I live in a neighbourhood which is inhabited by a fairly large number of cats. One in particular, a smokey grey female around 3-4 years old, is very friendly, to the point where she casually strolls into mine and other neighbours' home without much care for other pets. She also gets along well with other neighbourhood cats, she was on good terms with my cat and they'd often playfully chase each other around.
Sadly we lost our cat to a road collision at the beginning of December. The regular visits and attention-seeking from this smokey grey cat played a huge part in helping us to grieve and feel better over the Christmas period. However, I'm starting to feel that she's starting to make herself a bit too welcome in our home. We let her in for about 5-10 minutes at a time, during which she's rubbing her head against any corner she can find (claiming the house as her own), and wanting a big fuss from us. Whenever we return home she hears the jingle of our keys and immediately rushes to our door.
We're currently looking to rehome a new cat (not her, we know where she lives and who her owners are :) ) and we're very unsure as to how any new cat would react to this neighbourhood cat inviting herself in. We'd be keeping any new cat away from the front door, we wouldn't be letting him/her outside until s/he's settled in and willing to return home. However it's inevitable that the two will meet indoors at some point, so should we start to discourage her from marking her scent in our house? Or should we use a gentle introduction plan for her and our new cat?