Friends of 2+ years are now enemies

We have a male cat, Dexter, who is 4 and we have had since December of 2012, as well as a female cat Anna, who is almost 2 years 7 months, that we have had since April of 2014. When we introduced these two, they got along within 2 days and have been friends ever since. Neither cat likes to be alone or away from my husband or myself, so they are usually together when we are not home, or following us around the house. 

On October 14th, both cats were in the bathroom with my husband. Anna was drinking from the sink and Dexter was under foot, as usual. My husband stepped on Dexter's paw. Dexter yelped and swatted ay my husband. Anna immediately jumped off of the sink and violently attacked Dexter and scratching his nose up terribly. We assumed it was a random event and locked her in a room with her toys, food, and litter for a few hours. When we let her back out, she searched the house immediately looking for Dexter and attacked him the same way. 

From this point, we kept her separated in the room and started the reintroduction process, after about 5 days, although they were both still leery of one another, we were able to let them out supervised and then alone with any incidents...until about a week and a half later. 

This has been the ongoing cycle since that Friday. We have had a vet check them out and now have an animal behaviorist coming to meet with us on Friday. Have any of you experienced this? Is it something that can be fixed?

 

Hi, and welcome to TCS :wavey;

I'm so sorry you're going through this with your cats. It sounds like a case of redirected aggression to me. In that moment when Dexter reacted to being stepped on, Anna simply didn't recognise the energy he was putting out. Effectively, Dexter became a stranger to her, and a hostile one at that. That's why Anna reacted so violently to Dexter's panic.

You need to go back to keeping them separated, and carry out a much more gradual reintroduction process. By gradual I mean weeks, not days. They will be harder to introduce now than they were originally because they are far less trusting of each other this time. It CAN be done, though. You just have to stay patient.

Feliway diffusers could well be a help in de-stressing them both, and daily interactive playtime with each of them will be invaluable too. It's a wonderful way to reduce stress levels, increase confidence and drain excess energy in a positive way. If one or both of them seem to be particularly stressed out, Composure is well worth a go too.

The situation is far from hopeless. Take a deep breath, step back, and start over with them, giving them as much time as they need. It may end up being a long process, but it will be worth it, and they should be able to get past this and live peacefully together again. [article="32390"][/article][article="32680"][/article][article="30316"][/article][article="32758"][/article][article="29675"][/article][article="32656"][/article]