flea treated regularly,groomed, wormed regularly, chipped and neutered. They have access to a safe garden area and live a pretty luxurious life in my view, lounging around the place on soft spots and being played with a lot. They are also all on PetPlan for insurance and see the vet for check ups regularly.
I have a young child (3 soon) who has grown up with cats and who is very good with them, playing and learning how to take care of them. I know that some rescues are saying 'no' to children and cats but luckily some are more open minded about that-hence my last successful adption. He was well behaved at the rescue when we looked at the cats and he impressed them with his careful approach to the cats, some of which ended up standing on him, which he thought was fun.
So the question is: Are there any significant differences in integrating neutered females or males into a group? And is it possible for a slightly more mature cat (say up to 8 years) to be integrated into a group? I know that it might be more difficult but is it possible to work out well? My vet was pleased about my intentions of adopting a cat that may be older or overlooked a lot. The only thing is that I don't want ot totally upset the balance here at the moment and I have been told that another female would cause more problems than a male and younger is better than older. I suppose finding an age equal to my 10 months old one makes sense as I will then have two age pairs.
I want to get this right because the last choice was a good one as the young cat is now part of the family, even though my female is not over the moon with him (Yet they co exist on mutual terms), my male likes him and they cuddle up together and play.
I do have a local rescue who recently did their home check and said I could have another one from them but I thought it would be nice to widen the options. I am williing to travel within an hour from here (Southsea) to avoid the cat getting too stressed on a journey. I would love to have a black or black and white one as they are overlooked a lot.
