- Joined
- Sep 6, 2017
- Messages
- 2
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Sorry for the book, it's been a long year. We had a perfect 2 cat household when our older male passed unexpectedly last July. We were then left with Grey, a youngish (3-5) spayed female that was found starving in a parking lot. She had played with our older male and seemed to enjoy his company. After we mourned we started looking for another cat to be her friend.
In January of this year we adopted Socks estimated to be about 3. Socks came from a hoarding case of 30+ indoor cats and was practically feral. They deemed him a "barn cat" despite never having been outside. The first few months he was kept in a spare bathroom and slowly warmed up to us. He is now perfectly friendly with people, especially men, and especially my husband. He is my husband's cat 100% and if they were not so attached we would have looked for a single cat household a long time ago. The problem came when he started attacking Grey, mostly when she used the litterbox. We had 4 boxes at the time, we now have 5, one in every room and the outdoor enclosed patio, but we have a very small house so he heard any time she was using a box. This only happened maybe twice before I separated him from her. His aggression only got worse. If he escaped from his room he would seek her out like a missile and attack her.
We set up the spare bedroom as his room, installing a screen door with cat screen so he could see out/not be isolated, but also could not harm Grey. We fed them next to each other (and he is surprisingly docile/submissive to her when food is involved). He was leash trained so he could be out around her safely (though she now views him very negatively and leaves whatever room he is in, hissing and growling). We tried using the pheromone plug-ins in every room. I already have cat trees with escape routes in every room, but both cats are very much "floor" cats so that is not especially helpful. Lastly we took Socks to the vet and asked for Prozac. The vet prescribed it and also suggested clicker training so we could redirect Sock's focus. The cat knows "sit, stay, come" and is learning other things now.
So we realized he did not come from a peaceful hoard of cats, but instead a war zone where he views other cats as the enemy. I thought some of it was him needing to be neutered, but it has been 10 months now (he came neutered when adopted). He was always worried about if food would come (which so was Grey for about the first year we had her), something I call "food worried," and now that has slowly been alleviated. He uses the litterbox like a champ and does not spray.
I have often wondered if he would do better in a household with more cats, more like what he used to live in (minus the lack of food and dirty environment). I used to keep chickens and the rule for them is to have a "pecking order" which needs at least 3. Obviously cats are not chickens. We have the opportunity to adopt a female kitten, but the logical part of me worries that I would be compounding the problem and we have obviously created quite a big problem for ourselves. Arranged cat marriages are hard. Any thoughts?
In January of this year we adopted Socks estimated to be about 3. Socks came from a hoarding case of 30+ indoor cats and was practically feral. They deemed him a "barn cat" despite never having been outside. The first few months he was kept in a spare bathroom and slowly warmed up to us. He is now perfectly friendly with people, especially men, and especially my husband. He is my husband's cat 100% and if they were not so attached we would have looked for a single cat household a long time ago. The problem came when he started attacking Grey, mostly when she used the litterbox. We had 4 boxes at the time, we now have 5, one in every room and the outdoor enclosed patio, but we have a very small house so he heard any time she was using a box. This only happened maybe twice before I separated him from her. His aggression only got worse. If he escaped from his room he would seek her out like a missile and attack her.
We set up the spare bedroom as his room, installing a screen door with cat screen so he could see out/not be isolated, but also could not harm Grey. We fed them next to each other (and he is surprisingly docile/submissive to her when food is involved). He was leash trained so he could be out around her safely (though she now views him very negatively and leaves whatever room he is in, hissing and growling). We tried using the pheromone plug-ins in every room. I already have cat trees with escape routes in every room, but both cats are very much "floor" cats so that is not especially helpful. Lastly we took Socks to the vet and asked for Prozac. The vet prescribed it and also suggested clicker training so we could redirect Sock's focus. The cat knows "sit, stay, come" and is learning other things now.
So we realized he did not come from a peaceful hoard of cats, but instead a war zone where he views other cats as the enemy. I thought some of it was him needing to be neutered, but it has been 10 months now (he came neutered when adopted). He was always worried about if food would come (which so was Grey for about the first year we had her), something I call "food worried," and now that has slowly been alleviated. He uses the litterbox like a champ and does not spray.
I have often wondered if he would do better in a household with more cats, more like what he used to live in (minus the lack of food and dirty environment). I used to keep chickens and the rule for them is to have a "pecking order" which needs at least 3. Obviously cats are not chickens. We have the opportunity to adopt a female kitten, but the logical part of me worries that I would be compounding the problem and we have obviously created quite a big problem for ourselves. Arranged cat marriages are hard. Any thoughts?
