Could my one cat be defending my other cat against the new cat?

Moonlight_wolf

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So sorry that I keep posting about the same situation. But one thing I noticed, I was mingling the cats, and Lexa (Mia’s adopted baby) walked into the kitchen and Ellie went as if to stalk her in there, I got up to intervene, but at the same moment Mia went after Ellie kinda like walking up to her and then lunging at the last second to swat her. I grabbed Mia and put her on the heat mat and then put Ellie upstairs hoping she’ll get some energy out and not want to hunt lexa. (She’s currently zooming around like a maniac.)

I know that Ellie truly wants to play with Lexa, but it sometimes turns into hunting lexa when we haven’t gotten enough of her energy out. I feel her and Lexa might play together when Lexa isn’t scared of Ellie and Ellie approaches play gentler.
However Mia is the one that confuses me? Like she will just go up to Ellie and smack her around. And it doesn’t look playful. Sometimes she’ll just sit and watch, and often she’ll just walk by Ellie like nothing. But other times she’s lazor focused on Ellie or goes after her?

Is she trying to show Ellie who is boss? Is she trying to assert her dominance? Is she trying to protect Lexa from being chased?

Mia is almost always silent in these interactions and Ellie will be the one hissing. If I don’t intervene in time Mia usually walks away after smacking Ellie around. It all happens very quickly.

Mia hissed this time at me because I grabbed her and she was surprised. But she usually doesn’t hiss or growl.

What is the meaning of these interactions and what can I do to stop them? They concern me the most because I understand them the least.
 

Kris107

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Is there any way to get one on video to share? Sometimes there is a cat who is kind of the boss/bossy.
 
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Moonlight_wolf

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Yeah next time I see it about to happen maybe I’ll take a video.
 
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Moonlight_wolf

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Mia and Ellie clash

Here’s like what I mean, before this I was sitting next to Mia and petting her, but then Lexa moved, so I moved so I could see all three of the cats, and once I wasn’t next to Mia this happened.
 

silent meowlook

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I’m not sure who is who, so I’ll call them Grey and Torti. Torti was playing and Grey wanted to play too. Grey surprised Torti and Torti reacted.

A super hard thing to do is to train yourself not to make any noise when there is a cat interaction like that. Humans escalate with their voices.

Find a high value toy that Grey likes and use that to distract before Grey acts innocently inappropriate. So, don’t just play with one cat, play with them all at the same time if they are together. If not, don’t have them all together for play sessions.
 
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Moonlight_wolf

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Hmm, but it looked like she (Grey/Mia) was going after Ellie (Tortie), so you think it looked more like play, rather than aggression? And Grey (Mia). Was kinda puffy after this interaction.
 

silent meowlook

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I think Mia kind of rudely entered Ellie’s play space, and Ellie was so deep in play it startled her and Ellie overreacted to the startle, which put Mia offensively defensive and then you reacted and it kind of minimally blew up. Although, I don’t think it was going to amount to more than one running away, and one chasing.
 

di and bob

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Cats do have their 'space' so that could very well be it. Females are very territorial too. I have seen females slap around huge tom cats outside. Mia may be very well trying to top the heirarchy in the house. She could be thinking that she has to protect Lexa too, since she is the dominant one. Ellie will learn or eventually fight back. as long as there is no blood drawn, everything is normal. Scratches that bleed, or deep bites are true fighting.
 

Kris107

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Thanks for this video - it's helpful! I don't think this is too horrible, but I don't think it was play. Mia seemed peeved about something Ellie was doing. I agree about trying to play with both if you can. I, personally, would've said something to Mia. In my house, that would be inappropriate behavior. Did Mia walk away right after that interaction? Did Ellie? If that was all it was and it stopped after that, then I think Mia was just scolding Ellie because she was annoyed. I've never had 3 female cats at once, so the dynamics could be a bit different.
 

Alldara

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The angle right here, makes it hard to know what the cat playing reacted like. 1737690721606.png

So the floofy cat moves forward, ears are up, body relaxed. This is certainly play.

But we can see the original cat has her ears pinned back though she is looking forward. She is not comfortable with what is happening and it de-escalates the situation. Then, both cats act with frustration towards one another.
 
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