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Bringing a stray home: Can she adapt to indoor life with other cats?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

At my workplace, been feeding a stray for about 2 years. Shes real sweet and real attached to me. Shes good weight n looks like a persian. My workplace is surrounded by lots of acres and a few homes. Question is want to take her home but have small apartment n 2 other female cats, inside cats. Can she adapt to always inside, and other cats after years outdoors?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on March 13th, 2017

That is so lovely of you to want to take in this kitty! Yes, she can adjust to her new home, and I will give you a method that will help ease her transition. I would slowly introduce them to each other. Take the cat, and put her in her own room with her own food, water, and litter box. Keep the door closed, and for a few days, feed them all treats on other side of door so they associate each other's smell with a good experience. Then let the other cats in the new cat's room while the new cat is in a cat carrier. They can smell each other, but not be in contact. If anyone becomes upset or show signs of aggression, remove the other cats from the room, and try again later. Praise them when they interact appropriately. When they are interacting well with each other through the carrier, you can let the new cat out of her room, and see how she interacts with the other cats. Praise them when they interact appropriately, and separate them with any sign of aggression or upset. I would get a cat tree with lots of shelves to give the cats vertical space to get away from each other. I would keep the new cat in her room when you go out until they are comfortable with each other.

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    Answered By Bobbi Musgrove, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    It is very kind of you to care for this sweet stray kitty. It is possible that she could adapt to a strictly indoor lifestyle and even fit in well with your other two cats. Unfortunately it is impossible to say whether this will work out without trying. Most importantly, before taking her home, she needs to be examined by a veterinarian to ensure she doesn't have potentially contagious feline diseases such as leukemia or feline immunodeficiency viruses. These can be present in stray cats and would be very bad to share with your other cats. A blood test can be performed for these viruses and results can be back in as quickly as 10 minutes. Routine deworming and vaccines, particularly giving her a rabies vaccine are very important before introducing to other cats. I recommend visiting this website to read some helpful articles about bringing home a new cat: indoorpet.osu.edu/cats. When you have her examined, you can ask for more pointers about introducing a new cat to the household.

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