When Ryan and I first decided to spend our summer in Florida, we had a few concerns regarding Alice, but one of them was how she was going to adjust to his parents’ two cats.

Maia is 16 years old and mostly keeps to herself in the parents’ bedroom. They put up a gate to keep Simba out. Simba is a 2 year old, easily excitable, playful cat that spends a good amount of time outside (don’t worry; they have an enclosed back patio). We just didn’t know how Alice would respond to other cats.

For the first 3 days, Alice stayed under the bed in our bedroom. I finally forced her to come out but she was against it… to say the least.

The following week, she barely peeked her head out of the bedroom and down the stairs. If anyone made any kind of noise, she ran right back up into our bedroom. We didn’t have stairs in our old apartment so she was quite funny going up and down them.

Alice made Maia mad during one of her first trips all the way down stairs and got hissed at, so I think she’s been staying away from her for the most part.

By the end of the second week, she only felt comfortable coming down at night for a couple hours and wouldn’t let Simba within 10 feet of her. Simba on the other hand was anxious to play with her, but Alice is not really one that plays nicely. With anyone.

These last few weeks, she comes down in the morning when we open the door. This is when the two started to get to know each other. And by “know each other” I mean: Simba walks up to her nicely and wants to smell her while Alice hisses and swipes with her claws out. She’s the sweetest. But not really.

Right now, they spontaneously run beside each other down the hallway or into a bedroom and right back out. Kind of like you’d see horses do.

My eventual hope is that they will sleep and cuddle together like normal cats. And here’s a random balloon I found in a supermarket that looks exactly like Alice.