Please please help me! My cats have turned on eachother

My 2 precious cats have been best friends; inseparable from the minute they met, nit even so much as growling or hissing at eachother. About 2 weeks ago they were traumatized severely by a cruel man living with us. I was out of the house for less than 30 minutes and in that time he thought it would be "funny" to watch his cat fight my cats. I never even gave him permission to have his cat here! I'm not sure what else was done to my babies but when I got home they had turned on eachother. It was the worst cat fightS I have ever seen. It was so bad that my babygirl Pinky had to go to the emergency vet and be put under anesthesia because she had 3 nails ripped out of her back paw, one partially ripped out of a front pedaw, and her hip/thigh was bruised.My babyboy hurt his back leg and is limping. I kept them seperated for 4 days and slowly reintroduced them. Everything seemed ok again and then they start trying to kill eachother again. So now they're seperated again. I don't know what I can do to fix all that's been damaged. This is my family and its fallen apart. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE somebody help me and my babies! I feel like such a terrible mommy. What can I do to make them happy and comfortable again??? My Zephyr-boy is even having nightmares.

Goodness that's awful!  What a situation!  I don't have a heap of experience in this area, but from others and of course the 'cat daddy' Jackson Galaxy, it is quite possible for cats to associate each other with the awful thing that happened - and hence the need to get away/fight the awful thing (now the other cat).

I'd do what your first instinct was, and separate them.  It will take some time so be patient.  Go back thru the whole slow introductions thing again, pretending they are stranger cats - because in this situation, they are.  Gradually get them closer and closer to the closed door separating them at food times, so they end up eating close to each other (on opposite sides of the door).  Play with both under the bottom of the door.  If you have another person, treats on opposite sides of the door.  The aim is to reacclimatise them to a positive association with each other, in other words, all good things happen when the other cat is close.  When they are comfortable with this, you can start to remove the physical barrier of the door - some people install a screen door for this.  Some get away with a baby gate, or can start off with opening the door just a crack (that way you can feed treats to both at the same time, one person operator).  Keep doing the same things, only now they can also see each other.  Once this is going well (consistently), you can try removing the barrier.  Always have a something to diffuse the situation just in case things take a downward turn - sometimes all it will take is a toy to capture the interest and take it away from the other cat.  And keep the 'meets' short at the beginning.

With patience and time, I hope they will be able to overcome their terrible experience.  Best wishes.

Oh, and put some feliway on...

Definitly agree with the advice given above, and with what you are doing with reintroducing them again. It may take more than a few days for them to be ready to be introduced to each other. Just try to keep it slow. If they enjoy cuddling and sleeping on something like a blanket you might want to try doing scent exchanges so that they have a chance to get use to the others scent with out feeling like they are threatened by each others presence. Stacking multiple baby gates up a door way will also help in providing a barrier that they can see each other through but are still seperated. I have done this before in the past and works well, make it high enough so no one can jump over it, just keep an eye on things if you have one or both that likes to climb.

Reintroducing them should go slowly - they need to re-learn that things are going to be OK.

I am probably overstepping my boundaries here but I would NEVER have than man in my house again!  I would even consider reporting him to the authorities.  What he did was animal cruelty.  If he thought that was funny, who knows how awfully he's treating his poor cat?

I kicked him out of my home that day. i actually had to call the cops to get him out because he wouldn't leave. i am going to report him...my only problem is the possibility of lack of evidence. i do have a snipit of him "egging" on the fight on a voice recorder. i left it on in my house when i left that night because he had already been acting weird...do i report this to the regular police or to a different authority?

If you call your local shelter, they should be able to guide you. I'm glad he won't be around your cats (and you) anymore!