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Was Cosmo in the rest of the house the whole time before the peeing incident? Not confined to the bedroom? That does sound like a territorial peeing incident because of the location. I am surprised though. Were there any negative incidents between MOnty and Cosmo in the day or so before it happened?So after a fairly busy week, we had one peeing incident. I don't know when it happend and I also don't know why it happend, it was inside of a cardboard box that was just on the floor in our hallway, right where the gate is, so it might have been something Monty did, I don't know. I'm pretty sure he didn't pee anywhere else.
Other than that we just finished anothe 1 hour 40 minutes long playingsession. It had it ups and down, Monty threw Cosmo down 3 times (one time I caught it on tape, it's not long as we broke it of rigth away) The last throwdown was pretty bad. It happened in the bedroom right as Cosmo was going under the bed, Monty followed him and threw him to the ground, there was hissing and biting and growling. It was not easy getting them out of there and we had one ball of cat when we got them out of there, I grabbed Monty and my bf escorted Cosmo out of the bedroom. Monty was really irritated and was wiggeling around in my arms. No fur was drawn, as far as I can tell and there was no blood, so that's good. To end everything on a high note, they both got catmilk right after that, next to eachother of course, and it was fine again.
The first throwdown happend as we tried to have them just chill together. Monty was having non of that, haha. I also noticed he tries really hard to intimidate Cosmo and seem dangerous for example: He'll jump from the cat tower right next to him and run, then he'll stand still and make himself seem bigger. He'll also ambush him and jump right infront of him, most of the times Cosmo doesn't seem bothered.
I've got a long video for you to watch, so you can see how most of our long play sessions look like.
We also had one or two nosekisses, I wasn't able to film those unfortunatly.
I am going to take the video first. I saw PERFECTION on the video. There were many times Monty could have really "gotten" Cosmo and I saw no inclination of any negative desires.
So it starts with Monty and Cosmo in the same area. Both relaxing and minding their own business. Perfect. Monty exploring Cosmo in the window. Monty jumps on the counter and I think Cosmo makes some sounds and jumps down to go towards Monty. Monty jumps down and they meet. I expected some "fight" and Monty gently starts playing with Cosmo. Monty gets on him and Cosmo is on his back quickly. Sadly the video ends there but I did not seen aggression I saw a form of play up to that point. It was pretty careful and gentle which tells me a lot about where they are. It was not a hatred type encounter.
Then Monty follows Cosmo into the room and passes Cosmo and jumps on the bed. Then Cosmo goes under the bed which of course makes Monty wonder and get excited about playing with him. And then Monty goes under the bed with Cosmo and I am thinking "something is going to happen" and then Cosmo comes up and nosekisses the camera and Monty is walking away towards the door. WOW!! GREAT!!! They were together in an enclosed space and no fight happened???? AWESOME!!! And then Cosmo follows Monty (not something a cat that is afraid would do). They have a little stare down and they look away from being distracted with a toy. GREAT!! And what does Monty do? He goes into the other room and goes on the cat tree!! No desire from Monty to hurt/fight Cosmo. In fact Monty looks relaxed and happy. And Cosmo enters the room and goes under the bed knowing Monty is on the cat tree. Again, something a cat would not do IF he feared the other cat. Cosmo comes out from under the bed and jumps on it for the toy. And Cosmo comes up from below and behind Monty and he does nothing to Monty (and there is no negative reaction from Monty). So I see a lot of trust between them there. Monty is above in a strategic attack position and all he cares about is the toy with Cosmo walking beneath him. Monty sees Cosmo (there may have been a sound not sure) and goes right back to play. No attack, no fear. Then they both have their paws on the same toy. Again, great body language. And then Cosmo jumps on the bed and that I thought could trigger Monty and it doesn't. Wow, GREAT JOB MONTY!!! And Cosmo has his back turned to Monty and doesn't show any fear. Then a lot of play from Cosmo and Monty seeing it and not getting anxious and playing with his toy.
Then the video switches and Cosmo is on the tree and Monty on the bed. They switched paces but I couldn;t tell the difference between them. Which tells me that they are acting normal. Both of them. Look at Monty playing on his side, exposing his belly for a short time with Cosmo above on the tree? WHAT????? Monty is showing he is not fearful of Cosmo. Again, all I see is trust between them. This is FANTASTIC!!! And Cosmo is pretty wild on the tree and Monty looks at him while vulnerable on his side. WOW!!
Then the video switches angles but it looks like they are continuing what they were doing in the previous video. Monty gets really wild playing on the bed and Cosmo is oblivious. Again, I don't see any fear in either cat.
Then new segment of the video - Cosmo in the window shelf and Monty below. Cosmo being pet. Monty playing and Cosmo seems to want to play as well. Then it cuts off.
Then we see them on the couch facing towards each other with a toy. Cosmo playing totally oblivious to Monty. Again not something a cat that fears another cat would do. And Monty looks a little tense watching and I am thinking I wonder if Monty is going to pounce or chase. And Monty sits up and watches and Cosmo looks at him and thinks "whatever" and goes back to playing. And Monty walks away to find some sun. Monty watches Cosmo get off the couch and playing and Cosmo turns his back on Monty. And Monty seems really relaxed and just watches. Then Monty goes for a close up to the camera. Again, Monty had every chance to attack and chose not to. GREAT.
New segment of video - Cosmo on back of the couch and Monty below. Cosmo has his paw reaching down. Fast movements with the toy which can trigger a reaction from another cat. Monty is watching. I am thinking "oh no, here is a negative encounter coming" and Cosmo comes in for a close up.
I saw perfection in this. The one encounter sure seemed like play to me and the body language and the results were all positive. There were so many positives in here. I am so proud of Monty and Cosmo. Cosmo seems to not only not have fear of Monty but also seems to want some interaction. I saw Monty uneasy at times but he chose not to do anything and I saw Monty extremely relaxed many many times. So seeing that (which I know is not the whole story) tells me they are already fine. They have a great relationship from what I saw.
Ok, now to the write-up part. There were 3 negative encounters. I am guessing the one on the video was one of them. I saw that one as play. Then the bad one under the bed. Hissing, biting, growling. Now I saw on the video Monty and Cosmo under the bed with no encounter. So I wonder what changed. They could have been just "amped up" from play. And it escalated. Which can happen. BUT no fur, no blood. So it may have sounded bad it didn't end in a bad result. They chose not to hurt each other which is great. Can you remember what happened right before they got into that fight? Then they get catmilk right next to each other after that???? GREAT. Fast rebound tells me they didn't think it was serious. How fast they rebound and how they act after (normal etc) and how long it takes to go back to normal tells us a lot about how serious it really was.
Did this fight happen in between any segments in this video?
Could it be that Monty just wants to play rather than chill?
Monty could be intimidating but he also could be trying to instigate play. Some of that pouncing, jumping nearby, running, ambushing, etc is to trigger a reaction to start some fun play chases etc.
Now the "halloween cat" way of getting bigger etc is to let another cat know not to try something. So there may be a little fear still of Cosmo but the fact Cosmo doesn't follow through or show any interest (ignores him, isn't bothered) will teach Monty that Cosmo doesn't mean harm. And though I saw a little unease from Monty in the video I didn't see anything at all concerning.
So overall, I think you are doing a great job and didn't see anything to be worried about and even the fight didn't seem that bad. Sure, we want them not to do that but the fact there was no harm AND they rebounded quickly tells me that they are fine. Cats do get into it sometimes but showing restraint tells us a lot about how they really feel about the other cat. They chose not to hurt each other and they told the other one they didn't like what the other cat did. Sometimes cats like people jsut have to work it out themselves through communication etc.
I will say though that I am surprised by the peeing incident. I know I am not seeing everything on the video but I don;t see any insecurity or any body language/behavioral clues. I am really stumped at why that happened. I guess I understand it before when Cosmo wanted to have the other territory but now (if Cosmo was in the rest of the house). Is it possible it was Monty? I know it is hard to know who may have done it (unless it was more physically impossible for one cat).
I am thinking of blocking off under the bed they fought under. I get a sense Cosmo likes it under there though and I do worry about taking away territory. BUT I also want to avoid "dead ends" or places where they can get cornered. Trying to have multiple exits is really important for cats. And they have been under there before without incident (like I saw in he video). Hmmmmmmmmm. What do you think?
But overall, you have done a GREAT job!!! They are pretty much there. I would like to keep trying to have them out and about and together when you both are around. If you sense the wrestling is more playful and not aggressive just try to call there name to break it up rather than physically separating them. And watch how they react during and after. It it gets too intense then we have to separate them but PLEASE be careful so you are not hurt in any way. I don't get a sense the fights are really bad, I think they are more playful though they may get a little out of control. I see this all the time with cats and there is some nuance in determining if it is worrisome or not. I don't get a sense yours is a problem BUT we should err on the side of caution since I don't see everything. Just use your judgement, I trust your instincts to do what you feel is best and what is best.