Should I get the cat?

[asmp]

We have only ever owned one cat at a time. The cat we have now was a rescue and we have owned her for about six years (she’s about 13 years old.). However I have just heard that no one wants the cat of my mum‘s neighbour who is about to go into a home (well my mum would but my dad says no and that’s another story).

Am I mad to think about rehoming him and would it cause too much stress to mine? He is about 6 years old and was a rescue cat too.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

You can but try if you think it might work. However I'd have in the back of my mind that I'd be fostering and if it really didn't work out then puss would need to be rehomed via a local charity.

 

[DirectorFury]

+1 to what TFF says (as always!).

Anecdotally I find boy + girl or boy + boy easier to integrate than girl + girl.
Providing you do the introductions really slowly with a lot of scent swapping, and some Feliway, you should be grand as that will minimise stress for both of them.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

I'm the other way around, I would guess that around 98% of my cat owning years have been with multiple cats. The majority of our cats have enjoyed living together, and the few that didn't care that much about the others quickly learned to ignore the others.
So in your shoes, if I liked the cat, I would give it a try.

Edited To Add: Coming to think about it, Berta liked the other cats much more from the moment we came home with her than what they liked her, and it took time before she learnt their boundaries, but she wasn't the smartest cat. A second ETA, with only one exception, we've only had female cats.

 

[Chippers1]

I'm about to do the same! Currently have one (very spoilt only child) cat and I'm about to introduce a rescue cat. The rescue cat is 19 and I felt so sorry for her I wanted to give her a home in her advanced years. My boy cat is very chilled out so i'm hoping he will accept her ok but to be honest she won't be doing much moving around and jumping in his face like a younger cat would, plus is unlikely to steal his place on the bed or eat his food (she's very fussy apparently, as is he!).
So I think you should go for it as I have!

 

[Umbongo]

Agree with above, if you like the cat you can try....but if it doesn't work out then have a back up option.

https://icatcare.org/advice/introducing-an-adult-cat-to-your-cat/

I had a male & female from the same litter. They HATED each other, were only happy when we finally separated them at 17 years old (I moved out of the family home and took the male with me). My boy LOVED dogs though. Some cats get on fine with others, some don't

 

[Ratface]

I agree with Umbongo. I wouldn't dream of having another cat whilst Kevin is still alive.
However, he is an entitled, spoilt brat.
I hope everything works out for you and the cats.

 

[ElleSkywalkingintheair]

I have 8 cats, briefly went down to 7 but found a new kitten pretty quickly, this time last year I had 9.5, there is the odd grumble but they tend to ignore each other TBH