My boyfriend and I moved into a new house together last September (2010) and introduced my two cats, Mingus and Cattle, male and female both age 3, to his female cat, Trixie, age 8. For the first few days we had them in separate rooms and eventually introduced them without any serious problems. The following weekend we had two friends over for dinner and we noticed how uncharacteristically possessive Trixie got, moving from lap to lap, growling and hissing at the other cats when they would come too close.
Things got worse from there. Trixie started to climb on top of the cupboards near the ceiling and not come down, to the point where we noticed that she had peed on top of the refrigerator. I called the vet and she said that Trixie was exerting dominance over the other two cats by being at the highest in the room and to get her down when she established her perch on the cupboards.
Trixie and Mingus began to snuggle/groom each other, while Trixie and Cattle developed a deep and serious hatred for one another. Their fights intensified and got to the point where they became violent and drew blood. At that point, we started their total separation. One of the female cats is separated in the laundry room at all times.
We've since tried to re-introduce them, but they immediately fight. Bad. If I so much as bring Trixie out, Cattle is stalking at my feet, ready to attack. It's been 10 months and as recent as this week, they had a serious fight. Help! Both are very sweet/social cats otherwise and get along great with Mingus the male.
Things got worse from there. Trixie started to climb on top of the cupboards near the ceiling and not come down, to the point where we noticed that she had peed on top of the refrigerator. I called the vet and she said that Trixie was exerting dominance over the other two cats by being at the highest in the room and to get her down when she established her perch on the cupboards.
Trixie and Mingus began to snuggle/groom each other, while Trixie and Cattle developed a deep and serious hatred for one another. Their fights intensified and got to the point where they became violent and drew blood. At that point, we started their total separation. One of the female cats is separated in the laundry room at all times.
We've since tried to re-introduce them, but they immediately fight. Bad. If I so much as bring Trixie out, Cattle is stalking at my feet, ready to attack. It's been 10 months and as recent as this week, they had a serious fight. Help! Both are very sweet/social cats otherwise and get along great with Mingus the male.
