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I'm happy to report that I think things have gotten better from Radish's end! We continued baby gate feeding and then we let Radish have supervised access to ʻUlu's room over the weekend for short periods of time. He initially would lock onto ʻUlu, growl, and slap his head. However, with more exposure, the growls and intense stares have lessened--to the point where Radish saw ʻUlu this morning and didn't growl at all. (He did slap ʻUlu's butt, though, because ʻUlu had gone and hid under his shoeshelf but left his butt out in the open. But it was just a couple of slaps, no sounds, and then Radish wandered away.) I wonder if Radish was also halfway trying to play with ʻUlu in his weird way at some points, because he was playing peekaboo through the tunnel we've got set up and was sort of poking at ʻUlu the way he pokes at Marple right before he tries to wrestle with her...except since he'd been growling and slapping, ʻUlu can't tell when Radish is trying to play. I wonder why!
My husband also noticed that Radish doesn't react as aggressively to ʻUlu when it's primarily him supervising versus me (he said he thinks Radish sees him as basically a giant cat who needs to be respected but sees me as his "mommy" so he gets jealous
My husband would be a very big cat!), so he supervised the first couple of visits and then we sort of took turns after. I think that did help a lot!
I guess the sad story now is ʻUlu, who just doesn't seem to have an aggressive bone in his body. He likes playing footsie with Radish under the door; he'll even come up to the door if it's open a crack and Radish is right outside. But if the door is wide open and Radish is coming in, ʻUlu will either hide in his shoeshelf when he sees Radish approaching or will just slowly melt onto his side, close his eyes, and lie there like he's dead. And you know how slugs get shorter and shrink into themselves if you poke them? That's what ʻUlu does when Radish smacks him. Then he just lies there and (I'm pretty sure) falls asleep until Radish wanders off, and then when I touch him after Radish leaves he pops back up and rubs on me like nothing happened. I told my husband that if ʻUlu was our kid, I'd be signing him up for karate lessons right now. He might also just be part fainting goat. We're not sure.
We will try working on ʻUlu's confidence once Radish shows he's over making big body all the time! Also open to any tips or guidance if we're heading down the wrong road. I think we are progressing, but I'm not 100% sure. We don't want to permanently traumatize ʻUlu, but he has behaved pretty consistently while Radish is improving. ʻUlu just doesn't want to fight, which probably helps, and I think once Radish gets over it we can work more on ʻUlu and getting him out of his bedroom.
ʻUlu shrinking like a slug (Radish is between the stumpy cat den and the stuffed platypus)
Playing dead (he started purring very, very quietly while I was petting him...can't tip Radish off that he's actually still alive)
(Oh, and Marple was fine with eating meals in ʻUlu's room with ʻUlu! She is really such a good cat. If you leave her alone she leaves you alone...Radish just doesn't leave her alone, haha. She will probably be fine with ʻUlu since he's not constantly wanting to wrestle like Radish.)
My husband also noticed that Radish doesn't react as aggressively to ʻUlu when it's primarily him supervising versus me (he said he thinks Radish sees him as basically a giant cat who needs to be respected but sees me as his "mommy" so he gets jealous
My husband would be a very big cat!), so he supervised the first couple of visits and then we sort of took turns after. I think that did help a lot!I guess the sad story now is ʻUlu, who just doesn't seem to have an aggressive bone in his body. He likes playing footsie with Radish under the door; he'll even come up to the door if it's open a crack and Radish is right outside. But if the door is wide open and Radish is coming in, ʻUlu will either hide in his shoeshelf when he sees Radish approaching or will just slowly melt onto his side, close his eyes, and lie there like he's dead. And you know how slugs get shorter and shrink into themselves if you poke them? That's what ʻUlu does when Radish smacks him. Then he just lies there and (I'm pretty sure) falls asleep until Radish wanders off, and then when I touch him after Radish leaves he pops back up and rubs on me like nothing happened. I told my husband that if ʻUlu was our kid, I'd be signing him up for karate lessons right now. He might also just be part fainting goat. We're not sure.
We will try working on ʻUlu's confidence once Radish shows he's over making big body all the time! Also open to any tips or guidance if we're heading down the wrong road. I think we are progressing, but I'm not 100% sure. We don't want to permanently traumatize ʻUlu, but he has behaved pretty consistently while Radish is improving. ʻUlu just doesn't want to fight, which probably helps, and I think once Radish gets over it we can work more on ʻUlu and getting him out of his bedroom.
ʻUlu shrinking like a slug (Radish is between the stumpy cat den and the stuffed platypus)
Playing dead (he started purring very, very quietly while I was petting him...can't tip Radish off that he's actually still alive)
(Oh, and Marple was fine with eating meals in ʻUlu's room with ʻUlu! She is really such a good cat. If you leave her alone she leaves you alone...Radish just doesn't leave her alone, haha. She will probably be fine with ʻUlu since he's not constantly wanting to wrestle like Radish.)
