to see if we’d be interested in him, as they thought he needed an experienced owner

as he’d recently arrived unwanted, and they’d been flooded with inappropriate people to

adopt him.

He’s not a bad boy, but without firm and consistent discipline, he’d be very to likely

develop many bad behavioural traits. He’s very intelligent and boisterous like many

Bengal cats, so he’ll need careful supervision being introduced to our two cats, Freya a

7 year old rescued Bengal former breeding queen, and Teego a 2 year old Mixed Breed

and also a rescue. The first thing is to keep him safely locked

away in his own special room for the first 3 days … oops! Well, at least try to!

The reason for keeping a new cat locked away for the first three days is to allow the resident

cats time to get used to his smell through the door, and to allow supervised introductions.

Teego was first, as he was fascinated by this visitor, often sitting outside his door for

long periods of time. The escapee is caught and returned, and runs

over to meet his new brother. Fortunately, there are no big problems with the first introduction

- Teego very uncharacteristically hisses a few times at Chatzi, just to assert dominance

early. This is Teego’s patch, and Chatzi’s a trespasser…. And he’s too close!

Chatzi adopts a classic submissive pose, with a low down head, no to be confused with lying

on your back which is more of a defensive pose.

A tense standoff then happens, with both cats looking at each other. Fortunately there are

no flat ears or flicking tails to indicate possible confrontation

Incredibly confident as he is, Chatzi is somewhat knocked off his stride here, Teego moves around,

doing this amazing slow motion walk avoiding making any sudden gestures that might escalate

matters. Chatzi is frozen to the spot – not necessarily

by fear, just surveying the situation safely without creating any trouble

We break up the first introduction to let both cats calm down and relax again although

Teego wasn’t really showing any signs of wanting to go!

A few hours later, we bring Freya in - she’s a very timid middle aged Rescue Bengal. You

can see straight away that she doesn’t want to stay. We’ve no intention of keeping her

in against her will, but it’s good for her to see him for a moment, and then see if she

shows any signs of curiosity from the other side of the door later on.

The Next day, Chatzi seems to be even more confident – giving us an amazing display

of fluffed up back! Curiously, this is quite a half-hearted display, as I’ve seen it

much more pronounced, and usually the tail will double in width too. He looks a bit like

a miniature Stegosaurus! Teego responds with an equally half-hearted

display, you can see his back is arched, but minimal fluffing up. he then sets off again

with his slow motion walking. Chatzi is clearly nervous, running on pure

instinct, he’s acting defensively, but just because he thinks he should – he probably

hasn’t met any other cats before, and has no idea if he’s in danger or not – so

better safe than sorry

This whole episode is tense, but with a minimum of aggression. Both are walking around, strutting

their stuff, saying YOU DON’T WANT TO MESS WITH ME but without actually backing it up

with any actions. As Teego approaches, he lets out a high pitched

sound a Chatzi, which doesn’t seem aggressive, but it’s unusual , as Teego is NEVER vocal

but it is a warning. Chatzi doesn’t really react, although he HAS got himself a little

cornered there. Again, Chatzi resorts to his submissive head

low position, maybe because he’s feeling Teego’s come a little too close, and Teego

IS almost twice the size of him. It always amazes me how cats can turn their

back on a potential adversary in a tense situation like this, but it happens so often, it’s

not a fluke… Maybe there are unwritten rules of sportsmanship in the cat world?

Again, Chatzi resorts to his head down submissive pose, but keep watching, he’s not feeling

completely beaten! His ears go back, and he makes a semi-sudden

move towards Teego! But take a look at his body language – he’s still low down – he

just wants to play, but doesn’t know how to instigate it!

And another sudden lunge – It’s almost as if Chatzi wants to start something, but

doesn’t want to make the first move? His ears are completely back, so he’s clearly

expecting or hoping something will kick off? Teego plays it ultra-cool as usual, barely

even reacting to Chatzi’s provocation Chatzi’s almost like that annoying kid in

the playground that keeps picking at people to get some attention – not so much a bully,

but very mischievous! This has all become a bit too tense, maybe just

for us, and we cause a little distraction to break the tension

Notice Chatzi’s tail position as he moves away from Teego and over to us it goes straight

up, like a happy confident cat

Chatzi gets a new air of confidence, and moves over to Teego

Little brat! I guess he hasn’t read the rules on cat Ettiquette and turning your back!

This was very rude of Chatzi, and we give Teego the option to leave if he’s had enough.

But he makes it clear that the little Brat is much more interesting than outside!

All this happened on the second day of Chatzi’s life at his new home – Subscribe to my channel

to find out what happens later in the week!