I have two cats, one is a 15lb male, the other a 5 or so lb female.
The female has grown up with the male her whole life and I'd always
had the impression that she liked him, even if it wasn't fully
reciprocal - the male is older, 10.5 yrs, female 6. They haven't ever
been best friends but have always gotten along, with some minor
scuffles. Usually we'd intervene in more serious skirmishes because
the male was more dominant cat and we worried for the smaller cat, but
I never really worried that they were trying to seriously harm each
other. In the past few days, the female is completely after the male,
at least under certain situations. For example, when I was on the
couch they were both sitting by me as normal, relaxed (one atop the
couch, the other next to me). But when we go near their normal
sleeping quarters which they share(d), she attacks him by just
outright launching at him. The male isn't fighting back at all, he's
just trying to get away. She's snagged him once in the nose already. I
am worried he may be ill, any other ideas on what may be causing this?
The only other time I've seen her hissing and being the aggressor is
when he came back from a hospital stay a few years ago, for a hip
surgery.
Thx.