Multiple Cat Households-what is the "hierarchy"?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I have two cats, Kit and Zippy.

Kit was my first, and the oldest. A year later, I got Zippy, when he was just a kitten. So Kit has always been the alpha cat (although not for a lack of trying on Zippy’s part - it was hilarious to see him attach himself to kit’s face when he was younger trying to assert himeself). However, now that Zippy is all grown up (and bigger than Kit), he just doesn’t take Kit’s crap anymore. Kit will occasionally try to boot zippy out of the way from the choice spot by the window, or his favorite spot on the bed. Zippy usually gives in, but every once in a while he’ll just jump on top of Kit and beat him up a bit before he gives up. I guess he’s trying to get Kit back for all those times he was embarrased when he would find himself pinned underneath his paws getting a bath in front of a room full of people.

22

My girls, Brynn, Jacy and Raven are all 10 month old sisters and adore each other. There doesn’t seem to be a hierarchy at all between them, but God knows they all think they come before the humans in the household. :slight_smile:

They do each have very distinct personalities. Brynn is the delicate, aloof princess, Raven is the slinky huntress and Jacy is the maternal type that always allows her sisters to eat before her, but she always gets the best spot on the windowsill, right where the afternoon sun hits. And she tends to stick very close to me, and has a stroke if I take a bath without allowing her to observe from the side of the tub.

23

I came to be without any cats for the first time in my life when a little blue tabby walked in my apartment one day and decided to stay. Shortly thereafter Peaches gave birth to three kittens, and we kept them all-one boy that we named Big Mac and two girls that are named Cookie and Pepper.

Peaches is by far the dominant one. Like someone else said, she even tries to dominate me. I don’t know if her competetive behavior is a result of her living on the street for a period of time or if it is just her inborn personality. She is always the first to the food bowl, she always gets the bigger portion of treats, she steals the others’ toys when they play with them and she runs them out of their comfy beds yet does not then use them herself. She also occasionally goes on a tear - cocks her tail and tears through the house, hissing and slapping any cat that gets in her way! But she’s not a mean cat, she’s actually very sweet, this is just her way of establishing the pecking order.

I always assumed dominance had to do with either size or sex, but in our case it is neither. Not only is Big Mac the only male, but he weighs over 23 pounds, compared to Cookie at 12, Pepper at 10, and little Peaches, who rules them all, at a mere 7 pounds.

24

cadolphin - my deepest sympathy on your loss of Shae. I live in dread of the day I lose a pet.

25

One of the many attractions of reading threads like these is finding all these excellent cat names! Feather, Midnight, Scrubby, Rugby and Zippy to name only a few I like here.

I had a work colleague who owned a cat called ‘Scooter’ - a classy name, I thought.

Anyhow… of our two cats, the dominant one (‘Badger’) is the oldest and sets out specific areas into which the other cat Must-Not-Go.

Interestingly, when we first got Badger as a kitten, there was a much older cat around, but Badger somehow managed to become Boss-Cat very quickly.

She’s a deceptive cat. Watch her snooze for 23½ hours a day - you’d never believe she was such a prolific or accomplished hunter. Watch her hunting and you’d never believe just how placid and smoochy she is. See how placid she is around humans, you’d never believe that she rules with Iron-Paw-In-Velvet-Glove.

26

When I decided to get a second cat, I deliberately went looking for one that would not challenge Austen’s position as top-cat–another female, smaller, younger. Things worked out pretty well at first, but as new kitty Lucia gets bigger (she outweighs Austen now by about 3 pounds), the balance is tipping.

Right now, we’re in the middle of some kind of power struggle where the girls constantly encroach on each other’s territory. They steal food from each other’s bowls, use each other’s litter boxes, and both seem to consider the place where the other cat is as the best place to be.

This last part of the battle leads to a strange behavior I call “Kitty Continuity Errors.” For example, I’ll be sitting at my desk at home, one cat curled up on the floor a few feet away; ten minutes later, I’ll look down again, and it’s the other cat in exactly the same place and position. Or when I go to sleep, they’ll be at the foot of the bed: white cat on the left side, grey cat on the right. If I wake up a few hours later, they’ll have switched around. Does anyone else have cats who do this?

27

We used to have two cats…Homer and Tweety. Both cats were huge (Homer weighed a massive 28 lbs while Tweety was a rotund 21 lbs)…Homer was the male and Tweety was the female…they were brother and sister from different litters (ironically, all of my animals have been named after cartoon characters…all accidentally. My first cat as a toddler was named Smokey the Cat…a few years later came Tiny the dog named after the Tiny Tim character in Dickens’/Disney’s A Christmas Story. Then came Mickey the cockapoo. After that came Homer and Tweety, who now live with my sister. Finally, came my cat Sylvester (Syl for short) who I named as such because he looked just like Sylvester from Merry Melodies).

At first sight, it appeared as if Tweety had the upper rung on the ladder. She was always “bossing” Homer around. Late at night, when Homer wanted to play and Tweety wanted to sleep, one could hear Tweety hissing through closed eyelids. It was actually quite comical…big old Homer would bound around the house after Tweety until the point where Tweety would get tired of the playful bantering. She would turn on Homer, but Homer would just sit there. This standoff would usually last until morning when human intervention would allow them both to leave the scene of battle without losing face.

But then came the day that a cute little sparrow got into the house. It became apparent to me who the boss was. While many cats will hunt in tandem, Homer and Tweety hunted out of pecking order. At first, it appeared as if Tweety was being allowed the chance to rid the house of the formidable pest. She stalked her prey from room to room. Homer followed close behind with the persona of a doof. I could almost here him mutter, “Duh, look…a birdie!” Though it appeared as if Homer was just allowing the time to pass, when it came time to pounce, his tendancy became quite different.

Tweety was nearing on her first, and usually fatal, pounce. Homer, however, beat her to the punch. With one fell swoop, he was able to grapple Tweety from behind and throw her over the steps. Then, on a rebound, he propelled his way upward and snagged the newly startled bird out of midair. The entire ordeal took less than a second, and Homer was the victor.

But Tweety was not to be undone. She pounced right back at Homer. Homer was able to fend her off, rolled around with her for a few seconds, actually, without a second thought. In fact, the quarrel ended with Homer’s claws dug fiercely into Tweety’s throat…while he still held the sparrow in his mouth.

There was no doubt as to what the pecking order was at that point. Homer was the leader, though he preferred to let Tweety have the run of things until he actually needed the run of things.

As an afternote…it really was something to watch that cat of close to 30 lbs fly through the air like that. Let me just assure…despite how huge these cats were, they were quite healty (they both live with my sister now and are getting quite up there in years).

28

cadolphin, I’m glad this thread could be of some help.

hugs

29

We have 7 cats, so this should be interesting.
First, the characters:
Penny - 10+ year old who was attacked by a dog 3 years ago, now moves very slowly and with a lot of pain.
Marissa - Big, tubby, cream tabby. 5 yrs
Callie - 3 year old black
C - Outside cat, used to be stray, 2 year or so tortie callico
Molly - 2 year old cream tabby
Maggie - 2 year old tortie callico, Molly’s sister.
Bits - Year old black and white stray
Currently there is a challenge for the lead spot (held by Penny) by Marissa. She has to follow Penny around everywhere, eats when she eats, tries to herd her places and attacks her at any chance. Penny can’t really fight back, because of the pain she has below her neck clear to her tail from the dog attack. I don’t currently know who holds top spot, but I’m leaning towards Marissa.
Next would probably be Bits, even though she is the youngest she is very aggressive. She can move any of them out of their spot, pushes the dog around, and starts fights with them all. Then Callie, next Molly, then finally Maggie. The two sisters were malnourished as kittens so they will always be about the size of a 9 month old kitten, even though they are both 2 years old.
Finally C, who would probably acquire one of the higher positions if we ever let her in the house.
So that’s that.
-foxy

30

I have two cats, an older grey queen named “Moonshadow” (Shadow or Old Lady for short), and a much younger ginger tom, both neutered. The male adopted my sister initially, and she christened him “Meowth” at that point. Not long after he moved in with them, she went on vacation, and asked me to watch him.

Coincidentally, I had been trying to find a companion for Shadow, as I had moved and gotten a different job, and she was left alone a lot more than she was used to. I had tried to adopt a smaller, younger female, but Shadow just beat the crap out of the poor thing every time she saw the strange kitty. Let me add here that Shadow was/is a tough old thing, and, to my knowledge, has beat down every other cat she has ever come across, regardless of gender, so I would classify her as decidedly dominant in most close encounters of the kitty kind.

Well, I brought this young man into the house, and he was fascinated by Shadow. You’d think he’d never seen another cat before (he had). He stalked her for a couple days, making occasional attempts to play with her. She responded to his interest by growling and hissing if he got too close, and swatting at him if he pushed her further.

Ultimately, though, he won her over. She fell in love with him so hard that I begged and pleaded and badgered my sister into giving him to me. I hated the name “Meowth” and changed it to “Dickens”, but he is generally referred to as “The Little Man”.

Despite being neutered, he is very masculine, and has gradually dominated every aspect of kitty life in my house, including sleeping with me, and she has apparently accepted it without even a whimper.

So I guess all Shadow needed was a big strong man to show her her place. Not very feminist of her! :stuck_out_tongue:

31

First of all, I have to say, I have SO enjoyed reading this thread. It’s a conversation I’ve had many times with my friends who also have cats, and something I’ve enjoyed watching our cats fight over!

We have three cats, Romy (5 years old silver tabby), Veronica (5 year old black cat, sister to Romy), and Sunshine (6 year old LARGE calico, we adopted her 1.5 years ago).

At first, the sisters got along great, all the time. There was no fight for supremacy, because it was assumed that Romy was the alpha cat - assumed by both of them. Until we moved into a new apartment, and Veronica realized that she was bigger than Romy (although only by a pound!), and she took over. But she was really lax in her alpha cat status, and forgot sometimes. (!) So, Romy would start acting like the boss again till Veronica remembered, and beat her down!

Then, we moved into a house, and we decided it was big enough for the two cats, and then some - so we adopted Sunshine. Sunshine, at 16 pounds, doubles the weight of the other two, so we figured it was a no-brainer that she’d take over. And it kind of is. She’s the boss - if you were to ask her. If you were to ask Veronica, I would imagine she thinks she’s the boss too. Romy, well, I like to call Romy my “blond” cat - she doesn’t care too much who’s in charge, as long as they don’t bug her! (No offense intended to any real person, I named her Romy after the movie character from Romy and Michelle!)

One comment I would make about alpha cats. I’ve read that you can always tell who’s the alpha cat by paying attention to the litter boxes. Alpha cats don’t cover their poops, they expect the other cats to cover their poops for them. Sunshine is the one in our house who doesn’t cover her poops, which is why I think she’s the alpha cat (or at least thinks she is). I really wonder though - she was an “only” cat in her other households, would she have done the same thing there? I mean, left her poops uncovered? I doubt it. Also, before Sunshine, neither Romy nor Veronica ever left their poops uncovered, so I’m not quite sure who was Alpha back then, according to this theory.

Anyway, it’s all very interesting. cadolphin, I really enjoyed reading your post, and I’m very sorry for all your losses, especially your most recent one. Thanks for including the website of the pictures, I loved looking at them.

32

First of all, I have to say, I have SO enjoyed reading this thread. It’s a conversation I’ve had many times with my friends who also have cats, and something I’ve enjoyed watching our cats fight over!

We have three cats, Romy (5 years old silver tabby), Veronica (5 year old black cat, sister to Romy), and Sunshine (6 year old LARGE calico, we adopted her 1.5 years ago).

At first, the sisters got along great, all the time. There was no fight for supremacy, because it was assumed that Romy was the alpha cat - assumed by both of them. Until we moved into a new apartment, and Veronica realized that she was bigger than Romy (although only by a pound!), and she took over. But she was really lax in her alpha cat status, and forgot sometimes. (!) So, Romy would start acting like the boss again till Veronica remembered, and beat her down!

Then, we moved into a house, and we decided it was big enough for the two cats, and then some - so we adopted Sunshine. Sunshine, at 16 pounds, doubles the weight of the other two, so we figured it was a no-brainer that she’d take over. And it kind of is. She’s the boss - if you were to ask her. If you were to ask Veronica, I would imagine she thinks she’s the boss too. Romy, well, I like to call Romy my “blond” cat - she doesn’t care too much who’s in charge, as long as they don’t bug her! (No offense intended to any real person, I named her Romy after the movie character from Romy and Michelle!)

One comment I would make about alpha cats. I’ve read that you can always tell who’s the alpha cat by paying attention to the litter boxes. Alpha cats don’t cover their poops, they expect the other cats to cover their poops for them. Sunshine is the one in our house who doesn’t cover her poops, which is why I think she’s the alpha cat (or at least thinks she is). I really wonder though - she was an “only” cat in her other households, would she have done the same thing there? I mean, left her poops uncovered? I doubt it. Also, before Sunshine, neither Romy nor Veronica ever left their poops uncovered, so I’m not quite sure who was Alpha back then, according to this theory.

Anyway, it’s all very interesting. cadolphin, I really enjoyed reading your post, and I’m very sorry for all your losses, especially your most recent one. Thanks for including the website of the pictures, I loved looking at them.