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- Oct 17, 2019
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When we lost our older cat to cancer in February, we adopted 1 1/2 y.o. male as a companion cat for our 10 y.o. female. Within a week, he was aggressively jumping on her/rolling her/biting her. We tried for a month to distract him/wear him out with toys/keep them as separate as possible, but the attacking got too bad and we had to return him.
We tried again with another 1 1/2 y.o. male, who proceeded to do nearly the exact same thing and, after a month of her being terrorized, another depressing return.
We tried ONE MORE TIME with an older, smaller female...half the size of our girl, and declawed by a former owner. We've had her for about 3 weeks. Of course our resident grump has been hissing and growling, but she's a chicken at heart and never actually attacks. The past few days, our completely placid and sweet new adoptee has started chasing and jumping on our older girl! She can't do much damage with her small size and no claws, but our resident grump is terrified and cowering upstairs. We've got them separated...again.
Is our cat just "giving off the vibe" and has the "personality" (super hissy/growly but all bluff and would never jump on another cat because she's secretly a chicken) to be bullied? My husband and I haven't given up on the sweet girl that we've adopted, but are concerned that she's started being aggressive. We don't mind if they growl/hiss at each other for the next decade, but chasing/jumping is a big worry. It's definitely not in play, either. Our sweet adoptee was turned into the shelter after her owner died, and was in "the system" for a month before we adopted her. We really like her and want to keep her, but we also don't want to keep her locked up 75% of the time, and don't want our other girl afraid. They don't need to be friends, just live in the same house with no physical attacks.
Any advice for what we could do? We already keep them separated overnight and part of the day...they're only in the same area together in the evening, and that's when the aggression is happening. BOTH cats get loads of attention all day, and neither is interested in catnip/feather wand/toys in general. They're both kind of lazy, sleepy, sweet (to us) cats, but together...ouch. Help!!
We tried again with another 1 1/2 y.o. male, who proceeded to do nearly the exact same thing and, after a month of her being terrorized, another depressing return.
We tried ONE MORE TIME with an older, smaller female...half the size of our girl, and declawed by a former owner. We've had her for about 3 weeks. Of course our resident grump has been hissing and growling, but she's a chicken at heart and never actually attacks. The past few days, our completely placid and sweet new adoptee has started chasing and jumping on our older girl! She can't do much damage with her small size and no claws, but our resident grump is terrified and cowering upstairs. We've got them separated...again.
Is our cat just "giving off the vibe" and has the "personality" (super hissy/growly but all bluff and would never jump on another cat because she's secretly a chicken) to be bullied? My husband and I haven't given up on the sweet girl that we've adopted, but are concerned that she's started being aggressive. We don't mind if they growl/hiss at each other for the next decade, but chasing/jumping is a big worry. It's definitely not in play, either. Our sweet adoptee was turned into the shelter after her owner died, and was in "the system" for a month before we adopted her. We really like her and want to keep her, but we also don't want to keep her locked up 75% of the time, and don't want our other girl afraid. They don't need to be friends, just live in the same house with no physical attacks.
Any advice for what we could do? We already keep them separated overnight and part of the day...they're only in the same area together in the evening, and that's when the aggression is happening. BOTH cats get loads of attention all day, and neither is interested in catnip/feather wand/toys in general. They're both kind of lazy, sleepy, sweet (to us) cats, but together...ouch. Help!!