I am currently fostering Alex, a two year old cat who was left completely blind after a car accident about two months ago. He has only recently left the vet clinic but is already quite well adjusted and fairly confident around the house where he's allowed to roam.
In the meantime, I am caring for a kitten that was (mostly) abandoned by its feral mother (she sometimes visits to eat) outside my building. The kitten must be two months old or possibly older (can't know). The kitten is only allowed in the house when I can supervise, otherwise he is either outside or in another room. He does not spend nights inside.
I've been trying to get them to socialise but I'm not sure that I'm making the right progress. I've taken it very slowly, starting out with a few minutes of them being around each other at a time, and building up gradually over the last couple of weeks. Since the kitten is outside my building, I can't keep him indoors and do the whole "play through the door" thing regularly - though we've done that, it ended with hissing. The best I've achieved so far is to get them to take turns playing with the same toy (mouse and bell on a string) and that was going great until the older cat performed a small but angry attack against the kitten. The kitten hit back. Some more hissing ensued, then they both retreated.
Can I have advice from anyone who's had to deal with a similar situation? Or any thoughts on whether this latest one was a positive encounter? I don't want to give up but I'm becoming impatient.