Hello,



I am new to the board. Sorry if this is long



Background:

My husband and I recently adopted a new cat. She is an 8 year old purebred snowshoe cat that was used as a breeding cat for most of her life. She is quite skittish and it took her a month to warm up just a little bit. It’s now been 6 weeks and she still likes to hide most of the time and she gets very scared if you walk by her quickly or by loud noises etc. The odd thing is that she is less skittish at night; actually, she is very active and very talkative at night. She usually stops talking if I pay some attention to her. She has also started to be taken by me and seems sad when I leave for work.



Question:

I am afraid that she gets bored during the days (and night), as we both work full time. I am also afraid that she might get depressed because she is alone all day. Should we adopt another cat? Is two better than one, or is one better? Initially we thought it would be great for her to be alone with us and to get all of our loving attention, because before, she was one of 10 - 15+ cats in a cattery. She might have even spent some time in a cage, and the owner said that she never bonded with her. And if we should adopt, what is generally better? Another female or a male? An adult or a kitten? We are leaning towards another adult as most people always wants kittens. How about breed? Are some more easygoing than others?



We saw this other 1 year old female snowshoe cat up for adoption at Petsmart by an organization called “Cats in need”. She looks just like our current cat and though it would be a cute fit. However, she was abandoned as well as just pregnant. She has already had her kittens…Would a recent mother be an ok fit? Is she too young still? In addition, because she was abandoned she is also likely to be a skittish cat, and my other thought is that perhaps we should adopt a more relaxed/curious cat so that our current cat could “learn” from the new one.



Thank you so much,

Sylvia

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