An adopted cat arriving in a new house has lost every reference point it had. The kindest and fastest approach is to shrink the world down to one room it can learn completely, and then let it ask for more. Households that open the whole house on day one usually get a cat under a bed for a fortnight.
What goes in the room
- Litter tray in one corner; food and water as far from it as the room allows.
- Two hiding places at floor level, a box on its side and a covered bed, and one up high.
- A scratcher, ideally both a vertical post and a flat pad.
- The carrier, left open with a blanket in it. It is the only familiar object the cat owns.
- Something of yours that smells of you, put down before the cat arrives.
The first three days
Open the carrier and leave the room. Do not lift the cat out, do not sit staring at it, and do not bring visitors in. Go in for short, quiet visits, sit on the floor at a distance, read something aloud in a level voice and leave again. Blinking slowly and looking away is an invitation; direct eye contact is not.
Opening the house
When the cat is eating normally, using the tray, and coming out to greet you rather than watching from cover, open the door and let it explore in its own time, usually somewhere between day four and day fourteen. Leave the base room set up for at least a month afterwards. It is the place the cat retreats to when the vacuum comes out, and taking it away too early undoes the work.
A cat that hides is not unhappy with you. It is doing exactly what a cat is supposed to do in an unknown building.
Ciara Byrne, Wexfur
Existing pets
Introductions run through the closed door first: swap bedding between the rooms, feed both animals either side of the door, then progress to a gap held by a stair gate before any face-to-face meeting. The whole process usually takes two to four weeks. Rushing it is the most common cause of a long-term standoff between cats that would otherwise have been fine.
