new member, worried mom (long post!)

Hello! I'm a new member and am in desperate need of some kitty advice. I think I'm in the right spot! I am the mom of 2 1/2 yr siblings, Loki and Princess, that I've had since they were 10 wks old. They have been best buds until two days ago.
I left the house one afternoon, and came home 5 hrs later to an extremely upset Princess and absent Loki. Since they are strictly inside kitties, I knew he was somewhere. After frantic searching, I finally found him in the back of my closet tangled up in a plastic grocery bag. Evidently, they found this bag and somehow he got twisted up inside it and couldn't get out. I have no idea how long he was "chased" by this bag. I untangled him (no physical injuries, thank goodness!!!) and as I was stroking him and calming him down, Princess came into the closet. Immediately, he freaked out, she freaked out, and they ran off in opposite directions. He hid under the bed and she took off under the kitchen table.
Two days later, he is out from under the bed, but every time he sees Princess, he goes ballistic: his ears flatten, he hisses, and then makes this awful sound and runs to hide. It upsets her, so she hisses in response and runs the other way. He can't seem to calm down at all...always on guard, looking for her. She seems better now, absolutely normal when he's out of sight. But if he comes out and she sees him, it's chaos again.
This is breaking my heart. She wants to be back in the bedroom with us again. Her spot on the bed is right next to me while Loki's spot is on my head. Now, he is under the bed and she is "confined" to the couch.

Am I doomed to a life of two separate kitties? He's so stressed out...this can't be healthy for him. And she's so lonely...she just cries. I've moved food into our bedroom and he'll come out to eat. They share a litter box, so I guess I'll have to get a new one for our bedroom.

Any tips, advice, comfort would be much appreciated!!

Welcome to the cat site!

The trama of the bag has affected them both. If you go to the top of this page and click behavior, you will find an article on introdusing cats. I would follow this to the letter. The stress may have changed the way one or both of the kitties smell. With there being a different scent they may not recognise each other. You can also invest in Feliway difuser. Many pet shops carry them now. This is a calming scent for yur kitties.
Best of luck,

Your plastic bag victim most likely needs to see a vet. There is a possibility that he has injured himself, and when a cat is injured or ill, they smell different than they normally do. I personally hate those plastic bags, they are highly enticing to kitties, because in the making of these bags animal renderings are used. Cats and Kittens alike will eat or lick these bags, dive into them, and sometimes get injured.

I would surely take your cat to the vet after the holiday and make sure that inside and out, all is in working order.

Another way to calm the situation down is to rub each cat with brewers yeast several times a day, or use vanilla extract under their chins and at the base of their tails several times a day to make them smell the same.

Giving them a bath in just a few drops of DAWN liquid soap will also help

If you go to www.biovet.com and invest in a comfort zone room diffuser that will help-

But honestly, I would take your one cat to the vet, and even ask for xrays. When you think of how much he struggled against the grasp of that plastic bag, he could have really injured himself. I would be safe than sorry-

We'll get him in on Monday (my first day off) to make sure. He lets me pet him and rub him, so I haven't found any obvious sore spots. I hate those bags too and try to keep them out of the way!

Will he ever get over this trauma? I hate to think that they will never be able to get along from now on. Our house is not big enough to keep them separated forever!

I guess I'm just as traumatized by this as they are. It's only been 48 hours since I found him, so we're all still on edge.

Give them time and try alternating the days that they spend in the room. This way they are exposed to the scent of the other without the other cat being in plain sight. They may calm down after a few days to a couple weeks.
MA is usually right about her accessment of things. (Hissy) and the vet may find the stress brought on some small thing that could be causing the stress.
Best of luck with your babies.
Are they both fixed? If she is coming into heat this could affect the way she smells too.

They're both fixed, so it's just the trauma of it all that has them so upset. I hope that we can all be friends again around here! I know it may be a long road back to normal, but they're my babies, so it's worth every sleepless night.

Thank you so much for all your replies!!

Here's a weird thing...I have managed to get both kitties on either side of the bedroom door. They sniff each other and will stick their paws under to each other, but if I open the door, as soon as Loki sees her...he freaks out. Could it just be the sight of her that has him all upset? I thought it was the smell that had them upset, but they've gotten close enough and are aware of each other's presence without getting upset...it seems just to be the sight of her that he can't stand!

Just give it time, and lower YOUR stress level. Once yours is lowered, they should calm down as well. It could be as I said that one cat is injured. Even if you can't see the injury don't discount that it might be there-

Well...now that the holidays have passed and everyone's stress has decreased some, I think we're getting somewhere. The vet gave Loki a clean bill of health, so that's one less worry for me. They seem to tolerate each other somewhat now. Loki wil let Princess into the bedroom. He still hisses at her, but he won't run away like before. Monday evening, they actually made it into the kitchen together and seemed to "forget" that they were mad. I had their attention with a bit of tuna and they kept running into each other trying to get close to it. All of a sudden Loki "remembered" he was mad, hissed and ran off. What goofy cats. I'm afraid things won't ever be the same again. We're trying!