Hi everyone! So we have a 12 year old spayed cat that never lived with any other pet. She's a very independent girl, only recently started to want to come to our lap again (she was never a lap cat), probably because of quarantine and spending more time at home. About 3 weeks ago we adopted a new kitten, she's about 3.5 months old and she's very energetic and fierce. We did all the work we were supposed to do when introducing new cats. The kitten stayed in the kitchen, we did the food by the door, change of smells, change of place, you name it. We managed for them to interact in the living room for a while but our problem is that the kitten wants to jump straight forward to our older one. Which makes the older one hiss and growl and punch the kitten, which makes the kitten even more eager to jump to her.

I've noticed that if the kitten minds her own business, the older cat would be ok with it. But even if we distract the kitten with toys, eventually she will just launch directly to the older one.

We even built some shelf's for the older one to have the higher ground, but she's not very interested. I'm kind of lost here, because I would like for them to have a cool coexistence (at minimum), and I am afraid to just let them solve their own problems and get it worse than it is.

Anyone has any advice? Thank you for reading!