my mums bfriend is due to move in with us in the next couple of months..and his cat would need uprooting too.the problem is we already have 4 cats and 2 dogs so i dont no how the cat will cope to moving or if he will run away and as he doesnt live with dogs how hes going to cope....its really worrying us on the best method of introducing him into our home without stressing him or any of our animals out.can this work or not?


any1 else had this problem and may have some useful solutions it would be much appreciated:)

My answer is that it could work out but the only way you're going to know is to try it.

I'm going to describe the best way I think it should be done- I know that there's every possibility that certain parts of this will need to be amended, but it's a start.

For the move, please get your mum's BF to wear a t-shirt in bed for a few nights before the move so it gets as smelly as possible. This is used to put in the basket with the cat when he moves.

Next, get 2 small towels/teatowels/dishcloths that you can afford to lose. Wipe one repeatedly over the pets in the household and give it to your mum's BF to take home. Ask him to wipe it over the furniture in his place at cat smelling height (also door frames, kitchen cabinets etc) and also allow his cat to smell it and use the cloth to rub over the cat when he allows it. With the other cloth do the same in reverse. After a couple of weeks change the cloths over so that over the weeks the smells get thoroughly intermingled.

On the day of the move the cat needs to be confined into a small comfortable space with the t-shirt that smells all comforting, then put into his basket with it before all the stressful banging and furniture moving begins.

Meanwhile, at your place, have one room where you keep your animals out of in the weeks before the move, that can become 'his' when he moves in for a few weeks or months. I don't mean to keep the humans out, but to allow him his own space away from the other animals while he gets his head around all of them.

On the moving day the cat is moved out into his own little calm space (that has already been marked with his smell) in your house and is left in his basket with all the comforting smells round him until all of the noise has stopped. He then can come out and spend the next 2 or 3 weeks without any other animals in that room (definitely no going out in that period). Let him smell the other animals on your hands and clothing and give him lots of love but don't push him to come out of his comfort zone.

After the first few weeks allow the door to be open enough that he can come out if he wants to, but don't allow the other animals in. At this point you may find a Feliway plug in useful.

Cats can take a ridiculously long time to come to terms with new surroundings and animals around them- one of my cats (Tiffy, who's 14) still has yet to relax around Molly, and we've had her nearly 6 months now. That said, Arthur (old white boss cat) is the boss again and brooks no resistance from the dog and Baby (hand reared feral girlie) is also content to come into the same room as Molly for a snuggle.

By planning it carefully and allowing the animals to get used to the smell of each other for weeks before the move you're giving the new cat the best chance of coping well with the upheaval and the stress of meeting new animals.