Hello,
Although I have been a cat owner (or owned by a cat, if you prefer) for 18 years. Although I feel that I am fairly well versed in cat behavior and such, I have encountered a bizarre circumstance that I cannot seem to find reference for anywhere on the internet.
My son's 11 month old unaltered male cat, Furby, has always been rather - ahem - frisky. Until about a month ago, when his brother moved out with his owner, and our former housemate, they constantly tried to mount one another.
After Stoner, Furby's brother, moved out Furby became the only cat of the household. Odd for us since we have always tried to keep a 1 cat-1 person ratio since we first moved out on our own. (Last year we had a string of losses, completely unrelated, that left our family devastated. We lost one to a blockage, another to uterine cancer, and finally the patriarch of our feline dominated household to kidney/liver failure - all within a span of four months.)
The day after Stoner moved out, my mother decided that one feline presence in the household was at least one too few, and so she and my father acquired a cute little female longhaired kitten 8 weeks of age for my wife, she having lost her kitten in October of last year. We named her Stormy, since her fur resembled the angry dark bands seen in some storm clouds out here in Minnesota.
No sooner had we accepted this beautiful cat into our household, and Furby promptly latched himself onto her posterior and licked her profusely - much to her displeasure I might add.
Within a couple of hours Furby tried to mount her. She is a tough little furball though, thankfully, and she successfully fought off his unwanted advances. Within a week she managed to display her displeasure in a most painful (for Furby) and yet entertaining (for the Mrs) method to poor Mr. Furbs. She spun around and bit the offending protuberance that seems to dominate the pour soul's mind these days. The sound of poor Furbs scream was muffled by the roaring laughter of my wife. Personally I winced at the mere thought! However, Furby has not displayed much interest in Stormy since this event, at least as far as that sort of behavior goes. They still play - but he hasn't made any advances towards her in this fashion since.
Last night my wife decided to surprise my daughter and I by bringing home two new eight week old kittens, both of us having lost our feline companions in January. One was a female shorthair tabby, which my daughter promptly named Jasmine (she does have good taste in names, love the scent personally) and the other was a male shorthair tabby of an overall gray color, which I named Nyan. (Nyan is the name of a character I have played for many years in a role playing game - hey - it was my wife's idea.
)
Furby again took it upon himself to greet the newcomers in similar fashion to how he introduced himself to Stormy. Unfortunately, unlike Stormy, these two are not quite so 'expressive' of their displeasure, one might say. They squawk, growl, and squirm somewhat when he grabs the scruffs of their necks, but little else.
I've NEVER experienced anything like this. My old Smokey - he would hiss at and run away from kittens. Is Furby's behavior normal?!
I am afraid that he's going to wind up hurting one of these kittens in his inexplicable displays of unbridled lust. Thus my question is of course, what can we do to prevent this from happening, short of developing a set of kitten-friendly flash cards to teach these two how Stormy dealt with the issue?
While I would readily accept neutering - finances at this time aren't flexible enough to allow for it. At this time we have poor old Mr. Furbs locked up in the bathroom when we're not around, with the essentials of course, but despite his antics - I'd rather not have to do that for any real duration of time.
Is there anything else we can do to curb this lovesick tom?
Thanks in advance folks!
Regards,
Tenz
PS: While I'm on the topic of problems with cats, I figure I'll drop a line here pertaining to my mother's cat. My mother has a female shorthair, named Desi, who went into heat about two months ago. Nothing too spectacular in that by it's lonesome, normal for an unspayed female of course, except that she has still not yet fallen out of heat! What could prompt a cat to remain in heat for such an extended duration of time? My mother insists that the poor soul is merely a nympho - but I think it could be something more than that. My daughter's former cat, who died in January of this year of uterine cancer, had a similar marathon heat that spanned July and August of last year. Is this sort of marathon heat a customary symptom of early stage uterine cancer? I hope not, but I would rather my folks not get blindsided by such a horrible encounter as we had with Midnight.
Although I have been a cat owner (or owned by a cat, if you prefer) for 18 years. Although I feel that I am fairly well versed in cat behavior and such, I have encountered a bizarre circumstance that I cannot seem to find reference for anywhere on the internet.
My son's 11 month old unaltered male cat, Furby, has always been rather - ahem - frisky. Until about a month ago, when his brother moved out with his owner, and our former housemate, they constantly tried to mount one another.
After Stoner, Furby's brother, moved out Furby became the only cat of the household. Odd for us since we have always tried to keep a 1 cat-1 person ratio since we first moved out on our own. (Last year we had a string of losses, completely unrelated, that left our family devastated. We lost one to a blockage, another to uterine cancer, and finally the patriarch of our feline dominated household to kidney/liver failure - all within a span of four months.)
The day after Stoner moved out, my mother decided that one feline presence in the household was at least one too few, and so she and my father acquired a cute little female longhaired kitten 8 weeks of age for my wife, she having lost her kitten in October of last year. We named her Stormy, since her fur resembled the angry dark bands seen in some storm clouds out here in Minnesota.
No sooner had we accepted this beautiful cat into our household, and Furby promptly latched himself onto her posterior and licked her profusely - much to her displeasure I might add.
Within a couple of hours Furby tried to mount her. She is a tough little furball though, thankfully, and she successfully fought off his unwanted advances. Within a week she managed to display her displeasure in a most painful (for Furby) and yet entertaining (for the Mrs) method to poor Mr. Furbs. She spun around and bit the offending protuberance that seems to dominate the pour soul's mind these days. The sound of poor Furbs scream was muffled by the roaring laughter of my wife. Personally I winced at the mere thought! However, Furby has not displayed much interest in Stormy since this event, at least as far as that sort of behavior goes. They still play - but he hasn't made any advances towards her in this fashion since.
Last night my wife decided to surprise my daughter and I by bringing home two new eight week old kittens, both of us having lost our feline companions in January. One was a female shorthair tabby, which my daughter promptly named Jasmine (she does have good taste in names, love the scent personally) and the other was a male shorthair tabby of an overall gray color, which I named Nyan. (Nyan is the name of a character I have played for many years in a role playing game - hey - it was my wife's idea.
Furby again took it upon himself to greet the newcomers in similar fashion to how he introduced himself to Stormy. Unfortunately, unlike Stormy, these two are not quite so 'expressive' of their displeasure, one might say. They squawk, growl, and squirm somewhat when he grabs the scruffs of their necks, but little else.
I've NEVER experienced anything like this. My old Smokey - he would hiss at and run away from kittens. Is Furby's behavior normal?!
I am afraid that he's going to wind up hurting one of these kittens in his inexplicable displays of unbridled lust. Thus my question is of course, what can we do to prevent this from happening, short of developing a set of kitten-friendly flash cards to teach these two how Stormy dealt with the issue?
While I would readily accept neutering - finances at this time aren't flexible enough to allow for it. At this time we have poor old Mr. Furbs locked up in the bathroom when we're not around, with the essentials of course, but despite his antics - I'd rather not have to do that for any real duration of time.
Is there anything else we can do to curb this lovesick tom?
Thanks in advance folks!
Regards,
Tenz
PS: While I'm on the topic of problems with cats, I figure I'll drop a line here pertaining to my mother's cat. My mother has a female shorthair, named Desi, who went into heat about two months ago. Nothing too spectacular in that by it's lonesome, normal for an unspayed female of course, except that she has still not yet fallen out of heat! What could prompt a cat to remain in heat for such an extended duration of time? My mother insists that the poor soul is merely a nympho - but I think it could be something more than that. My daughter's former cat, who died in January of this year of uterine cancer, had a similar marathon heat that spanned July and August of last year. Is this sort of marathon heat a customary symptom of early stage uterine cancer? I hope not, but I would rather my folks not get blindsided by such a horrible encounter as we had with Midnight.
