Hello all,

I am new to posting here, having just discovered this group.  I've had
kitties since I moved away from home in 1993 (after college).  My male cat,
Murray, 10, died last Mother's Day of heart failure.  Apparently he had a
congenital defect that no other vet ever caught.  Poor baby.  He was the
best cat.

That left me with my female, Boo, who is also 10.  She seemed a bit lonely
but made the adjustment well.  She'd probably like to be an only cat, but
recently that changed when we adopted two cats from shelters.

Bilbo is a male domestic long hair, age 3, neutered.  He came from a foster
home where he lived with 3 other foster cats in their own room (the owner
has her own cats too).  He is a very sweet, passive cat, or at least I
thought he was.  He seems afraid of Boo, who hissed and growled at him at
first but after almost a week seems to be getting used to him.  So that's
working out.  He was adopted last Sunday.  His only problem is one peeing
(not spraying) incident in a beanbag we had in the family room.  We surmised
that Boo scared him away from the catbox and he just had to go.  It hasn't
happened again.

Now, enter Sam.  He was brought home on Wednesday.  He's a 6 month old
domestic short hair kitten, neutered.  He's very cheerful and easygoing as
well, with a relatively mellow personality for a kitten.  He's playful, but
now overly so.  He seems to be adjusting much better than Bilbo and is not
afraid of Boo.  He grew up in a shelter of 500 cats (a no-kill with a huge
facility), so he's used to being hissed at, etc.  He takes it all in stride.

Today Bilbo and Sam were doing something odd that I've not seen before.
Bilbo was on top of Sam, holding him by the scruff of his neck with his
mouth, and pinning him to the floor.  He was not growling, hissing, or
otherwise acting angry.  Sam just laid down and took it.  He did this
several times, from the back and then from the side, holding him down with
his paw and the mouth thing.  Sam did not protest.  After this, Sam started
walking around "talking" and I thought he was hurt or upset, but no, he hung
around Bilbo and tried to play with him.  They engaged in a little batting
about of paws and then Sam lied down on his back and purred (loudly).  No
fighting.

Two questions:  What could this be?  Are they just playing?  Bilbo didn't
seem to be playing, but not fighting either, so I'm not sure.  He's kind of
a serious cat, so maybe this is his idea of playing?  Also, we put a topical
(Hartz) flea treatment on all three cats last night as we saw fleas on both
the new ones.  When Bilbo grabbed Sam by the scruff of the neck he had his
mouth on the area where the treatment went.  Will this make him sick?  I
assume it had soaked in by this a.m., but I'm a little concerned.

Thanks in advance for any help!  I'm sure I'll be a regular poster now with
such odd (to me, at least) goings on : ).

Dawn
Boo (F-10), Bilbo (M-3), and Sam (M-6 months)