Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my post. I'll try to answer all of your questions.

I was just talking to my daughter and was wrong about keeping Jolie in one room. They have just moved back to MI recently from HI and Jolie was in my grandson's room most of the time when we were there. Her water bowl and food is in there and her litter box and they sleep together. I guess she just chose to stay in there most of the time when we were there, but she does come out and is around the other animals every day. However, our grandson was the one who took care of her all of the time when they got her purposely because they wanted for him to be her cat and now she thinks it was a mistake because they wish she were friendlier with them also. She'll tend to run away more when they pet her, but not when my grandson does. She said she isn't really a lap cat, but likes to sit next to my grandson to be pet and sleeps in his bed. I was able to pet her though when I was there so it's not as if she isn't friendly at all. I thought she was a very sweet cat.

I completely agree with you about the declawing, my daughter and I had discussions about that when she had it done. Later I read an article about it and was even more upset by it...I'm going to try to find that article again because I seem to remember there was another alternative to declawing in it. At the time she didn't want to but she was beginning to snag all of their furniture.

This morning she said they're not going to keep this kitten but try to find her a good home, but if I had to place a bet on this, I'd doubt it. While we were on the phone she kept saying things like, "do you hear that, she doesn't purr, she squeaks like a toy," or "she's so sweet, she sits in our laps." Her husband walked in their room and said, "hi, kitty kitty" in the sweetest voice. He didn't want another animal, they do have a housefull now, but he's also a real softie. When my daughter first brought her home I was talking to him on the phone and told him God must have brought this kitten to him for a reason and maybe she's going to save their lives or something one day , and he told me not to go getting all theological on him...<g> Then I told him maybe they should name her Desitiny...

Back to Jolie, she doesn't have an illness of any kind and they don't know what kind of cat she is. All I know is she's a very pretty little black cat. I asked my daughter what they feed her and she said Natural Choice Adult cat food. Is that good or bad as commercial food goes? I personally homecooked for our dog for 17 or his 19 years and would love to see her do that also, but I haven't been able to convince her of that yet, I haven't given up though..

She doesn't allow her to be outside because she said she read that it shortens their life by 50%. Someone else told me about a book they said was excellent, "Know Your Cat" by Bruce Fogle, DVM. We will read that and see what we can learn.

I called her this morning to tell her about the answers I received to my posts and tell her that I also read an article saying that Jolie's reaction to seeing this kitten for the first time was very natural, especially for two females and how to introduce them to each other. She wasn't trying to bring them together when this happened. Jolie walked in the room where the kitten was and it just all happned. If she had any idea it would have been like that, she would have made sure to keep the door closed but since there wasn't a problem with the other animals, it didn't occur to her there would be a problem. Everything just happened so quickly. She wasn't out looking for another cat, suddenly she was just bringing home a kitten and caring for it and everything happened.

Also, this morning Jolie was back to her old self allowing everyone to pet her and there was no more hissing so I was thrilled to hear that. They're definitely keeping the two of the separate now, but while my daughter was saying they weren't going to keep this kitten, she also said by the end of the conversation that she'd go read the article I had found about introducting them to each other so we'll see how this all ends.

Again, thank you so much for responding to me, I really appreciate it. I also have a friend who just recently took in his son's cat because he wasn't allowed to have him where he moved to. It's working out very well and they're wonderful company for each other and I told him I'd research for him the best food to feed him so it looks like I'm going to start learning more about cats. I'll probably be posting more here in the future.