By Patience Fisher
© Can Stock Photo Inc./RUZANNA
There are many challenges for shelters in finding adoptive homes for cats. As an adoption counselor, I always found it disheartening to have a cat returned to the shelter for not getting along with the resident cats. During the adoption process, the concept of slow introductions was explained, but upon the cat’s return we often found out that the introduction process had been rushed. As a result, I saw a need for a very simple, short, how-to brochure for introducing a new cat to a resident cat. I am sharing excerpts from the brochure I wrote, titled Your New Cat, to help other shelters, cat behavior consultants and cat owners…There is so much excitement and so much going on during an adoption it is not surprising that an adopter does not remember what was meant by slow introductions. The simple three-step guide I developed explains the concept, breaks it down into small steps and is a handy reference. Read more.