so my "new" shelter cat that I adopted has an emerging personality. She does not like other cats (the poor dear has to deal with 6, but soon to be five other cats in my household. I have kept her in a spare bedroom since I adopted her in January. Usually once a night (or all day on the weekends) she gets let out with the other cats. Sometimes I let one of my other cats (her shadow) stay in the room with her for a few hours. She tolerates this. she is still very hands off- don't touch her if she is upset, don't you dare pick her up or you'll have a baby lion on your hands and don't bother her with anything when she's not in the mood to be social. But at the same time if she's wandering the house and you call her and snap your fingers she will come running to you with her tail in the air and want to be petted. Also she LOVES to play. She is three years old but you would think she was 4 month old kitten.

She loves to chase a string, play with anything with feathers on it and will chase a ball and toss a toy mouse in the air and run after it. Most of the time she is content to sleep on her favorite pillow.

This past weekend I left her out all day and night (friday, sat, sunday) because I need the spare room today for my two kittens who are at the vet for surgery (spayed). Since she's been out and about ALL the time there have been few fights and she seems to be ok (not stressed) and the other cats are starting to accept her and pretty much ignore her. She has cats she likes and ones she hates. For example she HATES my female foster kitten (7mths) who is very sweet to people but has an aggressive personality with other cats. she also hisses a lot when she is scared and tries to bully the new cat. My new girl will attack her if she gets too close. But my other female kitten Pumpkin who is the runt and very docile she will just take her paw and push her away if she gets too close. Doesn't use claws or anything. Just sort of taps her or shoves her away.

for the last three days my new cat has displayed some strange but amusing behavior. In the evening when most of the other cats are napping she will be sitting at one end of the house and like a racehorse shooting out of a starting gate when it opens she will just take off tearing across the house, sliding on the kitchen floor and then turn and run back the other way. She is a blur, running so fast all you see if fur flying. She doesn't act like she is scared but more like this is a game.

She does this several times in a row and then repeats in a few hours. Is she just playing or running off nervous engergy? Is she stressed? She did take off chasing my year and a half old princess kitty who then hid under the bed for about ten minutes because she is not used to being chased (usually she's the one doing the chasing) it wasn't in malice, she just took off after her which is unusual because she doesnt' like other cats. WHat is up? Is she having fun or is this something to be concerned about (that she is stressed?)