Ivan, my 8 year old DLH has decided that our 12 week old kitten Frankie is the love of his life and they play and sleep together constantly. Ivan also feels it is his job to groom the kitten from head to toe. Unfortunately, he spends most of that attention on the kitten's face. He is biting off Frankie's eyebrows and whiskers. Frankie currently has eyebrows over only one eye and all the whisker's on one cheek are about 1/4 inch! Ivan will bite at them like he is pursuing a flea or some sort of "dirt" in Frankie's coat. None of the cats have fleas and there is nothing on Frankie's face to attract this much attention.
Ivan used to try to do this to my recently deceased adult male cat. But that cat would haul off and whack Ivan when he tried it and Ivan would give up (although he was occasionally successful with an eyebrow or two). He had never tried the whisker's before.
Frankie doesn't seem to mind this attention and just closes his eyes and purrs while he is being "trimmed". The only way I can intervene is to physically remove the kitten to a different room and keep it there. Ivan calls the kitten to him all the time and if he hears Frankie meowing, he comes running. Separating them will certainly make both of them very unhappy.
Any suggestions? If I had a digital camera I would post a picture - if it weren't so pitiful looking to see a kitten with his whisker's gone, it would be comical...
Ivan used to try to do this to my recently deceased adult male cat. But that cat would haul off and whack Ivan when he tried it and Ivan would give up (although he was occasionally successful with an eyebrow or two). He had never tried the whisker's before.
Frankie doesn't seem to mind this attention and just closes his eyes and purrs while he is being "trimmed". The only way I can intervene is to physically remove the kitten to a different room and keep it there. Ivan calls the kitten to him all the time and if he hears Frankie meowing, he comes running. Separating them will certainly make both of them very unhappy.
Any suggestions? If I had a digital camera I would post a picture - if it weren't so pitiful looking to see a kitten with his whisker's gone, it would be comical...