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Cat Forum / General Topics / February 2006Older kitty won't stop growling and hissing at VERY NICE AND FRIENDLY young one!
Hello! We have a 8 year old female, "Callie," whom we raised from a pound kitten. She has always been a nice and affectionate cat, indoor/outdoor (mostly outdoor). We live in a somewhat quiet residential area and most of the cats around here live outdoors with no problems. However, she detests the presence of other cats. We brought in 3-4 stray males over the past 5-6 years, but they ran away after a year or two (not before getting fixed, fortunately.) Callie always growled and hissed whenever they came around, except for some reason she would eat together with them. The latest, "Walter" (so named because we found him trapped inside a cinder block wall), is the nicest kitty you could imagine, very playful and fun. He is about 7 months old, more or less. But Callie seems to have an otherworldly aversion to him. Growling, hissing, slinking away when I let him in. Even refuses to eat with him. And nothing seems to remedy the problem - threats of baths (or actually getting one), even the old "confine them together under a laundry basket" trick isn't making friends of them. It does bother me as Walter would love a playmate, and even tries to play with Callie once in a while, but Callie always displays nothing but hostility in return. Is this adverse behavior something we must get used to? Or is there a chance that they can be friends eventually? Although it doesn't get to all out cat fighting, the sound of growling and hissing is disruptive to our otherwise happy household. I would appreciate any suggestions! Thanks, Doug -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug the Desert Tripper - Exploring Southern Cal deserts and the Net since '94 www.geocities.com/destrip destrip at sonic dot net -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- . I hope that is a typo and you meant to say UNfortunately when the strays that you've had for a year ran away unneutered. There is nothing you can do that is better for the health of a cat than to neuter it. Cats are very territorial. If you open the door and let a new cat into the house it is going to react very much as if your spouse / significant other opened the door to a new mate. You can introduce new pets into the home, but it needs to be done in a certain way. I would suggest you listen to Callie and find this new comer a home. But reading the rest of the post I have to wonder what your motivation for taking in these very friendly strays. You don't neuter them - do you even get them tested to see if they have communicable diseases that they can give to Callie? How about vaccines? Once they are in your home, you become responsible for their care. Volunteering for the local shelter, I have watched several cats die from easily preventable diseases, and it is a heartbreak that no one should go through. Since Callie has been through several of these strays, you should probably have her retested (or tested if she never was) for felv and fiv. > Hello! We have a 8 year old female, "Callie," whom we raised from a > pound kitten. She has always been a nice and affectionate cat, [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > . I believe Doug was saying that they had not gotten away before they had them neutered. We did the same thing recently with a female who after a few months of lounging with our other cats and gaining weight to an appropriate level, ran out the door never to be seen but fortunately she was spayed. My husbands cat was the queen for 8 years before we married and I brought over my queen of the house. They do not play on a regular basis but they do occassionally have a bit of fun at the expense of each other. And the stray we brought in 5 months ago eased right in with very few problems. Doug, Callie probably would do better with another older cat. As I said we combined our two cats fairly easily but ours were 5 and 8 when we combined them. For the first few weeks Neko had run of the south side of the house, her litter box and food were accessible that way. Sissy had the north side (2 bedrooms with bath in between) and we put her box and food in the second bedroom. Neko still went outside from time to time back then so when she went out we let Sissy roam so she could investigate the rest of the house. But when Neko came in she went back to "her" side. After a few weeks we left the bedroom doors open when we were home and they got more aclimated to each other. Now they share the bed, share food bowls, water bowls, laying in the bay window. Occasionally batting each other. Otherwise they both seem to think they own the place and the other is one is just another cat. > I hope that is a typo and you meant to say UNfortunately when the strays > that you've had for a year ran away unneutered. There is nothing you can do [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > . > I hope that is a typo and you meant to say UNfortunately when the strays > that you've had for a year ran away unneutered. There is nothing you can do > that is better for the health of a cat than to neuter it. Connie, I read the post as saying it was fortunate that the cats were neutered before they ran away. Doug, as to the adapting to one another, I feel you have been forcing the issue. They may or may not be come friends, probably they will learn to tolerate one another. Leave them alone, give each attention. Scold (yell or squirt water) to discourage unacceptable aggressive behaviours. I have had a multicat house for many years with some experience with new animal introductions. My current cats have been the most contentious. I brought home a male kitten. My other cat is an old lady. She has always had other cats even a dog in the house. But she dislikes the new guy very much. As long as he leaves her alone she'll deal with it. As he has grown up he has become expressing more dominance and often trys to attack her obvious top cat position. So even after two years they are not friends, but tolerate each other meaning they don't get into major fights. They will take swipes at each other on occasion, more for top cat resolutions. Most of the time it is peaceful, both asleep or entertained by their own persuits. The age difference was a major issue in my case, he was young playful adolescent male and she was an old retired lady. Lay back and good luck. Linda Cats are not necessarily friendly towards other cats - try reading "Cat Confidential" by Vicky Halls, or "Cat Watching" by Desmond Morris. How would the threat of getting a bath make Callie change (other than make her more stressed) - how can you expect her to understand why you are doing it? Your old "confine them together under a laundry basket" trick seems like a cruel form of cat torture. I would imagine Callie would be much happier and much, much less stressed if you just stop trying to get her to accept other cats, I can't see many humans being happy forced to live with someone they don't like. It seems kinder too on the other cats to not take them in, if they are regularly running away they surely can't be happy either. > Hello! We have a 8 year old female, "Callie," whom we raised from a > pound kitten. She has always been a nice and affectionate cat, [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > . Thanks for the input everyone. I guess the consenus is "let nature take her course or get a different cat." We enjoy both cats -- individually, they are very nice, friendly cats -- and don't necessarily want more (unless we come across more strays), so I guess we'll just try to ignore the goings on, keep them separated as much as possible, and if there is a confrontation give a squirt of water or let things take their course as long as it doesn't turn into clawing and biting. As far as the replies about me being irresponisble by not having cats fixed, vaccinated, etc. -- EVERY cat we have had to date, even ephemerally, has been fixed and vaccinated at the local humane society. The only cat we lost was one who either had FeLV before we took him in or had some adverse reaction to the vaccines - about 2 weeks after he got vaccinated he got extremely weak and had to be put down. It was sad but probably preventable, as we got him from a person who was feeding him and pseudo-taking-care of him but never got him vaccinated. It's been fun helping out the feral population of the city, but animal behavior can be somewhat frustrating at times... >Hello! We have a 8 year old female, "Callie," whom we raised from a >pound kitten. She has always been a nice and affectionate cat, [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug the Desert Tripper - Exploring Southern Cal deserts and the Net since '94 www.geocities.com/destrip destrip at sonic dot net -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- . > Hello! We have a 8 year old female, "Callie," whom we raised from a > pound kitten. She has always been a nice and affectionate cat, [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > --------------- . My girlfriend's cat, Fireball, has detested other cats especially kittens, since birth. She barely tolerated her own mother, and regularly hissed at littermates. If something is the color of a known cat, she automatically hates it. I was funny the first time she saw an orange kitten. The look of horror when she realized what it was; priceless. Any other animal, though she'll give a chance.
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