So, I Have An Attention Hoarder

[WannabeCatLady]

Meet Josiah. Josiah is shelter cat that I adopted while working at the Humane Society fo North Texas. He was on the EU list for an upper respiratory infection that turned out to be chronic allergies. I decided to stay his execution by fostering him until he got over his "URI." Of course, since this was an allergy issue, he was in my care for a significant amount of time (he couldn't return to the shelter until he was sneeze-free). So I fell in love and adopted him.

We've had our ups and downs. We couldn't figure out why all the cats in my mom's house hated him, but that was okay, because I was moving out anyways and my cat didn't mind him. We had a peaceful year just Josiah, Mycroft, and me.

Then we moved into a house with my best friend and her cat, Memphis. Memphis is a calm, non-confrontational cat. Josiah hated him on the spot, and we spent many months reintroducing them until we reached a point that they tolerated each other. Our solution had been for me to give Josiah attention and offer Memphis minimal attention. That's right, Josiah was picking fights with Memphis because he thought Memphis was getting too much attention.

So, all's well that ends well, right? Not so much. We have a kitten now, a stray that came to our house four pounds underweight with a bevy of health issues that would take a month and a half to clear up. Poppy is her name. So, Poppy loves everyone, even if they don't love her, Josiah included. She wants desperately for him to play with her and cuddle her, but if anyone attempts to break into a play session with him, Josiah becomes quite aggressive, chasing the other cat out of the room. So my question is: how to change play-aggressive behaviors and how to possibly encourage Josiah to play with Poppy (because frankly, they would be perfect playmates if he would allow it cuz she's the only one not afraid of him).

Any advice?

 

[WannabeCatLady]

For reference: this is Poppy

And this is Josiah:

 

[rubysmama]

Hello and welcome to TCS. Adorable cats.

Did you do a "proper" introduction between Poppy and Josiah? If not, maybe it would help to separate them, re-do the introductions. Here are a couple TCS articles with more info:

How To Fix An Unsuccessful Cat Introduction
How To Introduce A Kitten To An Older Cat

Also:
Do Cats Get Jealous? (and What To Do About It When They Do)
The Multi-cat Household

 

[Kflowers]

It sounds as though you'll have to repeat what you did with Josiah and Memphis. It's possible that Josiah needs the long repeated introductions just to believe you are serious about keeping this new comer in the house, but still love him bestest.

 

[WannabeCatLady]

I appreciate the advice! Poppy had a month-long introduction due to some persistent Giardia trophozoites, and Josiah didn't really mind her until she started acting like a kitten again and including herself in the play environment. Now, he will hiss and chase way any of the cats that even look like they are interested in his toy, even Mycroft, who has lived peacefully with Josiah for the past two years. He's only aggressive when play is involved, whether I'm playing with someone else or with him. Otherwise, he'll let Poppy cuddle with him, and he doesn't have a problem with me loving on her. It's only during playtime.

 

[Kflowers]

I guess it's a form of resource guarding. I've never had that happen, fortunately. I have no clue how to help. Sorry.

 

[rubysmama]

How old is Poppy?

 

[WannabeCatLady]

Poppy is around nine months old.

 

[rubysmama]

So Poppy's still a young cat. If it was just her, I'd say do a re-introduction. But with it being all the other cats, plus only at playtime, I don't even know if that would work. Sorry, I really don't have any suggestions.

 

[neely]

The only thing I can think of is to play with Poppy in a separate room for now even if only temporarily. It doesn't sound like a good idea to agitate Josiah. For whatever reason it appears that he is taking out his frustration on her. Maybe if you can play with Poppy separately she can release some excess energy and Josiah won't be so jealous. Just out of curiosity, are all the cats fed together?

 

[WannabeCatLady]

So I free feed my kitties via slow-feeders. The ones i use are round and ceramic with openings on each side, and I have them stationed in three different rooms for easy access and to discourage competition. Then at nine every night, they all get a can of wet food in separate bowls.

 

[inkysmom]

It does sound like resource guarding, very common dog behavior. He's not possessive about you cuddling or petting Poppy or the other cats? Just them playing with you? Or is it him playing with his toys with or without you? Is it the toys he's possessive about or you playing with him?
Does he play with any of the other cats independently? Do any of them play together independently?
Is he possessive of any of the food bowls or chase the others away from their servings or does he share or stick to his own food?

How is he with catnip? Does it make him mellow or aggressive?
If it makes him mellow, you could try spreading some around and letting all the cats get silly and mellow together.

When one of my cats was aggressive and attacking my new large dog for six months after I got him, I started having to tell the cat "NO BAD!" And literally catch him and lock him in the bathroom for a while every time I caught him attacking the dog. He learned fast. I also praised and patted him for sitting on the bed or chair with me and the dog and being peaceful.
This worked very well with this cat and both my past and present dogs. But you don't want your cat to redirect his aggression onto you.
I think I'd either stop playing with him altogether for now and strongly reward every time he is pleasant to the other cats, so he gets his favorite treats and rubs and praise with good cuddling or something like that when he cuddles or let's you pet him and another cat.
Or if you did keep playing with him, the second he went after another cat say a firm NO and stop all play immediately and go find the cat he went after and make a big fuss over praising it. So he learns attacking the other cat gets him a verbal reprimand (I might be mean and shake a can or fire a water pistol or lock him in a small room for a timeout) so he has a negative association of loss of play and something unpleasant with being a bully. And the cat he attacked now gets all the praise. Should teach him nothing good and all kinds of unpleasant things happen when he attacks his siblings. You have to have immediate timing though.

It's worked for me and my aggressive terrorist cat wound up bonding very strongly with both my last dog and my current dog.

 

[kissthisangel]

hmmmm... normally I would suggest free feeding in resource concern aggression situations, but you are already doing this. Poppy had an illness, which by the sounds of your post made her less playful and the cats more-or less got on until this point. Now that Poppy is showing her true kitten personality, Josiah is not a happy camper. I think a re-introduction of "Poppy the new kitten" will be beneficial. But I'm struggling with a way to break Josiah's current perception of Poppy. Until this point, he liked the way she was, and that was poorly and calm.

One Idea is to take Poppy away from Josiah's area, Play with her until she has nothing left energy wise, and introduce them. Then the next day you play with her a little less before you let her in with Josiah. Keep reducing the time you play with Poppy before letting her and Josiah interact with toys together. This should limit the energy she has to play with his chosen toy for that session and slowly increase his tolerance to her energy.

Or you could see if the cats both like the same types of toy. Some cats are ground predators, and they will like toys that emulate mice and insects, like caterpillar or ball type toys, others will like feathery wands that "whoosh" through the air. If you and your housemate get together with different types of toys, you may be able to play with the cats, simultaneously each with their favorite toy.

An example from my cats is that Mojo doesn't have any real interest in toys, but Charlie loves all of them. Mojo will prefer a live insect, or an erratic cable tie over a cat- design toy. Charlie fetches mice, chases the laser, plays with the balls loves the wand toy.

I will think on it and see if I can come up with any other ideas but it's a toughie.