We know that sometimes cat introductions go bad, and they can stay bad, nothing seems to work out, and then you give up. But then sometimes they can go right. And sometimes they can even fix those bad introductions.

I’ve told the story of Georgie and how nothing worked out in the end. Tuna was sick and we just couldn’t get things to smooth out in the house. Well, Tuna passed away last December and soon after her passing we adopted 3 kittens. What are we crazy? Why would we adopt 3 kittens with all the cat turmoil in the house?

Well, to tell the truth, things were pretty settled in the house with Georgie. He had his side of the house and he seemed to be pretty happy and he loved us. Plus my husband and I always talked about getting 2 kittens when our cats passed because we figured we were older and this would be the last opportunity to adopt kittens. Notice I said we wanted to adopt 2 kittens? Well of course we came home with 3. We named them Jaina, Jacen, and Mara Jade (Star Wars names).

We were going to adopt 2 little girls, but their brother was with them when we went to pick them up. He was a cutie pie, and the rescue said, want to adopt him too? No fee. Well this wasn’t really a rescue, more of a pet clinic/charity and sometimes they help cats find homes. They didn’t have anyone to adopt the little boy and they asked us if we wanted to adopt him also. Well if you ask me if I want a kitten, chances are I will say yes. My husband is the same way, and so we came home with three kittens.

Kittens are a lot of work, and three at the same time? It’s a bit insane. It was hard to keep the three of them separate in a room for a week. Finally they broke out and met Pumpkin and Nathan. Well, Jacen is what I call a big ball of love. He is fearless, and curious, and wants to meet everyone. It can be a bit scary as a cat mom to have him so innocent and naïve like that, but it worked out. Nathan was ok with him and so was Pumpkin. Soon after the girls introduced themselves and they all were really good with each other. So success!

Once the kittens were a little bit older, they were determined to jump the gate to Georgie’s side. Mostly Jacen, but Jaina tried too. We’d close the doors and rubberband the doors closed. Then they’d get stuck between the gate and the door. My husband and I were beside ourselves, we didn’t know what to do. I was so afraid that George might be aggressive with the kittens. We decided to introduce Jacen to George first. Jacen pranced in like he owned the room, like always, and instantly was getting a bath from George. They were fine. Mara Jade and George are ok, they’re not friends and not enemies. Jaina hisses at George all the time, or most of the time now. But they also did well overall. George was now integrated with the kittens, and the kittens would jump the gate whenever they wanted, so they owned the house.

After some time, George would break free at the gate and go run to eat the other cat’s food. He would run into Nathan at times and they were fine together! But he still had a bug up his butt about Pumpkin and would try to attack him. Pumpkin was old and dying of cancer at the time. So we were very protective of him. We thought, well if nothing else, once Pumpkin passes things will be ok.

Slowly over time we got to the point were we would let Georgie stay out in the Livingroom with us but he’d still sleep on our side of the house. He was getting better with Pumpkin over time and Pumpkin also started to stick up for himself as well. Then we got to the point where we’d leave the gate open at night. We kept Georgie behind the gate when we went out or when we travelled because we didn’t fully trust that things were good. But once we got back from vacation in July, the gate has pretty much been open the whole time. There was one recent scuffle with Nathan, George started to get worked up and a little too playful/aggressive (he was stalking Nathan), so we gave him a time out on the other side.

As for George’s peeing on the bed? It was practically over for about 6 months, but when we went away for a week in June, I came home to a puddle in the bed. So the tarps went back on the bed. He was really upset about us going away. The tarps stayed and he still had some accidents until we got back from vacation in July and since we’ve been home the peeing on the bed has stopped again.

Believe it or not, we are all one big happy family again. Unfortunately, we had to put Pumpkin to sleep this week. He was the last of our original six cats. Now we have 5 cats, all younger, so thankfully we won’t have to deal with loss for a long time now.

So this was the story of Georgie, and how this sweet, sensitive cat had a hard time integrating into a home with many cats, until one day, when this little kitten named Jacen, a big ball of love, came along and made friends with him. Now all the cats are living together peacefully and they lived happily ever after.