Cat Intros

I've been introducing Chester and Sawyer this weekend and it is producing much kitty drama. It turns out that Sawyer wants to be the dominant cat and has been sitting staring at Chester emitting low growls. Meanwhile Chester hisses, hides under the chairs, and backs up when Sawyer approaches. Sawyer has initiated several bouts of batting at each other and appears to have won them. I think I made a mistake in letting Sawyer come into Chester's room and undermining his safe space. Sawyer batted Chester into a corner before I could remove him. Later on, Chester began to hiss at me and kept it up for the rest of the night. He's mellowed out some this morning and has resumed letting me pet him, but he is still jumpy. He also made no motion to exit his room when I opened the door with Sawyer safely locked away in the basement (of course, he didn't know that). Each cat insists on rubbing up against me (to mark me) when the other isn't around. So I interpret all this as progress in them working it out, but it looks like it will take awhile.