Hi ladies, well, Schmoo is fine, she was just at the vet a couple of weeks ago. She isn't picking up my sadness, because Smokey wasn't my favorite cat, I'm more sad that Schmoo is changing her personality.
I didn't want to go with a male cat, cause I'm not a big fan of boy kitties.
However, I will get some Feliway diffusers and I ended up going to a cat rescue today and found a beautiful young 2 year old female tabby, very small, like Schmoo and extremely gentle and laid back. I will pick her up at the end of the week.
I didn't want to do a kitten, because it seems all my cats have been 8 or 9 years apart and I want to get them a little closer in age so when the older one gets really old the younger one isn't bugging the older one to play. It was very distressing to Smokey to have Schmoo bugging him all the time when he wanted to just be left alone and the same with my Pumpkin and Smokey when he was young.
All your suggestions were wonderful and I think the only questionable move was to get a female instead of a male, but I was afraid the male would mark territory before a female would. I'd been down that road with Smokey when he was young and sometimes they don't stop after they are fixed.
I'll let you know how it goes, my vet told me to keep the new cat in a room by herself for a couple of weeks and let them sniff each other through the door. Then start supervising the two when we are home. I'm sure I'll find myself in that room alot, loving her all up and stuff. I hope Schmoo doesn't become jealous.