Hi everyone, I'm new... And quite desperate! So I hope writing here I will find some help... It's going to be a bit long since I want to add context.
It's been almost a month since we started the reintroduction of our 2 9yo girls after a bad fight.
This is our second reintroduction, the first one around 2 years ago because of another fight.
Both my cats are neutered and been living together since they were 3 months old, but they have 2 quite different personalities. Misha is very energetic, Namii a bit less. Misha is more of a floor cat, Namii instead likes to jump around.
Misha at times playfully attacks Namii when she has too much energy, but Namii most of the time doesn't like it and push her away screaming. This always happened without big problems since they were 4 years old, I always try to make Misha tired to avoid this but she seems to have infinite energy, so sometimes it still happens
The first fight 2 years ago probably happened because of non-recognition aggression. Misha (the victim) got scared of some drilling in the building and peed on the floor, she's usually the confident, energetic and bossy cat, so Namii (the aggressor) didn't recognize her and attacked her. With help of a cat behaviorist it took 1 month and a half to reintroduce them. Around 18 days going from the screen door to completely free.
This last fight, around a month ago, happened because of redirected aggression, sadly a bit my fault too. Namii sneaked outside on the balcony and I didn't see her, so I closed the balcony before going back to the other room and she was stuck there for 2 hours. When I realized since I couldn't find her, I let her in. She was quite stressed, so I kept an eye on them for 20/30 mins. I fed them a meal together and things seemed to calm down, so I lowered my guard, left them in the living room with some interactive toys where they usually nap and went back to work in the other room... 5 mins later I hear a huge fight, I go check and Misha got attacked, she's hiding and scared and peed all around the living room. So I separated them, prepared the sanctuary room in the living room (it's the only option, our apartment isn't big) after cleaning properly and started the full reintroduction process. They are taking Bach drops and Zylkene since the beginning, and we have Feliway Optimum plugged in.
So... Yesterday we opened the door for the first time after around 12 days of screen door feeding, treats, play and clicker training. It was going well so we decided to try and continue the eat, play, love phase without the screen door.
Everything went smoothly, Namii (the aggressor ) went from the living room (the sanctuary room) to the bedroom where we placed a new cat tree and a couple more things to start an improved Catification of the apartment. They kept playing there, eating treats, Misha even smelled Namii's butt at some point without issues. They got close, face to face while playing, no issues.
When they got tired, we stayed with them in the bedroom. Namii went to sleep inside a "little house" on the new cat tree, while Misha was on the bed on the other side of the room. They looked at each other every now and then, also blinking at each other, so pretty positive! We kept rewarding them each time.
Well... At some point Misha got curious, seemed to have her confidence back again, so she got close to where Namii was sleeping on the new cat tree, she tried to sniff her but Namii woke up, hissed at her and she started staring badly, so we separated the two lightly (used some paper to break line of sight). Once done, Misha was getting away from the room on her own but Namii seemed to be a bit fixated on her and to slowly chase her... When Misha realized Namii was following her, she turned back and hissed. At that point we thought Namii felt provoked and ready for an attack because she started moving very fast toward Misha, Misha started growling so we separated them completely to avoid an extremely bad ending. Namii is now back in the sanctuary room with the screen door separating them. We let them see each other again after 10 mins, we played a bit, did some clicker + treats to keep the positive association and now they're ok with each with the screen door in-between, so we're probably just a step back.
The whole meeting lasted 30 mins or a bit more, so it was positive until then... But not sure if the Catification was the issue, maybe it was better to wait before adding new stuff around the apartment? Or maybe it's just that the tree was new and the aggressor was feeling territorial and trying to keep the new thing for herself?
At the moment we added this new tree, a few more scratching boxes and toys, a third litter, but in the future I also want to add some more wall shelves which we only have some in the living room.
Since we separated them, we've let Misha roam around the new tree more, so that at the next try her scent is there too.
Any more advice on this? Something else we should do before trying again? We saw some light and then our dreams shattered, mostly because with the first reintroduction 2 years ago they were completely fine with each other right after we opened the door the first time, while now things seem a bit different...
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read and help.
It's been almost a month since we started the reintroduction of our 2 9yo girls after a bad fight.
This is our second reintroduction, the first one around 2 years ago because of another fight.
Both my cats are neutered and been living together since they were 3 months old, but they have 2 quite different personalities. Misha is very energetic, Namii a bit less. Misha is more of a floor cat, Namii instead likes to jump around.
Misha at times playfully attacks Namii when she has too much energy, but Namii most of the time doesn't like it and push her away screaming. This always happened without big problems since they were 4 years old, I always try to make Misha tired to avoid this but she seems to have infinite energy, so sometimes it still happens
The first fight 2 years ago probably happened because of non-recognition aggression. Misha (the victim) got scared of some drilling in the building and peed on the floor, she's usually the confident, energetic and bossy cat, so Namii (the aggressor) didn't recognize her and attacked her. With help of a cat behaviorist it took 1 month and a half to reintroduce them. Around 18 days going from the screen door to completely free.
This last fight, around a month ago, happened because of redirected aggression, sadly a bit my fault too. Namii sneaked outside on the balcony and I didn't see her, so I closed the balcony before going back to the other room and she was stuck there for 2 hours. When I realized since I couldn't find her, I let her in. She was quite stressed, so I kept an eye on them for 20/30 mins. I fed them a meal together and things seemed to calm down, so I lowered my guard, left them in the living room with some interactive toys where they usually nap and went back to work in the other room... 5 mins later I hear a huge fight, I go check and Misha got attacked, she's hiding and scared and peed all around the living room. So I separated them, prepared the sanctuary room in the living room (it's the only option, our apartment isn't big) after cleaning properly and started the full reintroduction process. They are taking Bach drops and Zylkene since the beginning, and we have Feliway Optimum plugged in.
So... Yesterday we opened the door for the first time after around 12 days of screen door feeding, treats, play and clicker training. It was going well so we decided to try and continue the eat, play, love phase without the screen door.
Everything went smoothly, Namii (the aggressor ) went from the living room (the sanctuary room) to the bedroom where we placed a new cat tree and a couple more things to start an improved Catification of the apartment. They kept playing there, eating treats, Misha even smelled Namii's butt at some point without issues. They got close, face to face while playing, no issues.
When they got tired, we stayed with them in the bedroom. Namii went to sleep inside a "little house" on the new cat tree, while Misha was on the bed on the other side of the room. They looked at each other every now and then, also blinking at each other, so pretty positive! We kept rewarding them each time.
Well... At some point Misha got curious, seemed to have her confidence back again, so she got close to where Namii was sleeping on the new cat tree, she tried to sniff her but Namii woke up, hissed at her and she started staring badly, so we separated the two lightly (used some paper to break line of sight). Once done, Misha was getting away from the room on her own but Namii seemed to be a bit fixated on her and to slowly chase her... When Misha realized Namii was following her, she turned back and hissed. At that point we thought Namii felt provoked and ready for an attack because she started moving very fast toward Misha, Misha started growling so we separated them completely to avoid an extremely bad ending. Namii is now back in the sanctuary room with the screen door separating them. We let them see each other again after 10 mins, we played a bit, did some clicker + treats to keep the positive association and now they're ok with each with the screen door in-between, so we're probably just a step back.
The whole meeting lasted 30 mins or a bit more, so it was positive until then... But not sure if the Catification was the issue, maybe it was better to wait before adding new stuff around the apartment? Or maybe it's just that the tree was new and the aggressor was feeling territorial and trying to keep the new thing for herself?
At the moment we added this new tree, a few more scratching boxes and toys, a third litter, but in the future I also want to add some more wall shelves which we only have some in the living room.
Since we separated them, we've let Misha roam around the new tree more, so that at the next try her scent is there too.
Any more advice on this? Something else we should do before trying again? We saw some light and then our dreams shattered, mostly because with the first reintroduction 2 years ago they were completely fine with each other right after we opened the door the first time, while now things seem a bit different...
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read and help.