So, in reference to this thread, we’ve added two new kittens to our household, bringing our Crazy Cat People rating to 7.
It’s been about a week now since we’ve let the kittens out of the upstairs bathroom and given them the run of the house, and they’ve proven themselves to be a wonderful pair: sweet, friendly, fearless, and super loud purrers. (I’ve been enjoying putting my head between the two of them while they’re sleeping and experiencing “stereo purr.”)
Anyway, relations are for the most part good. Our older tabby has kind of taken them under her wing and become Momcat. Our two Russian Blue girls had a bit of rocky going but now they pretty much just sniff at the kittens and ignore them. Our older Singapura has been ignoring them from the start except for a bit of minor friction right at the beginning.
The problem is our younger Singapura, Ozzy. He can’t seem to get used to these kids. Every time he gets near them, he makes sounds like he’s possessed. He growls, hisses, and swats at them every time they get near him (and as I mentioned, they’re fearless so this doesn’t seem to faze them). This has been going on for more than a week now, with no real sign of it letting up. I don’t think he would hurt them, but he doesn’t seem at all happy having them around.
Since we’re not going to take them back at this point (Ha! As if! We’re both utterly besotted with the little furballs) we need to come up with a way to get Ozzy to come around. Does anyone have any suggestions for things we could try? Thanks in advance for any advice.
I’m no expert, but I bet your former youngest cat is trying to impress on the newbies that he’s no longer the bottom of the heap, and they’d better learn their position in the heirarchy!!!11! The older cats are probably more secure in their places and don’t have anything to prove, but Ozzy wants to be sure he’s higher than the kittens by making them fear him. As Dr. Phil would say, “And how’s that working for you?”
I think anytime you add a new animal to an established group you get some amount of jostling for position. And really, he doesn’t have to be their friend. All he has to do is not hurt them. Anything more is gravy. And sooner or later it’ll all settle down.
I have 4 cats and 6 dogs. None of the cats really seem to like each other, but they are okay for the most part. One cat really sucks up to the dogs, who ignore her. One dog consistantly growls at the two dogs that were acquired after him, but only when they come in the door. He doesn’t do anything else, but he growls to put them in their place. It doesn’t help that he’s pudgy and elderly and they’re young and bouncy.
Well, this may be true to an extent, but Ozzy is actually our second oldest–the other Singapura is the oldest, and the two Russians and the tabby are about the same age (and about 3 years younger than Oz). I think you might have a bit of a point, though–Ozzy is our “snuggliest” cat, the one who likes to get in bed with us and snuggle up. The kittens like to do this too. It’s not like we can’t share (there are two of us, and we’re both happy to snuggle with cats) but I don’t think Ozzy gets that. He did yell at them before any of this became clear, though–even when they were still living in the bathroom.
He had this reaction to the two Russians and the tabby, too, but he got over it much more quickly. Maybe being three years older is making him crotchety. As long as he doesn’t hurt the kittens I agree that he doesn’t have to be their bosom buddy–but when the kittens go barrelling into him raising up on their hind legs and splaying their paws out, he can’t resist taking shots at them and making noises like Linda Blair.
He might still be the one with the least well-defined position in the hierarchy, or the one most unhappy with his position as defined. With your CCP rating, you probably already realize this, but there’s an incredible amount of cat social activity that goes on under human radar. It’s more complicated and fraught than a high school cafeteria.
They are cats and at some level there is just no figuring this stuff out.
I had two cats and a dog. None of them likes the others. One cat is pure evil and hates all things not-me. The other cat is mostly “meh” and uninterested in the other cat or dog. The dog tried to be friends but the cats won’t play along so now she just seems puzzled and upset if they get any attention whatsoever when she figures she should be the one getting the petting. Evil cat and dog have an ever simmering feud going on.
It has been this way for years. Pretty quickly a sort of détente applied itself and there things have remained. There are occasional brush wars though (I saw the cat and dog, each unaware of the other’s presence, round a corner from different directions and end up face-to-face…there was a pregnant pause then the cat reared up and went ninja on the dog’s head [which fortunately is bigger than the whole cat so no harm from it although it was hilarious to watch]).
We never figured out how to change this dynamic. None of them is out to hurt the others so good enough I guess although I had always wished for pics of the three sleeping in a pile.
Ozzy will eventually get over it and/or the kittens will learn to leave Ozzy alone. That is the one good thing about (most) cats, they will choose to get over their issues in order to live peacefully in a household.
Oh, yeah. Whenever I hear somebody say that cats don’t have personalities, I know that person has never interacted with them in any meaningful way. Every one of our seven has a very distinct and definable individual personality. We’re still getting to know the kittens, of course, but even after such a short time it’s very apparent.
