The shelter told us to basically quarantine the kittens for two weeks. Contradictingly, from the 20-30 pieces of advice I’ve found online, that quarantine period should only be as long as necessary to get the kittens vaccinated. After that, they should begin integrating with any cats in the house as soon as possible. Needless to say, we have created a bit of acrimony with the cats, due to having the kittens primarily in #1 Daughter’s room (Pluto’s normal daytime sleeping place), and alternatively in #1 Son’s room (Ginka’s favorite hiding spot is under #1 Son’s bed). So, we began allowing them all to start interacting the day before yesterday. Which conveniently served as an excuse for the kids to keep cleaning up after themselves across the whole house, not just in their rooms. Yay!

Ginka and Pluto are naturally dead-set on establishing, repeatedly, their dominance. Which is to be expected. Either the Spouse-Unit or I have been along with the kittens as they’ve met up with the cats to help ensure that aggressive behavior from the cats doesn’t go over the top. We’re being careful to reassure the cats during and after each interaction, and not just coddle the kittens when they get scared. While neither Ginka nor Pluto seem overly pleased with having to share their space, no injuries have been sustained by the kittens as of yet, and the cats continue to interact with us favorably.

During the day, we confine the kitties to either upstairs or downstairs, wherever the children are, since they’re both home this week. The cats are staying outside a bit more, but with the kittens having basically the full run of the house now, they are becoming increasingly more familiar with the kittens’ scent. By winter at the latest, I’m pretty confident things will be going well between the four of them, and hopefully, this winter will be a more active one for the cats, with kittens and a lot of new toys to play with!