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Yes, when we're prepping breakfast or dinner, the way they both whine/complain, you would think that we'd been starving them and that the prep is taking us ten years, instead of just a minute or two.Not so good for us humans who are not as fast in getting our hands away. (I think our cats must think we are the slowest creatures on earth, especially when getting their food ready, playing, typing, dressing, etc)
I've read that you're not really supposed to give them catnip that often, so we put those toys away and give them once in a while, sort of like a "treat". There are so many toys that have catnip inside though! I had a hard time last time I made a bunch of toy purchases, finding ones that didn't include catnip.I actually don't use cat nip with my cats, because I was always afraid that it would hype them up too much while playing, and since they get running, chasing, and wrestling, then I figured that they don't really need anything added to get to that amped up stage.
No, you're both right, we should probably wait. If we've gone this long being patient we shouldn't rush it. It is really dragging us down in our day-to-day life though, having to deal with the gate and all, and so since we saw some visible progress (K playing with T) we were like, LET'S GO!!If there were a way in which you could do it, with having control over K from charging, running, or pouncing on T...then I'd say okay.
But I do think it's still too soon, yet you're very good in your cat observations, so if you think that T would be able to handle K's actions, and have plenty of escape routes, or some sort of plan, as Calicosrspecial mentioned, then it might go okay.
Opening up the gate more is what I would do....(I know...total broken record...constantly on repeat....time to unplug cat nap.
But we still see that K gets a bit negative, and while it's not always indicative of aggression, her ears go back sometimes (very briefly though). So we can wait until we don't see that before thinking of trying anything else.
So we placed a book under each side of the gate to open up the space underneath for paws (any more than that and I think T could shimmy out, she can get surprisingly flat, like a puddle). We're not sure how to open up more space in other gate configurations but for now we're going to see if this extra paw space leads to anything.
T sticks her paws out but K ignores her, which I would consider a neutral or positive thing. Because if K was feeling aggressive then wouldn't she pounce on T's vulnerable paws?
Well, my worry is that they'll do it when I'm not around, usually I'm at my computer during the day for work and not always within sight. And of course, if they've done it once, they'll just keep doing it, and then I don't know what we would do!Don't worry if either cat jumps the gate. Just have a towel, or light bed sheet/blanket, pillow,...handy if you have to block line of sight, or break up some extremely rough cat play.
C calicosrspecial We try to stay within their boundaries, but since they're still young (T especially) we want them to get used to being handled and touched, and hopefully enjoy it.Best not to "force' attention on a cat.
Anyway, with K since she doesn't seem to react to our voices at the gate, if we don't want to give a treat, the only thing left is to pet her. It's more of a neutral distraction than a positive, that's all.
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Anyway, as I showed in the picture above, they now have some paw room at the bottom of the gate, and T sticks her paws out often. But K hasn't gone for them at all. Let me know if you have any interpretation of this!