on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:53:46 GMT, "David Mooney" <dmooney@atmc.net>
wrote:

Just keep her in.  It's that simple.

Thank goodness!

David, I'm sure you have more than one room.

It's not about dislike. It's about pecking order. Every cat wants to be the
top cat. Velvet is apparently in the lowest position of the cat pecking
order in your house. Anyway, cats have minds of their own. We have an
adorable, sweet little gray-furred cat named Daisy. She minds her own
business and doesn't seem to bother anyone. When we adopted Daisy, the
foster mom was especially glad (for Daisy's sake) because the other cats in
the foster home "didn't like her" and kept harassing her. When she came to
me, Alex (an otherwise benign, easy-going cat who was at the bottom of the
pecking order in my house) immediately started cornering her and tormenting
her. Daisy started having accidents in the kitchen. I thought it would be
better for her if she could be an "only cat", so she went to live at my
parents' house for five years (they didn't have any other cats). Everything
was fine. Daisy didn't have any more "accidents." During the course of the
five years, my father passed away. Last year, my mother's health
deteriorated, and she felt she couldn't take care of Daisy anymore, so I
brought Daisy back to my house in the hopes that things would be better this
time.

My mix of animals has changed in the past five years. Molly (my Abyssinian
cat) and Alvin (our dog) passed away, and we have added one additional
permanent cat plus another foster to the mix who weren't here when Daisy was
here the last time. Alex no longer torments her and she hasn't had any
accidents, but there are still issues between her and the other animals. The
foster cat is rather aggressive, and we have had a few really big cat fights
between him and several of the other cats. The bottom line is this:  I have
set up my office (one of the bedrooms in my house) as Daisy's private room.
During the day, she has the run of the house, but at night, she is confined
to the office for her own safety, so she won't be attacked in the middle of
the night. She has adapted very well to this arrangement and actually
voluntarily spends the majority of her day sitting next to me while I work
in my office/her bedroom.

The moral of the story is this:  You have to keep Velvet inside for her own
protection. You got lucky this time and got her back. Next time, you might
not be so lucky. Fix up a room for her that she can stay in at night, where
she's warm and safe and away from Rusty and Romeo.

I don't understand why you are putting her outside again after what
happened.
Best regards,
---Cindy S.

why are you letign her out at the moment at all? get a litter tray for
the next few days and keep her in until the qweather becomes less
severe. i am usually all for letting cats and very anti-keepign cats
indoors but this one time I think it woudl be best for her sake.

there is obviously tension between romeo and velvet so perhap syou
coudl confine him to a couepl of rooms in the house, say just
downstairs perhaps, and do so with her elsewhere inthe house, keep her
upstairs perhaps. separate their food and feeding areas, do not feed
them together, keep them as far apart as you can, make som areas no-go
areas for romeo so that velvet can get some peace, get a litter tray
upstairs for her and one downstairs for him and the other cat so they
can all lead separate lives. Most of all you want to make a part of
your house home for velvet as well and for her to view an area of it
to be safe and inviting and where she will feel protected and free
from the bullying of romeo, only then will she not choose to go
outside and freeze to death in preference to coming indoors. This is
all so obvious i do not know why you have not done it all before.

cats can be horrible bullies when they put their little feline minds
to it, and it usually psychological bullying and revolves around
possesion of territories and controlling access to resources such as
food, water and toilet facilities. Do you have litter trays indoors? i
hope then that you have more than one, preferably at least 3 since you
have 3 cats. If romeo decided to bully velvet then one tactic he might
use woudl be to guard the litter tray so she could not use it and that
would force her to either go outside (and not come back) or withhold
urine resulting in terrible bladder problems such as cystitis etc (and
pricey vet treatment). If you have more than one tray  and ptu one
upstairs specifically for velvets use then romeo could not manage to
stop her using both at the same time (cats are amazing creatures but
they have not yet mastered omnipresence as far as i know), so at least
velvet can then go to the loo in peace. I mean how would you like it
if the school bully came round and stopped you going to the loo cos
you were scared he would beat you up if you dared go near the
bathroom? You get it? similar with food and water too.

now then get that damn cat indoors, lock the cat flap, windows, doors,
everything, keep her and romeo apart and give them separate resources
as much as you can, and let's have an end to this silliness. I have an
application form to fill in for a job in cambridge I know I will not
even get an interview for so I have things to do now.

bookie