Multicat play, attacks on one. Fix?

Circe often gets the raw end of play. What do we do (long term and at the moment) about too much dominance against this cat? Here's the situation.

Three females:
* Sokie and Circe (Maine Coone mixes age 4)
* Ratty (tabby, age 1)

We give gentle Circe, a devoted Mom's girl, her normal share of petting, talking, and sleeping with us. She seems healthy and well, and checkups are good.

Now the "bottom cat", Circe was top cat before Ratty came (9 months ago). In the garden (fenced, supervised, 2x day), the girls interact normally, sometimes playing chase. Indoors, Circe stays away from the Sokie & Ratty most of the time. Ratty seeks out Circe's food dish and litter box.

At playtime indoors, I make multicat games. For example, "snake", a long rope with small toys tied at intervals, pulled under throw rugs, newspapers, etc. The girls attack the snake at different places, so this often works.

Problems:
1) Circe wants to join the others in play, but seems afraid and jealous with them. She stays alone in a room often.

2) In play, Ratty is greedy and always first. Sokie is large and slow and enjoys her share of play. Circe was playful, but now she seldom gets her share. Tonight she came to play, and big Sokie attacked so aggressively that Circe howled. I pushed Sokie away and took Circe alone into the other room, where she dozed off, not wanting to play any more.

Do we treat her differently from the others? Put her litter box in a separate room? Our small house has cat interest and window seats in every room. Get another cat? Give Ratty to someone else?

Thanks for help!
Linda

You know, it is hard to give advice without watching how they interact. It sounds to me as if you have gotten off to the right start. They were all introduced and were getting along fairly well.
They way you would work with them is to try re introducing them again. If the aggressive one keeps attacking, you would put a bell on them to let the passive one know they are coming.
I have been through this 3 times now. Cats can sometimes be very tricky. There are some who don't mind at all sharing the house with several others, while others would rather die than live with them.
My last baby I had to find a home for. She was VERY passive and wouldn't do anything but run and hide when another cat came at her. It got to the point where she was a poriah cat and started to pee in a corner of the house in fear she would be attacked. In this case, I really had to get her into a house where she would be an only cat.
I have 2 others who like to start trouble at this point. Right now I am STILL working with them. I put the two aggressive ones in a room of thier own. I let them out to interact a few hours a day. Every month I try letting them out all the time and see how it goes. Right now, they are good for about 3 weeks and then they start in again. I plan to keep working with them. They are 4 years old and I do not want to place them in another home.
In your case, you might want to try giving them both some Dr bachs rescue remedy before they are going to interact. See if it calms them enough to get used to the idea of living with each other. My only other suggestion may be to add a male to the bunch. It may help to balance the dominance issue.

Sandie,

Thanks! I ran out and got Dr. Bach's Rescue Remedy this morning. Glad for anything that works, and I'm not a skeptic - but did you notice that it's 27% alcohol?

Various uses that I found for it on the web are for adults, children, horses, dogs, and cats. Because it's recommended for children, I'll add this important note:

A local doctor with a son (now deceased) with a disease called A-T (Ataxia Telangiectasia, a rare genetic syndrom that causes progressive deterioration, immune deficiency, and cancer in children) studied the effect on children of the minute amounts of alcohol found in baby foods and other foods, such as apple juice and pizza.

She found that foods with even trace amounts of alcohol caused negative reactions in children, whether or not they have AT. For AT children, the affect is severe.

For more info: http://www.treatat.org/

Linda

Wow there's a lot of stuff with alcohol in it!
Yes, when I first looked into using it, I read up a little on the subject. After all the reading and talking to people, I decided that the little bit of alcohol was not going to affect the cats in a harmful way. I only use it when necessary and I only recomend it to people who are have a big struggle. I use it to travel when I have to (I have one who gets VERY car sick) or when I have an aggressive aggitated kitty.
I have never used it for myself(although I have thought about it) or my daughter. I will have to look over that list and find all the stuff that she may or may not be getting in her food and drinks.