Concatenation Conundrum

[robotech_master]

Any cat people here? (Looking at you, lil_shepherd, inamac :) I need some advice, and I need it bad.

Over in this discussion thread I have been talking about my plan to introduce two new cats into a currently cat-free apartment at the same time. One of them is that Bengal I mentioned, Benjamin, who the shelter operator has said gets along well with other cats. They're both very young adults—Benji's 1 1/2, and the vet estimates Diva's age at "about 2" from the condition of her teeth.

The thing is, I'm getting some conflicting advice. Some people advise the whole "segregate them into different rooms and introduce them by degrees" thing. But one of the posters, cshenk, points out that this advice is meant for introducing a new cat into a home that another cat or cats consider their territory, and that this separation in the event of two new cats can lead to both cats staking out their own mini-territories rather than getting integrated as a household. He cites (what he claims to be) considerable experience in the matter.

One of the other posters, who disagrees with him, advised me to "consider the sources" of the advice. The problem is, I don't know either of them from Adam so as far as I'm concerned their credibility is about the same. (Well, cshenk's credibility may be slightly higher—but if I'm honest with myself, I'm not sure whether that is because he writes convincingly with well-justified arguments or because I'd rather not have to mess with the whole segregation business.)

I really don't want to make the wrong decision here and ruin my cats' chances of getting along with each other. And this is something that can only be done once.

Comments

[katenigma.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot to note that Bella, the same cat who hissed and pouted when we brought home cat #3, was one of the cats in the bring 2 home at once scenario, who was as good as gold THEN.