Byron
Alasdair spent the first 4 years of his life with Byron. Byron was also a British Shorthair but was much more sociable and active than Alasdair.
Because they both moved in with me together as kittens, I expected them to develop a stronger bond than they did.
They would play together and often slept near each other, but they were never very cuddly.
Byron got bored very easily and always wanted to cause trouble, while Alasdair just wanted to chill.
After a couple of years, they started fighting a lot more. They usually didn’t stay mad at each other for very long, but I would occasionally come home to my floors completely covered in puffs from their fights.
Before I moved to the US, I “temporarily” gave Byron to a family who wanted a younger cat to keep their 19-year old cat company after losing his lifelong companion. Byron immediately bonded with the 10-year old girl in the family as well as the senior cat. I always knew that Byron would love being part of a family with kids. Even though it was a hard decision, I agreed when they asked to keep Byron. Alasdair didn’t seem too upset about it so this ended up working out for everyone.
Snejana, a.k.a Snejli or Snej
Snejli was a rescue from the SF SPCA. It was on her record that she did not get along with other cats and the new owner had to agree to not bringing another cat into their home. My husband wasn’t planning to get another cat! But we started dating just a few months after he adopted Snejli and we knew we may eventually want to consolidate our households (especially because we were many timezones apart at the time!).
Snejli was roughly 8 years old when Alasdair and I moved in with them in January 2014. We followed all the advice the SPCA had shared with us about how to introduce the two cats. Alasdair stayed in a separate room, we exchanged items so they could get used to each other’s smell, etc.
We gave Snejli the bed from Alasdair’s carrier and she accepted that right away. In fact, she loved it so much she spent about 22 hours a day in it. The rest of the time, she would be camped outside Alasdair’s room and hiss at him through the door.
We took things very slowly. Alasdair had been there for several weeks by the time we actually let them be in the same room together. It was pretty hostile. Lots of hissing and stealing each other’s food.
We didn’t love it but knew we had to accept that they may never fully get along.
It took months for them to eventually tolerate each other. Alasdair showed definite interest in playing with Snejli but she seemed pretty scared of him. He liked to troll her but she certainly didn’t appreciate it.
When we moved to a new apartment after 4 years, their dynamic surprisingly changed quite a bit.
Suddenly, it was Alasdair who was scared while Snejli acted like she was the queen of the new household. After we had all settled into the new place, they both became more relaxed overall and around each other.
They started competing for real estate in our laps, slept on the bed together, and didn’t fight over the same sleeping spots as much anymore. Alasdair’s attempts to play with Snejli all still failed, but he never stopped trying.
They also still tried to steal each other’s food and occasionally hissed at each other, but we no longer felt like we had ruined Snejli’s life by bringing Alasdair into her life!
Orla
After Snejli was no longer with us, we initially did not even entertain the idea of adopting another cat. Alasdair was already 12 and becoming an old boy himself. He was such a momma’s boy, we figured he would be content being an only cat.
He did mostly seem OK with it. But not having any competition around meant he didn’t need to fight for our attention, became less active, and plumper than he had ever been.
We couldn’t help but think that maybe a playful kitten would keep him on his toes and he would be more active again?
Everyone we talked to told us it was a bad idea. A kitten can be stressful for a senior cat. If they don’t get along you may make Alasdair’s last few years of his life miserable.
We were on the fence. Accept status quo, or give it a try and see how it works out?
We decided to risk it, and it was the best decision we could have made.
Orla was 14 weeks old when she came home. Alasdair was immediately interested in her though she was very scared of him (she was tiny at the time). We kept her in a crate for a few days so he would not feel threatened by her presence, but it did not take long for them to want to play together and become comfortable around each other.
It wasn’t always all perfect paradise though. They were on different diets and Alasdair was very jealous of Orla getting crunchies while he was only fed wet food.
And Orla was being annoying at times. Stalking him and wanting to play when he clearly just wanted to be left alone.
They also occasionally got into very traumatic multi-day fights that were upsetting to all of us. We never understood what prompted them, but they always eventually resolved it.
But it was clear that she adored her older brother and he was very protective of her.
We felt like Alasdair finally had the playmate he had always wanted. He was running around quite a bit and lost his extra weight pretty quickly.
He also became more affectionate around me again and we developed new rituals for play time just between the two of us.
After a couple of years, it became obvious that Alasdair wasn’t able to keep up with Orla as much anymore. He was getting older and was slowing down quite a bit. Orla mostly accepted that, but she still followed him around everywhere he went and always slept near him.
It’s probably fair to say that Orla was Alasdair’s favorite companion that he had, and I’m so glad he got to spend the last 4 years of his life with another cat who loved him so dearly.
Losing Alasdair has been very hard for Orla. She misses her older brother very much.
Wankershim
Wankershim is Alasdair’s cousin in Portland, OR. During the pandemic, we spent a lot of time on Google Meet calls with Wankershim’s parents playing online boardgames on Steam.
Grey Cat Party became a thing! Alasdair loved watching Wankershim on screen.