In need of cat-type advice
Oct. 10th, 2005 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurchThe integration of Polly and Zoe is not going well... on Polly's part.
Zoe is wonderful, sweet, loving and playful. Polly absolutely cannot stand her. She freaks out completely whenever Zoe is around, and Zoe seems totally perplexed by this... she wants to *play*, and Polly seems to think she's constantly under attack. Polly has been living in the garage for the past week for this very reason... we bring her in the house and she runs from "secure location" to "secure location" looking for all the world like a soldier on an active battlefield, expecting to be ambushed at any moment (which is really silly, because Zoe never initiates contact... just hangs around hoping for a playmate).
The worst part about it is that Polly gets so freaked out she loses sphincter control. She pees and poops all over herself (and whatever surface she happens to be on) hence the now living in the garage, where life is considerably less stressful for her. I really don't want to leave her out there for the rest of her life, because it doesn't seem fair to her and I miss having her around in the house. But I also don't plan on giving up Zoe, who is an absolute delight to have around and loves us both equally.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rackham has always gotten the short end of the stick with our pets, as Cymry and Polly would generally only approach him if I wasn't available, and Polly has been avoiding him more and more as she's gotten older (to the point of not eating food if he's the one to give it to her), so this is a very nice change.
I don't know what to do... I'd just assumed that time and gradual exposure would eventually do the trick, but it really doesn't seem to be working. Anyone have any suggestions? Even if it's just for a place to look for a possible solution.
Zoe is wonderful, sweet, loving and playful. Polly absolutely cannot stand her. She freaks out completely whenever Zoe is around, and Zoe seems totally perplexed by this... she wants to *play*, and Polly seems to think she's constantly under attack. Polly has been living in the garage for the past week for this very reason... we bring her in the house and she runs from "secure location" to "secure location" looking for all the world like a soldier on an active battlefield, expecting to be ambushed at any moment (which is really silly, because Zoe never initiates contact... just hangs around hoping for a playmate).
The worst part about it is that Polly gets so freaked out she loses sphincter control. She pees and poops all over herself (and whatever surface she happens to be on) hence the now living in the garage, where life is considerably less stressful for her. I really don't want to leave her out there for the rest of her life, because it doesn't seem fair to her and I miss having her around in the house. But I also don't plan on giving up Zoe, who is an absolute delight to have around and loves us both equally.
rackham has always gotten the short end of the stick with our pets, as Cymry and Polly would generally only approach him if I wasn't available, and Polly has been avoiding him more and more as she's gotten older (to the point of not eating food if he's the one to give it to her), so this is a very nice change.I don't know what to do... I'd just assumed that time and gradual exposure would eventually do the trick, but it really doesn't seem to be working. Anyone have any suggestions? Even if it's just for a place to look for a possible solution.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-11 05:00 am (UTC)Aside from that, is Polly comfortable in the house when Zoe isn't around? If not, try spending some time in isolated sections of the house with Polly while Zoe is temporarily elsewhere.
I suspect that letting Polly in while Zoe is around should be done regularly, but with supervision and for limited periods of time. Try to pet her and interact with her as much as possible during those periods (if she'll let you). Be prepared for some cleaning up and try not to get upset about it.
Above all, be patient. Getting animals used to each other is sometimes trivial and sometimes takes months, but it almost always works eventually.
Rox and I have been working to get Ash, our new dog, integrated with Caspian, our cat. It has been more than six months and we're still not there, but we have made a lot of progress. I'm hopeful that he will be ready in another month or two.