So one of my cats, Grace, aka Boo (who also happens to be the smallest) has developed some serious bully tendencies. Her main target used to be Clarice, one of my tabbies. She terrorized the poor thing until she started hanging out in one small corner of the house, peeing inappropriately, and generally just being a basket case. We made some changes (put a cat tree and a litterbox near where she likes to hang out, put in floor instead of carpet, etc) and that seemed to calm things down mostly.
Then, without warning, Clarice just seemed to get over her nervousness. She comes upstairs now and even sleeps with us, which is great.
Only problem is, it seems that Boo has now decided her new target is Nabby, another of our tabbies who is also our largest cat. Nab is a sweet-natured cat, very loving and easygoing, and she has him completely cowed. She’ll literally pin him down in rooms by parking herself in the doorway, and I have to rescue him because he won’t leave when she’s there.
The rest of the cats (we have 7) get along great. They sleep together in a big pile (Boo gets along fine with the others, aside from the occasional spat with her sister). To humans, Boo is the most sweet and loving cat ever. I pick her up and she immediately starts purring. She adores me.
I wonder if it might be jealousy since I do pay a lot of attention to Nabby (he’s very clingy and likes to sit in my lap) but I didn’t pay any more attention to Clarice than to any of the other cats and she was the target too.
I’m running out of ideas. So far aside from his fear of Boo, Nabby doesn’t seem to be exhibiting any other problems. Everybody is using the litterboxes, eating, and generally life is going along as usual except for these incidents.
We got Boo a “calming collar” (made by the people who make Feliway) and so far the only effect it seems to have on her is that now she smells like a cough drop. We have a Feliway dispenser downstairs in the area that used to be Clarice’s hangout.
Any other suggestions? I love all my cats and I want them to get along. Or, alternatively, is it okay for them to have these little “sibling rivalry” problems and I should just let them fight it out? Nabby is literally twice Boo’s size. If he ever stood up for himself he could beat the stuffing out of her, but I’m not sure he ever will. He’s not a fighter.