Help! Mosi went to the vets yesterday to be neutered and has, of course, come back wearing eau de vets surgery. He stinks even to me so it must be pretty overwhelming for poor Jaffa!
Anyway, the pair of them have got on fine since I got Mosi 2 months ago with just a bit of growling and hissing from Jaffa when Mosi goes too far. When Mosi was little they would roll around the floor together - on Jaffa's part I think it was half play (he's a very playful cat for his age - he's 9) and half making sure Mosi knew who was boss. Recently Jaffa has become less tolerant of Mosi's play fighting (I think it's still mostly play but at 5 and a half months Mosi is starting to assert himself and will probably end up the more dominant cat) but the hissing has been confined to when Mosi leaps on top of Jaffa or pulls his tail! Jaffa's fine with Mosi in general and they curl up on the bed side by side, play together etc. Now however Jaffa is growling and hissing at Mosi a lot. I've tried dabbing vanilla essence on them both to get them to smell the same and I have feliway (just ran out of the spray unfortunately but I have a diffuser). At times he seems quite upset and gives me the saddest of looks (like "please get that kitten away from me"!). He's ok when Mosi's out of the picture but when Mosi comes too near he growls and even when Mosi's backed off he sometimes continues growling a bit. At the moment Jaffa's sitting on my computer desk and doesn't seem to bothered by Mosi who is a couple of feet away although he is watching him intently.
My question is - should I just leave them to sort it out as it's probably just the fact that Mosi smells so different that is upsetting Jaffa or should I separate them and gradually re-introduce them? How long will it take for Mosi to stop smelling like a hospital ward?
Anyway, the pair of them have got on fine since I got Mosi 2 months ago with just a bit of growling and hissing from Jaffa when Mosi goes too far. When Mosi was little they would roll around the floor together - on Jaffa's part I think it was half play (he's a very playful cat for his age - he's 9) and half making sure Mosi knew who was boss. Recently Jaffa has become less tolerant of Mosi's play fighting (I think it's still mostly play but at 5 and a half months Mosi is starting to assert himself and will probably end up the more dominant cat) but the hissing has been confined to when Mosi leaps on top of Jaffa or pulls his tail! Jaffa's fine with Mosi in general and they curl up on the bed side by side, play together etc. Now however Jaffa is growling and hissing at Mosi a lot. I've tried dabbing vanilla essence on them both to get them to smell the same and I have feliway (just ran out of the spray unfortunately but I have a diffuser). At times he seems quite upset and gives me the saddest of looks (like "please get that kitten away from me"!). He's ok when Mosi's out of the picture but when Mosi comes too near he growls and even when Mosi's backed off he sometimes continues growling a bit. At the moment Jaffa's sitting on my computer desk and doesn't seem to bothered by Mosi who is a couple of feet away although he is watching him intently.
My question is - should I just leave them to sort it out as it's probably just the fact that Mosi smells so different that is upsetting Jaffa or should I separate them and gradually re-introduce them? How long will it take for Mosi to stop smelling like a hospital ward?