Curious behaviour

[al_dumitru]

Hello, everyone. I have two cats a younger female (16yo, 5,4 kg) and an older male (20yo, 5,6kg). They both came from different households, they met into my house. They did not like each other in the beginning, the female was the one who always spit and hissed, attached him and blocked his way back. They have stayed in separate rooms, with doors closed for around 9 months, untill she realised it is more fun together and now they sleep in the same room, with me (one on the left side of me, the other one on the right side). She still behaves mischiviously with him, growling whenever he closes more than 40 cm of her, but now they stay together, all day long, in the same bed while I am away for work. However, he is the dominant cat in the house, as he never covers his business in his litter box and she always covers hers in her litter box (the two litterboxes are at leat 7 m apart from each other). But I have noticed something interesting: the female never attacks him if he comes to eat from her bowl, she just leaves and lets him eat. But the curious behaviour I want to ask about is another one: as I said, he never covers his pee in his litterbox. And I saw her twice going to his litter box and covering his pee. I wonder: is it because she loves him and does not want him to be exposed to ”predators” or because she does not want to see or smell any of his traces?
I ask because him, being so old, I am afraid that she might attack him when his powers will fade.

 

[Kieka]

I'd go with she smells the pee and is ensuring that she is safe from predators by covering the pee. It could also be she's just obsessive about covering in the litter box and doesn't care whose it is as long as it's covered. I don't think you have to worry about her overtaking him, even if the balance shifts it's unlikely that she will attack him.

 

[al_dumitru]

I'd go with she smells the pee and is ensuring that she is safe from predators by covering the pee. It could also be she's just obsessive about covering in the litter box and doesn't care whose it is as long as it's covered. I don't think you have to worry about her overtaking him, even if the balance shifts it's unlikely that she will attack him.

Thank you!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi and welcome to TCS! There are a lot of folks on this site who have one cat that does the 'litter box covering duty' for their 'roommate'. I don't recall any of the members ever thinking this was a negative thing and it seems like the cats were always buddies. I think you are good!

 

[al_dumitru]

Hi and welcome to TCS! There are a lot of folks on this site who have one cat that does the 'litter box covering duty' for their 'roommate'. I don't recall any of the members ever thinking this was a negative thing and it seems like the cats were always buddies. I think you are good!

Thank you for reassuring me.

 

[Alldara]

Some cats just don't cover

Lily used to dig up Nobel's pees or poos and then rebury them. I think she was judging his
burrying job I wouldn't worry about it. If they are using the same litter this is a good sign. Keep having multiple litters though!

 

[al_dumitru]

Some cats just don't cover

Lily used to dig up Nobel's pees or poos and then rebury them. I think she was judging his
burrying job I wouldn't worry about it. If they are using the same litter this is a good sign. Keep having multiple litters though!

They have different litter boxes and they use them accordingly ). Maybe she is just worried about his negligence. Whenever she does this, she does not even enter his litterbox, she just do it from outside of the litterbox.