About a year ago we adopted Otis the cat and he and I have become great friends. We have a nightly ritual where I lay down on the bed and he comes up, lays on my chest and gets about ten minutes of rubs. Then he’ll lay next to me a kneed me for about five minutes. This happens without fail every single night.
However a few months ago a new cat showed up and became part of the family. We named him Steve October. Steve had never been in the house, he stays on the screened in porch. Otis tolerates Steve. Last week we took Steve in to get neutered and to get his shots. I felt bad for him and decided to let him in the house to recover. Otis happened to see me petting Steve on the bed and lost his mind. He hissed at Steve and the swatted me. It’s been the days and even though Steve is back on the porch, Otis continues to give me the cold shoulder, refuses to engage in our nightly ritual and acts like I don’t exist.
Needless to say I’m quite sad about this as Otis is my buddy. I’m more of a dog guy, so I’m not sure about this. Will Otis get over this or is he going to be permanently pissed at me? Are all cats this jealous? How do I get back into his good graces?
In general, I’d say no. Having sufficient space, a few private spots, food, cuddles and gradual familiarization with the newcomer helps.
I had a Siamese cat that was indeed quite jealous.
The hissing at Steve might simply have been of the “stay away from me” kind because he felt his space was intruded. As for swatting at you, were you reaching for him while the other cat was there?
As for the nightly ritual stopping, I’m not sure what to think. Perhaps he senses your unease? He may just need some time.
I’m not sure it’s about territory so much as it’s about cleanliness. Cats are very particular about their litter boxes. I presume, so would you if you had to step into the box you piss & shit in.
The conventional wisdom on the number of litters boxes is to have the same number of litter boxes as cats + 1 and to keep them clean.
Could be redirected aggression. Shouldn’t be a lasting issue with most human-cat interactions ( can be different with two cats that end up in an escalation-fest ), but he might take a little while to settle back down.
Cats are pretty selfish in general. In my experience they can eventually get along with a new roommate, but some cats have a really rotten personality and you’re lucky they haven’t found a way to kill you while you slept. So give it some time odds are Otis and Steve can co-exist. If not, one of the three of you will have to move out.
It really depends. Newcomers can really mess up a cat’s sense of “territory”. When I rescued my second cat, the first cat didn’t come out of a cupboard for 3 days. After that, she was really aggressive towards the new cat.
After we moved, though, the first cat seemed to acknowledge that this was a “new” space, and since the first and second cat arrived at the same time, they had equal priority, and started getting closer to each other.
I think cats are more concerned about territory than humans, she was probably more pissed about having the other cat on the bed than you petting the other cat.
We have a very jealous cat who will demand to be petted if there is any affection being shared between any other entities in the room. But he’s pretty extreme.
Cats are very territorial. Some are very jealous. I think you have a territorial problem.
When my husband and I merged households, we had to create a blended cat family. It took six months before we could leave them all unsupervised with access to one another, without there being aggression. It was six months of separation and supervised, gradual encounters. I’m good friends with/related to a couple of professional cat sitters, and they say that’s a pretty normal period for adjustment (and sometimes nothing works). In cat terms, you’ve rushed introducing this new cat into your household.
This is probably a joke, but for the internet searchers out there I wanted to point out that cats don’t piss inappropriately out of spite. If the cat IS pissing on your stuff, he is probably sick and you need to get him to a vet ASAP. (The other option is that you are REALLY bad about keeping the litter box clean, and he’s pissing somewhere, anywhere, it’s not revolting to stand upon and there are no ammonia fumes to breathe.)
Sounds like Otis has gone insane … you’re his “mouse”, and he doesn’t want to share his “dinner” with October … as a prey species, you’re not supposed to bring in more predators. This new situation is too much for Otis’ little mind and it’s broken now. I’m afraid the only hope is to get one of those baby-slings and use it to carry Otis around with you all the time. Nothing but 24/7 love and affection will save him now …