Mimi the monster

We had six cats that lived in near perfect harmony, but the latest addition, Mimi has tipped the balance. After 6 months she's still living in my bedroom (which spans two floors as it is the attic and the stairwell room). She's a difficult cat at the best of times, which isn't really a big problem in itself, as we've dealt with difficult cats before. She's a 10 year old cat, who lived as an only cat for her entire life, and always had her way, until her mummy went and had a baby that was born seriously allergic to cats!

We understand why she behaves the way she does, that is not the problem. Our problem is with integrating her into the household. We have one major other problem child, Ziggy, who has decided that he wants to rip her throat out, and whenever he manages to meet her he viciously attacks her. Because of this we decided to "trade" kitties around whenever Mimi comes out of "her" room, we stick him in there, sometimes with his pals Erik and Kichi.

We've tried all the old textbook tricks for meeting face to face, but Mimi is a big growler, which only encourages Ziggy.

I've heard that the feliway might be helpful, but I'd like to know where I would place it, since there are two problem cats in the house, on either side of the door, and we live in a three storey home. We don't want to buy a second one before knowing if it would be helpful, but I don't think there's enough air circulation to have the effects benefit several cats.

Anyways, any suggestions or answers would be helpful regarding the feliway, or any other suggestions! Thanks again!

ps apologies for any tangents I went on, I have a tendency to get distracted with minor things

Is there a possibility you can make an outside enclosure so these cats can have more space? Or perhaps purchase some pre made enclosures so your cats can have a choice of being inside or out?

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I would invest in about three plug ins. The feliway comfort zone room diffusers are a lifesaver for multi-cat households-

Also suggest two books cat vs cat by Pam Johnson Bennett and Outwitting Cats by Wendy Christensen Both excellent resources for anyone with more than one cat. Also Bennett's book Hiss-N-Tell is a good one-

Originally Posted by hissy

Is there a possibility you can make an outside enclosure so these cats can have more space? Or perhaps purchase some pre made enclosures so your cats can have a choice of being inside or out?

Click to expand...

Spring has hardly started here, so outside is no-go, our backyard is still a few feet of snow and ice and will be until May at least, plus our cats are all indoors, and outdoor noises freak them out.

I did bid on a feliway on ebay to try out with Mimi, since just calming her down could be an improvement (she's left me with tons of scars from days where she's in a bad mood, one particularly deep one that looks as if it will be a permanent scar above my eyebrow) Maybe if I weren't so scared of her sometimes I wouldn't mind sharing my bedroom with her longer.
Hihi... It's actually not as bad as it sounds any more, she's better that she was when she first arrived. I've never met a fiercer cat in my life, instead of running away and hiding she lunges at you, and never backs off! In the first few weeks after we brought her home she trapped me in my room by settling herself halfway down the stairs and lunging at me every time I took a step towards me. thankfully she's only mildly violent now!