Well, that certainly changes things. Romper could still use a kitten her own size to play and socialize with, since the adult males may not want to play with her or may play waaay too rough. However, Romper will learn lots of important feline social skills from the adults, and that's a very good thing! As far as introductions are concerned, young kittens are generally very easy to incorporate into a household. You will, however, need to keep them under constant, close supervision until you are certain that the males have accepted Romper, because some males will kill kittens. Even with young kittens, some adults may get their noses out of joint for a while. They may even be afraid of Romper and hiss, run, and hide from her. But this will pass as they realize that she poses no real threat. If I were you (and I have certainly been in your position), I would just start letting Romper out into the rest of the house and stay very close by as she makes her own introductions. As long as neither of your boys make any physically aggressive moves toward her, ignore any hisses and growls and just let them do whatever they feel they need to do in order to deal with the "situation". If Romper is afraid, however, hold and comfort her. She's just a tiny baby, after all. Don't make a huge fuss over her. Just hold her so that she feels protected. If she'll play, try to distract her with some type of toy so that she can associate being in the boys' presence with a source of fun. If Romper is anything like the kittens who have been abandoned on my road and/or shown up on my farm, she'll be a lot more fearful of your dog than she will be of your other cats. But as she watches your cats interact with your dog, she'll quickly learn that the dog is no threat, either. Don't force interactions on any of the animals. Let them all figure it out in their own ways and at their own paces. Just keep Romper safe and separated from the others when you are not able to directly supervise until you know that they are all accepting and comfortable with each other. Having written all of that, I feel compelled to tell you a tragic story of a kitten who was briefly a member of my family many years ago. I had two adult female cats and three dogs at the time. The dogs had all lived peacefully and happily with multiple cats their entire lives. I adopted a young male kitten who was a real pistol, as male kittens will be. The adult cats would have absolutely NOTHING to do with him, so he had no same-species playmates with whom to expend his youthful energy. Of course my ex and I played with him as often as possible during daylight hours and before bedtime, but his need for play was insatiable (again, as if often the case with young male kittens). One morning I awoke to find the kitten with a broken neck, dead, under our bed in the exact spot where our old lab always slept. Since the lab didn't have a cat-aggressive bone in her body, all I could imagine was that the kitten had decided he wanted to play and pounced on the lab in the middle of the night. I'm guessing he woke her out of a sound sleep with all those little needles on his feet, and she woke up snapping without even realizing what she was doing. His death must have been instantaneous, because we heard absolutely nothing. Needless to say, we were heartbroken. The moral to this story is to keep your kitten and your dog separated when you're not around to supervise until your kitten is old enough to have learned some manners, because tragic accidents can happen in an instant. Laurie

Let me relay a story about a pup I adopted out and how it came back to me because I didn't check out the person thoroughly. I took the word of a fellow rescuer when she sent this woman to me to adopt the puppy. My thought was if she's being sent over by a fellow rescuer than surely she's a good pet owner, right? WRONG!! The woman already owned a dog, who was 7 years old. Good sign, the dog lasted that long. I didn't check her vet reference and just had her fill out the application and handed the dog over to her. She and the daughter went on and on pretending to really care about the dog and had me believing they were going to be the perfect owners. The pup was already spayed before I adopted her out so that was not an issue. The other requirment whenever I adopt out a large dog or a dog with issues. is that they have to be brought to obedience school. So two months after she adopted the puppy I checked in with her to see if she had brought the puppy to obedience school. When I called I was not prepared for what I learned. First thing she tells me is the dog does not listen and it's still not housetrained. Then she tells me the dog is "afraid" of her son. Bells went off when she made that statement since the dog left my house not afraid of anyone or anything. First thing came to mind is the boy is abusing the dog. Lastly, the puppy hadn't been to obedience school and no, she had not started in on HW preventative. I asked her when would be a good time for me to come pick up the dog since she obviously couldn't care for it and had broken the adoption agreement. She told me anytime would be fine. I rushed over there and picked up the dog. Poor little dog was so, so happy to see me. Because I didn't know what she had suffered at the hands of this woman and her kids, I was afraid the dog would now have major issues. My worry was unfounded becasue as soon as she saw my husband she went crazy with excitement. When she saw her brother Brutus she was tickled to see him and they hit it off like they'd never been apart. Here is a photo of them watching a squirrel skirt along the telehone line. Anyway, my point is, don't take anyone's word and when I say anyone, I mean anyone. Unless you know the person has a pet or has had a pet that they take excellent care of, don't let "oh I just love them" be the words that seal the deal. Those words are worthless, believe me. I've seen more people mistreat and abuse animals who were very willing to express "oh, I just love animals." The sad truth is you cannot take anyone's word when it comes to adopting animals out. Lastly, I do not allow my kittens or cats to be declawed so that of course cuts down on my pool of potential adopter's also. If this is a point with you, then make sure the potential owner knows this before you even get into the interview process. Good luck

Thanks for your input, everyone! Peachy's getting her shots tomorrow, and perhaps I'll make a move toward introductions after that. On Wednesday she'll have been in my bedroom for three weeks. I forgot to mention that we've had one attempt at an introduction already. Holding Peachy, I let Pogo in my bedroom one day. He didn't see her at first, but then he did. He puffed up like a porcupine and hissed. Peachy reacted by flying out of my hands and onto the bed, inflicting five band-aids' worth of scratches to my fingers in the process. I scooped her back up and put her in the crate, then went to check on Pogo. I found him cowering in the corner, still puffed and terrified. Not an auspicious start! Sweet idea to sleep with Peachy, but I'm not tempted to try. I had to get up at 3:45 a.m. today, and tried to nap with her this afternoon. Peachy loves to groom me (lick, lick), and I'm not all that crazy about it--especially since her favorite spot to lick is my ears! So I spent the entire "nap" time removing her from the vicinity of my head and unsuccessfully encouraging her to settle on my lap--or anywhere else. This is typical. Also, I think I'm more allergic to her than I am to Pogo. (I'm a little allergic to Annie, too.) Twice now I've been awakened during the night by intense itching in my right eye. I wouldn't be surprised if one of her super-fine hairs is invisibly stuck in there. Anyway, I appreciate everyone's ideas and support. I'll report back! Susan

YES, I WOULD INDEED bottle feed them if they are showing signs of sucking behavior. Grown cats sucking on clothing or your skin is a really obnoxious habit (I think), and ut can in fact become dangerous if they do it to the point they are actually ingesting fibers from fabrics. You really can't a make blanket statement like all cats are or s/b weaned at 6 weeks, or 8 weeks. Some of the oriental breeds wean much older, at 12 weeks. Some are born prematurely and so you can't really apply the same yardstick to all. AND, besides... it is becoming more recognized amongst animal behaviorists that 10-12 weeks is a better age to take kittens from their mom as there is a whole host of behaviors they learn from mom and also it gives more time for them to make a healthy adjustment to being more independent (Don't worry, they are still plenty playful and cute at 12 weeks.) Back to the sucking habit - it is in fact caused by taking kitten from mom too soon, and it really is an obnoxious habit. Somewhere I read that bottle feeding was indeed recommended for the very reason you suggest to help along their development - this one behaviorist even recommended it for older cats which sounded interesting - that would definitely make an interesting experiment if I ever have the misfortune of getting a sucking cat again. It's great those little kitties found you when they did! Poor things - if they lost their mom as early as you guessed its a small miracle that they survived at all.