All of the sudden she hates him!

I haven't posted in a while because everything has been going great. About two weeks ago, I went on vacation for 4 days leaving my "kids" behind. A neighbor looked in on them every day. When I came home, they seemed to be fine (no apparent resentment of me). However, I've been noticing that Parker (my almost 2 year old female) doesn't want to have anything to do with Fred (my 4 mth old male). They got along great for the 2 months prior to my vacation and played a lot with each other.

Now, Parker constantly hisses at Fred when he tries to play and has recently taken up screetching at him (an awful sound). I took her to the vet last Saturday because of this behavior and her general lack of interest in playing. The vet could find nothing wrong but some bacteria in her ear and a slight tempature. I've been treating her with ear drops, but she continues to hate Fred.

Fred has taken to leaping on Parker (flying squirrel like) as she walks past. I don't know if this is new agressive behavior by him that is causing her dislike. He's getting "fixed" in about a month or two. Will this help?

Is there anything I can do to make her like Fred again?

Kris:disturbed

Getting Fred fixed will help the situation a bit. It could be that while you were away and they had the house to themselves Fred decided to see if Parker was in the mood. Even though she has been spayed (right?) Fred might have tried.

Take a thin cloth you don't care for much, an old linen towel if you have it and give Fred there a vigourous rubdown. Get as much scent of him on that cloth that you can, then go over and give Parker a rubdown with the same cloth. Rub her everywhere you can and transfer the scent of the two kitties and see if that might help.

It could also be that Fred has decided in your absence that he wanted to be Alpha kitty and the two of them need to decide between themselves who is boss. If it is just hissing and spitting, then it bears watching but not really worrying about. When it comes to fighting, that is when the worry needs to set in. Good luck! It was also good of you to take Parker to the vet, sometimes unusual behaviour is a trigger from your cat saying she isn't feeling well.

I agree totally with Hissy... it could be easily be either situation. Point is, Fred's male hormones are starting to run, LOL!

It's not all that unusual for a young male cat coming to maturity to try and mount a neutered female... or male, for that matter (I've had both, actually). It can certainly put a crimp in inter-cat relations, but that will likely sort itself out when Fred is fixed. Plus, when their hormones start to change, it can effect how they smell to another cat, so Hissy's suggestion of giving both a rub-down with a towel is a great one.

If it's a contest for Alpha cat... that's likely to continue even after Fred is fixed, until things shakedown. Our Bugs was an adult cat when we got Tum and as Tum went into his terrible teens (about four to eight months), he would often scuffle with Bugs past the point of "nice" play where they would yowl at each other. We didn't intervene unless one or the other was being bullied (ie/ tried to get away repeated and the other pursues) or we thought it was getting out of control, something we judged by sound and body language.

Of course, if Parker's not feeling well, all of the above is likely to put her right out of sorts with Fred. Hope she's feeling better soon...

I know the ear drops helped Parker. She's eating again and doesn't hiss a Fred quite so much, but it still is not the sibling type play as before.

I really think it is Fred getting all "manly" that is the cause of the current problem. He's not exactly doing the mating move, but I guess it's the version he's able to given his smaller size. He continues to do the "flying squirrel" rountine and leaping on Parker all the time. It also could be a dominance issue. Well, he gets fixed at the end of this month and at least there have been no more screetching incidences.

Thanks again for your insight. It helps to talk with more seasoned cat people.

Kris

My Abby Rocket will do this to Isis who screeches like a Banshee when he does. I think since he isn't hurting her, it's just a dominance thing. He also does this to Luna but she doesn't scream like Isis does so he just mostly concentrates on Isis. I asked the vet about it and she told me that he might be enjoying getting Isis to screech since he doesn't really do that to the other cats. Of course Twig the Alpha cat wouldn't tolerate that at all. He is 15+ pounds and Rocket is only 10 so there is the size difference. But as far as pecking order goes, it's Twig, Rocket, Isis and then poor picked on Luna. Ocassionally Isis will take off after Luna and then Twig gets into it too, so Poor Luna is being tackled on both sides, but that is a rare occurance because when mom or dad see it, then they get mad and all the cats scatter cause they know they are in trouble and are doing a bad thing(and will get squirted with water). Then for the rest of the night(or day) Luna becomes queen and gets everything first. Might not be the right thing to do but it works with my household. Same goes with Isis when Rocket sees her as the squirrel jump!

Parker has trouble winning the dominance game because her former owner declawed her. The only reason she half way wins now is because Fred is still small and Parker has 10 or so pounds on him.

I think most of this is Fred going through puberty. He talks all the time to himself (sometimes I would think he's Siamese if he wasn't obviously a tiger). He is also going through more periodic "psycho kitty" moments than he did when he was even younger. It's so funny to watch him leap from the spinning office chair to the desk to the chair within one second. He's also become super affectionate with me. He wakes me up by putting his face up to my face and rubbing and putting his paws on my cheeks. This morning, he started talking to me as well. At least he does this at 6:30 am (when I normally wake up) rather than 3 or 4am.

Parker is much more quite and subdued. Though she sometimes looks at me after he's attacked her performed one of his circus act routines as if to say "What ARE we going to do with him."

They're so much fun to watch.

Kris