Is she really scared or is it part of the game?

Hi,
I have two cats, a female called Lizzie and a male called Bagheera. Bag tends to chase or stalk Liz around the house, swatting at her (no claws or anything) and she immediatly reacts by hissing, ears back growling the lot. He sometimes gives chase and she runs and hides. Sometimes she reacts like this if he just stand over her. I have never owned cats before this, is this normal? She is smaller than him and I had him first. He never actually hurts her, and the rest of the time they are fine (though not affectionate to each other beyond the occaisional nose to nose greeting).
When they do this at night it drives me nuts.
Is this normal????

It's not a game, and from long experience, he may well eventually try to hurt her. It's a dominance thing and I have yet (many cats) ever found a good answer to it - it just seems to be so entrenched. If there's a female, or an older cat around, the males 'have' to go after them. If there's any way you can keep them apart when you're not around, or give them separate living spaces, do it. You'll probably get lots of disagreement here from others, but this has been my experience. It definitely gets worse at full moon time - and no I'm not a New Age cuckoo - it does affect them whether or not we like to admit it.

I don't know that it is a male-female thing. My male cat loves female cats, and is more likely to fight with male cats.

It is probably just your two individual cats, and a dominance situation. Maybe you could try re-introducing them?

Make sure each of them has their own space as well. Odo (who is newer to me but older in years) frequently chases Willow (who has been with me for most of her life). Willow can jump a lot higher than Odo can, so I have lots of vertical spaces, like dressers, desks, and a big cat tree where she can climb up when she wants to be away from him.