Kitten Dilemma

One of John's co-workers at Grassmere Animal Hospital (where he works PT) found a little kitten and brought him in a couple weeks ago. At this point, they don't have anyone to adopt him and we do have room for another cat at our house... well... technically speaking anyway.

I stopped in to GAH to meet the kitty on Wednesday... and John and I agreed that it was a cutie petutie. BUT, how would Scat and Cammie react to the little fella infringing on their territory?

So, last night JTC brought home the teeny, tiny, 5-week old kitten to see what would happen.

Well... let's just say it didn't go well.

Cammie (seniority cat - 7.5 years old) was immediately upset. The thing that is interesting about her reaction is that she's pissed at our other can, Scat (#2 cat - 2.5 years old) over it. She spent most of last night scatting (which is actually how Scat got her name in the first place) at Scat and completely ignoring the kitten.

The bottom line: Cammie is REALLY mad. The whole situation must have brought back bad memories for her. You see, when Scat came on the scene, Cammie was NOT happy either. Besides the fact that Scat was (and still is) full of boundless energy and was constantly bugging "senior cat," she was also infringing on Cammie's well dominated territory and affections from John and me.

Scat didn't react to the kitten much better than Cammie, but she was at least curious about him. Until last night and this morning, we'd never heard Scat growel. If the kitten got close to her, she'd sit there, glare at it and growl that low cat growel. Only once did she strike out at him... but it was a harmless warning shot (for now anyway).

This morning, John took "Scratch" back to Grassmere. Of course things didn't go back to normal for the other two when this happened. Not five minutes after JTC left for work, Cammie started hissing and growling at Scat. (Poor Scat, she looked so confused.)

Then, when Scat tried to approach her Cammie just went into all out attack mode. She was relentless and Scat was stunned... so was I for that matter. I was able to the cats separated and calmed down.

Thankfully, Scat while cautious, remained persistent about getting close to Cammie and making-up. By the time I gave them their treats and left for work (about 45 minutes later), they were friends again.

**Whew**

So, I'm not sure what to do. Is a new kitten worth the trauma? It is really small, so we probably wouldn't even be able to leave it alone with the two of them for at least six weeks. I'm afraid the two would "eliminate" the little tyke if left to their own devices.

But, he's so cute and he needs a good home. They'd eventually get used to him and maybe even get along, right?

What would YOU do?

1. Take the kitten.
   Stress out the other two cats for a couple months until they get over it.
2. Leave well enough alone.
   The kitty is cute. Someone else will want it.

Help!