adult loves all 'cept kitten

Hi all-
We have four cats, all neutered (and the female is spayed.) Henry and Widdershins were both strays rescued from outside our house, and we occasionally still let Henry outside. The problem: Henry gets along with everyone except the kitten, who he hates! We brought Henry indoors about 3 months before we brought in Widdershins, and Henry gets along with everyone else.

But whenever Widdershins walks near Henry, Henry growls and remains grumpy for a long time... and won't tolerate being picked up or cuddled when the kitten is nearby.
We can't figure out if Henry is scared of the kitten or jealous or dominant or what!

They're both orange, so it's possible they're related... could that add to the problem? Widdershins' cat-parents are semi-feral cats living on our porch, and Henry growls all the time at Harry (Widdershins' father.) Not sure why!

Any suggestions?? Will keeping Henry indoors all the time help or make him even more grumpy??

Thanks for any suggestions...

=AndrÃ[emoji]169[/emoji]a

I would say that your alpha cat is just letting kitten know that he is not to be messed with. If they are not fighting and squalling, they will eventually get along. You can help it along by putting some Bach's Rescue Remedy in grumpy's food or water bowl. It should mellow him out a bit. Love the name of your kitten btw

They will sort it out eventually. Leo gets grumpy every time someone new comes home with me, but he always gets over it. I have come home and caught him all snuggly with the kitty he was growling at when I left. As long as I wasn't looking, he was fine. Good luck to you, I bet they will be just fine as soon as they establish their pecking order.

It's been a while since I posted... but...

As I said earlier, "Henry the Red" is our rescued indoor-outdoor cat. Widdershins is another rescue who came to us about 6 months after Henry. We've now had Widdershins for a year. He's a completely indoor cat. For some reason, Henry has always hated Widdershins, even though he doesn't mind our other two cats.

I can't figure it out. Henry growls whenever Widdershins walks by. Henry takes off running if Widdershins jumps up on the bed to join us. It's like Henry is jealous and afraid at the same time. Widdershins, meanwhile, cautiously follows him around a lot of the time, seemingly in love with him (despite Henry's growling.) Widdershins is also very attached to our "sweet but stupid" cat Sebastian.

Right now Widdershins is sitting in pre-pounce position, looking at Henry. Henry is giving him a wide berth, growling, and walking very slowly past Widdershins.

These guys are strange.
Anyway, it's been a year since they've known each other and Henry STILL is growling. He never used to growl at all before W came along. What leads one cat to hate a specific other cat??

-andrea