Hi there,

I have two youngish cats, Lei and Cami, both calico females.

Lei is a bit of a scaredy cat, while Cami, being younger, has a lot of
the naivete and assurance of a kitten.

The other day, Cami jumped up on the kitchen counter, found something
she didn't expect to which frightened her. She shot out between two
potted orchids on the counter, hit the dining table flying towards the
living room. However, her flight frightened Lei who was perched on the
bird cage. She took off towards the corner in a blind run, smashed into
a wall and the vertical blinds at the back patio door hard enough to
crack pieces off. Then she caromed off under the sofa yowling and
screaming.

This was yesterday afternoon. Lei then got up on the bird cage, from
which she continued to howl and hiss and scream everytime she saw Cami,
even at a great distance. She runs and/or moves very, very slowly --
creeping along and keeping one eye on Cami, who has taken up neutral,
non-threatening postures all the while.

It seemed that they made amends somewhat and were playing again, then
something fell on the floor with a bang and the cycle started again. The
behavior is quite distressing to all of us, especially maybe to Cami,
who was introduced into our home less than 2 mos. ago.

Is there a way to short-circuit this? Is it normal for a cat to go into
this kind of episode for so long? Without the slight break, it's been
30+ hours of this. (Oh, she does sleep at night, but only burrowed down
in our bed, which is *not* normal for her.)

Thanks for any insight.