So, I have these two cats, see? Conan the Wonderkitty and Schrodinger the InvisiCat.
Conan is a highly intelligent kitty. Schrodinger is dumber than a box of rocks.
Conan is about eight months old,male, neutered, , we’ve had him since he was a six week old kitten. Schrodinger is about six months old, male, neutered, we’ve had thim about two months.
Conan takes very good care of Schrodinger. He washes Schrodinger’s head, makes sure he gets his kitty breakfast every morning, whether Conan is hungry or not. If he “loses” Schrodinger (who apparently has a hidey-hole somewhere on the roof of our apartment building) he comes and gets a human and meows pitifully until Schrodinger is found. Mom bought a pet door a few days ago. Conan caught on right away, but it took Schrodinger a while to grok the concept. Conan would go halfway through the pet door and hold it open with his body so Schrodinger could go in or out.
Is it normal for an adolescent male cat to behave like this? I figured neutering would take care of any potential aggression problems, and the cats would be pals, but this is ridiculous. I know feral female cats will sometimes form kitten-sitting co-ops, and that closely related male cats can form alliances, but these two are not only not related, but didn’t even meet until both kitties were several months old.
I don’t think it’s that unusual at all. My folks had two older male cats that would sometimes hate each other’s guts but when napping they’d be curled up together in a tangled knot often grooming each other.
I’ve read that the gooming behavior is actually a dominance thing - the licker is asserting his dominance over the lickee. When we got a new kitten, our older cat often “washed” the young one. As the kitten grew, it became mutual. Now, however, they get into fights trying to be the licker instead of the licked.
Holding the door open does seem especially solicitous. What a smart cat Conan is!
What a great cat that Conan is! I don’t know if it’s normal or not, but it’s so sweet!
My Muffin cat freaks out if she’s locked away from Peace cat, but generally they get along like most siblings - sometimes they play, sometimes they fight. Right now, Muffin is looking after Peace’s kittens - it’s adorable! Muffin has never had kittens of her own, but she’s quite maternal. Awww! However, it doesn’t measure up to your cat - when we introduced Peace to the house less than two months after we got Muffin, she attacked Peace constantly for a week, and bit me every time I tried to touch her!
My mother has two dogs, a 7 year old Kelpie and a 16 year old Silky Terrier. We thought the Kelpie was cluey when he began knocking on the door when he wanted to go in or out, but we realised he was a gentleman when we found he would knock on the door when the Silky wanted it opened. She justs sits there and waits for you to notice her, so after a while the Kelpie just marches up to the door and taps to get our attention - then he goes back to his spot.
We had a female, Beau, who was not at all maternal normally. In fact, she would have her kittens, look at me as if to say, “they’re yours now” and disappear for days. However, one time we adopted another cat, Fut, a male that we later discovered was rather retarded.
Fut, who couldn’t stand to be cooped up in the house, would regularly wander out of the yard and get lost. I mean that literally. In addition, he never learned not to leave the yard so he wouldn’t get lost. Well, Beau took to herding the retarded cat back into the yard everytime he wandered off and gently (and sometimes not so gently) push him back up onto the porch or someplace safe and recognizable to the mentally challenged feline.
My contention was that Beau figured if we were off looking for Fut, she might miss a meal and she didn’t want that. My wife contended that Beau was just being a good friend and felt responsible for the less intelligent cat.
Arana, who my wife had raised from a kitten, developed a thyroid problem and then went blind a year or two before passing away at the age of eighteen. Shortly after she lost her sight Kitten, who had always been very antisocial, started walking alongside Arana, occasionally nudging her when she was about to walk into things. She would also groom her & sleep with her occasionally. We used to joke about Arana’s seeing-eye cat.
We also have a (neutered) male cat who growls at our younger male cat and our new (6-week old) kittens - while he’s licking them or sniffing their butts!:rolleyes:
Cats (and most domestic animals, I would think) are pretty sensitive to what’s up.
I’ve had numerous cats over the years, and their treatment of toddlers always surprises me. If an adult is holding or touching them more than they care for, they never hesitate to struggle, or even bite or scratch. But a toddler they tolerate longer, and then just up and leave (sometimes quickly!) when they tire of their attention.
Perhaps Conan just senses that Schrodinger is a dimwit and feels proprietary towards him.
Nothing that cats do is normal. But by comparison, in my mom’s household, the youngest cat decided that she was the oldest cat’s mother. At the time it started, Baby was about a year old, and Spunky was 8 or 9. Baby will groom Spunky exactly like a mother cat will groom her kittens. Nor is it a matter of dominance: There has never really been a question in Mom’s house that Spunky is the dominant mammal, and Baby is right down there with the dog. Possibly also relevant is the fact that Spunky doesn’t have the use of her back legs due to a birth defect, and so has a difficult time grooming herself. She seems to take the grooming as her just due, as queen of the house.
And why would a cat named Schroedinger need a door in the first place? I would expect such a feline to tunnel directly through the walls ;).
