How long will the cat remember an unpleasant, failed kitten introduction?

Question

My 2 year old female cat, named Flo, was just introduced to a 5 week old baby kitten that we had planned on rescuing. After the kitten had been here for about 4 hours, we soon realized Flo was not having it! She hissed and was very angry. She went to our room and a few hours later my husband fell in love with her, she then heard the kitten from the other side of the house and attacked my husband.

Never has she been angry nor aggressive before. However, we rescued her at the age of 4 weeks and again, she’s currently almost 2 years old and has never been around another animal - she’s an strictly indoor cat. We now have taken the kitten to my best friends, whose going to keep her.

My question is - will Flo eventually forget about this kitten? Again, it was only about a 4 hour experience of the kitten being in our home, but Flo seems pretty upset at the moment.

Answer 1

To answer your question, I don't know, but the best indicator will be if your cat is settled. She was frightened and hissing out of fear. She will settle quite quickly now the other cat is gone. Do not fret over it at all.

Cats need to be introduced through closed doors, so they can smell and hear each other before being introduced in person. It takes time for cat introductions to run smoothly. There's lots of benefits for having more than one cat, if they get along. Introducing a kitten to an adult cat will usually end well with time.

It is not too late to salvage this situation.

If cats were introduced too quickly, can the process be started over?

In terms of actually keeping the kitten. Cats often react badly to being introduced to other cats and can end up becoming the best of friends. Introducing a new cat as a kitten also helps to expedite this.

Recommendations for introducing kittens to adult cats