Bonding with your new cat
To help you introduce your new cat to her new house and help her develop a strong bond with you the following guidelines are provided. If you have a resident cat, please see: Introducing your new cat to your resident cat
To feel safe in any environment, cats need to have a familiar scent (their own), have the opportunity to hide and perch at will and have control over the amount of interaction they have with people or the environment.
Adoption is a wonderful event in the life of a shelter cat. Arriving in a new home with new smells, people and furniture means that the cat is once again feeling anxious and sometimes scared. To help cats adapt to their new home, each one takes the Hide and Perch box that has become her safe place while at the shelter. This will ensure that your cat does not run and hide in difficult to reach places, reduces the risk of defensive aggressive behaviour (hiss, spit, swat) that cats often show when scared and reduces the chance that he will attempt to run away/escape.
Provide an upside down box with holes cut that are large enough for the cat to enter.
