By Adam Stewart
Cats have a reputation as low-maintenance pets. That may be partially true for single cats, but I have not found it to be the case when more than one cat is involved. This summer has been an adventure as a cat owner, trying to move our outdoor cat, Pumpkin, inside without her and our indoor cat, Minnie, fighting and hurting each other.
My wife and I adopted Minnie as a young adult cat from the Hutchinson Animal Shelter in the fall of 2021. She quickly made herself at home in our bungalow, getting used to soft beds, couch cushions, and blankets. She alternates between being affectionate and playful. In fact, as I write this, Minnie is meowing, headbutting and tapping my shoulder with her paw, demanding I lie down to snuggle with her.
Then, in the spring of 2024, a neighbor asked us if we would adopt Pumpkin as he was moving out of town and couldn’t take her with him. We happily said yes, as we already knew Pumpkin and had been setting out water and occasional food for her.
When the heat got to be too much last summer, we tried to move Pumpkin inside. Unfortunately, she and Minnie refused to coexist. Neither would leave the other alone, and both would hiss and swat at the other when she felt her personal space was violated.
We tried following advice from online experts, setting Pumpkin up in our guest room, so she and Minnie could get used to smelling and hearing each other through the closed door. But things didn’t improve much over the summer. I think Pumpkin felt cooped up in the guest room, so whenever she was allowed into the rest of the house, she was too wound up and ready to fight Minnie.
After the weather cooled down a bit, we let Pumpkin back outside. We continued to give her food and water, we made sure she got her annual veterinary check-up, and we set up a shelter in our garage so she could stay warm when winter arrived. But we knew we wanted to try moving her inside again. It’s safer for her, and safer for the birds and squirrels in our neighborhood. Before we brought her back in this summer, my wife and I witnessed Pumpkin catch a robin in our front yard, and it wasn’t because she was hungry. We had fed Pumpkin maybe an hour before.
I think the breakthrough came this summer when we decided to put up baby gates in the doorway between the guest room and the dining room, instead of closing the door. For the record, it took three gates, and they had to be just the right size because otherwise Pumpkin could climb them and squeeze through a much smaller gap than should be possible.
But it seems like she feels less cooped up in the guest room now that she can see out. And the cats have few confrontations through the gates, and they don’t last long.
Our next steps are to try feeding them close together on opposite sides of the gates. A test run with a special treat of wet food the other day showed promise.
We are also looking for outlets for Pumpkin’s energy, so she isn’t so wound up when we give her time out of the guest room. We built a cat exercise wheel for her Saturday night, and we’re giving her a few days just to get used to it being there before trying to get her exercising on it. We also got a birdfeeder to mount outside the guest room windows to give her more entertainment.
We gave Minnie and Pumpkin some supervised time in the same space Monday night, and I’m happy to report that Pumpkin found a steady supply of cat treats more interesting than Minnie. I am hopeful that we can get some momentum going and let Pumpkin roam the house freely without worrying about fights.
If you have outdoor cats, get them fixed. Uncontrolled cat populations are terrible for other wildlife.