Rusty is sending purrs down south for Sammy to feel better soon.

Winnie

Purrs are already on the short trip south...

-- Eric, Kim and the Chigger Ranch Crew

What the vet prescribed was to remove Tayla from the mix - but she obviously
doesn't know as much as some of the posters here do!

Damn, sorry for being snarky, Bonbon - I'm feeling totally rotten that
Tayla's adoption didn't work out, Ben and I are not speaking at the moment
because of it, and I'm the target of potshots here from people whom I
thought were my friends and would be understanding.

Anyway, email me - I have lots to catch you up on.  Did you know Bandit left
for the Bridge on June 4th of this year?

Hugs,

CatNipped

On Jul 26, 12:00 pm, "Christina Websell"
<spamf...@tinawebsell.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote:

Five weeks is too long for it to be something caught from the new
adoptees, three weeks is about the longest incubation for any
transmissable diseases.  The vet thinks it is stress induced and
agrees the best option is to re-home Tayla (we talked about this for
almost an hour last night).

I don't know how to make people here understand this - this is not the
"normal" interplay of cat introduction.  I've introduced cats lots of
times in my 55 years - there is most always some posturing, hissing,
even swatting.  But Tayla is going beyond this.  The aggression she
shows is *relentless* - she does't even stop to rest, she goes from
one cat to the next and chases them down, growling and trying to
bite.

The adult cats can defend themselves (but in Sammy's case make herself
ill with stress), but the kittens can't.  "Normal" cat behavior is to
stop aggression when an opponent "gives".  The kittens will instantly
fall over on their sides and go limp as soon as an adult cat hisses at
them.  They did this the first two days of being alone with my
resident three when one of the adults would hiss or give them a no-
claw swat on top of the head - the adult would then just walk away
until the next time a kitten tried to bite her tail. After two days
they don't even hiss at the kittens anymore, they just seem very
amused by the antics (in fact Sammy allows them to snuggle with her
under my bed - I think they picked the biggest cat to make friends
with as a protector against Tayla, not knowing what a wuss Sammy is).

However, Tayla *DOES* *NOT* *STOP* - she continues to bite and claw
and growl at the kittens even after they fall over and go limp.  Ben
or I have to physically intervene and she'll walk away for a second
and then turn around and start the attack again.  I don't care *what*
anybody here says, that is *not* normal cat behavior!  This is *not*
just establishing herself in any pecking order since kittens are
*automatically* on the bottom of *ANY* pecking order and all adult
cats *know* this!

Tayla had three weeks of complete isolation from everyone, then we
tried putting the kittens in with her, but had to take them away
because of the above-described behavior.  At that time we put the
kittens in with the other cats and everything went well.

Tayla then had one week of having a screen between her and the
resident cats and she sat at the screen and cried.

She then had one week of us allowing her out under supervision and as
soon as she ran around and emptied everyone's dishes she would start
in on the attacks.  At first it was as I described in other posts -
about normal posturing and pecking order, but instead of things
getting better with time, they go worse.  As soon as she started
feeling more confident being out she stepped up her aggressions and,
when the adult cats hid beyond her reach (and turned an fought when
they were cornered), she would start taking her aggression out on the
kittens.

Five weeks of this is all any of us (especially Sammy) can take.  It's
easy to sit a thousand miles away and kibbitz about what I should or
shouldn't do - it's another to have to live in this stress-filled
environment!

I don't know what's so difficult to understand about the concept that
some cats are just meant to be "only cats" - it's an accepted and well
understood concept for most people.  Not every cat is meant to be part
of a clowder, just like humans have their own personalities, likes and
dislikes, and some mental or emotional abnormalities, so do cats!

Hugs,

CatNipped