This is a blog about cats. But, before all you dog people out there just skip to the next blog, let me warn you that this is also  a plea for help from anyone who has ever had pets or had experiences with pets. Before I delve in the current dilemma, a little background: Izzy (full name: Isalbella blue) is the first pet I have ever had that was just mine, other than a slew of fish I could never seem to keep alive longer than a couple of weeks. She is a siamese-mix who I picked up as a seven week old kitten from a farm in Colorado when I was in graduate school. For the first year of Izzy’s life, it was just the two of us in my little condo in Boulder. Because I did almost of my school work at home, she and I were together all of the time. She was my baby and I adored her. She kept me company when I was lonely for my boyfriend who lived 2 thousand miles away, and I taught her to play fetch. She was the happiest and sweetest kitten in the whole world. When graduate school was over, I packed up all of my stuff,  my brand new master’s degree, and drove 24 hours straight with Izzy by my side all the way to Georgia to finally be together again with my boyfriend. Though it was no longer just the two of us, Izzy quickly adapted to her new life in Georgia. Benj and I doted on her like she was our darling, and she was happy to have a house triple the size of our previous abode to run around in. She was still a happy little kitty. Before we knew it, however, Benj and I were a working couple who’s lives were becoming busier by the day, and we were spending more and more time away from home.

Recently I concluded that the best way to combat the guilt I was feeling about leaving Izzy home alone all the time was to get another companion for her. After we returned from yet another out of town trip, we decided it was time to visit the Atlanta Humane Society. This is where we met Chloe (aka: Little-one, or Chloe-belle). We intended to come home with another siamese-mix, but Chloe was just the sweetest little thing that we had ever seen and seemed to be begging us to bring her home. It was love at first sight. I couldn’t wait for Izzy to meet her new sister. Unfortunately, Izzy did not share in our enthusiasm when we opened the box and let little Chloe crawl out. In fact, Izzy was so upset that instead of hissing at the new cat, she turned to hiss at us! She had never hissed at me in her life.  She began to growl in anger like a lion, a sound that I had never heard rumble out of my sweet little kitten. I was in such shock at Izzy’s reaction that I immediately did what any rational thinking person would do: I packed the new kitten back up in her box, marched her out to the car, and almost drove back to the very same Humane Society where, 20 minutes earlier, I had just filled out mountains of paperwork assuring them that I was a sane and good pet owner. Luckily, I was talked into going back in the house and giving it another shot before returning the crying kitten. In tears, I went straight to the internet in order to determine just what went wrong. Immediately, I found loads of articles identifying the exact steps to take when introducing a new cat to the current cat:

Step One: Keep the two cats seperate from eachother for at least 10 days.

Oops.

Step Two: Allow the cats to get used to eachother’s scents before initiating any physical contact.

Oops again.

And so on went the instructions for introducing a new cat so as not to threaten and alienate the first cat, and pave the way for a smooth transition.  Two months have passed since that initial introduction, and things haven’t really gotten all that better. Once in while I will catch the two of them playing together, but more often than not, Izzy tries to literaly kill Chloe, and she is still a very angry kitty. I am sad that she feels this way and I am sad that she is angry with me and continues to hiss and growl at anyone who comes her way, however; in the meantime, we have managed to fall in love with Chloe so returning her is no longer an option.

So here comes my plea for help! Anyone who has had experience with this sort of thing, please give me some advice! The internet has only been as helpful as alerting me to all of the mistakes I have made, but not as to how to undo the damage. I need to know that Izzy will someday be the sweet little darling she once was before we ruined her life by bringing baby home, and that one day they will learn to get along and Chole will be the companion for Izzy that we intended her to be. Please help!