Hi everyone,

Sorry this is long but I want to give the full background into what is a pretty stressful situation. The cat in question is about 5 years old and neutered. His name is Moose. :)

About 2 months ago, I moved into a new house with my boyfriend. I have 3 cats and he has 2 cats. We did the introduction slowly over about 6 weeks, starting with two weeks where each set of cats had their own room, and we would alternate who gets the run of the house to get used to it (none of the cats had been there before) and the other stayed locked up.

Within two weeks, his two and two of my more laid back cats were fully introduced and got along just fine with no fighting at all. My third cat did not like his two cats and would hiss and lunge whenever he saw them.

We slowed down the introduction even more, and had about 3 weeks where we had two sets of baby gates that we progressively moved closer. So Moose would stay in "his" room and have two sets of gates to keep the other cats away from him. He seemed to like being in his room because he could still watch everything with the gate but I think he felt safe in there.

About 2 weeks ago, he progressed to the point where we were able to have him out and about with the cats with minimal problems, and about a week ago he finally graduated to being able to be left alone. So all 5 have had the run of the house for about a week. I thought all was well and we had finally integrated them successfully....

About 3 days ago I heard a weird noise and saw a box that had been delivered from Macy's had pee on it, and Moose was scratching it. Now he has had urinary problems before but he always squats and it's near the litter box. This was definitely a spray as it was a few inches off of the ground and not a puddle on the floor.

I got rid of the box and hoped that maybe there was something on it that he didn't like. It seemed possible as there weren't any incidents for a few days. But last night I was sitting on the couch and he walked around the couch onto the arm of it, and as he jumped down he sprayed me in the face and on my arm.

All our cats are males and I have never had this issue before. So now I'm torn. I'm pretty sure it's a dominance/territorial thing given the amount of stress he's had to deal with these past two months. There are always cats around him and maybe he feels like he doesn't have any space anymore. I should note the house is over 2,200 square feet, 2 stories with 2 full bedrooms devoted fully to the cats (with kitty trees, beds, etc) so there is plenty of room, even with 5 of them. They have full run of the house. He went to the vet about 2 months ago and had a full checkup and everything was fine.

He's the only cat of the 5 that wasn't adopted from a shelter, so he has never had any experience with cats other than my two, which he has been around since he was about 4 weeks old (he was orphaned very young). He's also very dominant and aggressive with my other cats at times, but I notice he's very insecure and easily startled. I think he really likes feeling secure and safe.

Two other things I should point out - his preferred perch seems to be the top of the stairs where he can monitor everything going on downstairs and watch the cats coming upstairs. Also, my other two cats have been very defensive towards him, growling and hissing at him when he doesn't do anything but sniff at them. I wonder if he's giving off pheromones that they don't like? My boyfriend's cats are fine towards him.

I figure I have two options at this point, and I'd like input or suggestions if anyone has any:

1. Give him more time, it's only been a week having them all together and he's done so well with his gradual process that hopefully he will grow out of this stage.

2. Go back to him having his "room" with the gate on it so he feels like he has a safe spot now. I'm worried that this option will ruin the progress he has made with the other cats.

I guess a third option would be to combine the two - leave him in his room during the day and then when we get home let him out if he wants to.

Does anyone have any advice? Is this something that can be grown out of if he gets more comfortable in the house? I have no idea the extent to which he's sprayed. It doesn't smell bad in the house, but I noticed when he sprayed me last night it didn't smell like cat pee. We're going to try to get a black light and see any spots so we can get them cleaned. We also have Feliway diffusers all over the house to help.

Thanks!