Peter- An Abyssinian is one of the breads my wife has been looking at. HeadlessBlue - 4 is a lot to look after but I guess probably not that much more work than 2.
Just wondering about introducing cats to each other. In 2006 my wife's cat of 18 years died and we got two kittens hoping that getting them together would mean they would get on. We got a Siberian Forest Cat called Tolly after Leo Tolstoy the Russian author of War and Peace. Kip was named after Rudyard Kipling the author of the Jungle Book. Tolly turned up first and we had him for a week on his own before Kip turned up, we were worried would they like each other and tried to get the cats to sniff each other though a door but they got together and played nicely. Then after a while got tired and went to sleep cuddled up. Tolly is a very independent cat mainly spending time on his own, some time with Kip but trying to ignore us humans most of the time. Kip on the other hand would come running as soon as I got home and loved human company.
13 years later and they were still friends 90% of the time although did have their odd fight. Even last week I found them both cuddled up together. They would groom each other, more Kip licking Tolly than the other way around but a bit of each. I also thik it iwas more Kip finding Tolly on the couch, chair, etc. and cuddling up to him rather than Tolly finding Kip but I expect a bit of both finding each other.
The last few days Tolly has been walking around the house coming up for he occasional pat but walking off reasonably quickly. A bit more time with us than usual but I think missing the company of Kip and accepting in his view the less appealing company of the humans. I guess what I am concerned about is how Tolly would react to another cat. He obviously liked Kip company and grew up his whole life with some cat company but would he accept a cat stranger. He does seem pretty territorial about our back yard from what I can tell so not sure he would accept another cat that we chose, I somehow doubt he would bond like he did with Kip but not sure. Some people say get another cat straight away before Tolly gets used to being on his own, others say don't get another at all until he is gone and then get two again like we did, it is hard to know what is really the best thing for Tolly.
A guy from work has suggested that boy cats bond better than girls and definitely better than mixed sexes in which case we should be looking for another boy cat and just hope we don't get too much spraying - we have had a bit every now and then
Or maybe I should be talking to a vet about it rather than just listening to someone at work.
Anyway thanks everyone for reading and commenting.
