A chat board aquaintance and cat lover (she is owned by several cats) has a problem with 2 of her cats. Any advise input on how to help would be greatly appreciated.
Her problem is with Ellie and Cleleste. Ellie has been with Erika for quite some time and Celest is the newby and has been with her for only about 3-4 months. It seems that Celest is pretty "rotten" to all of the cats howeverb seems to hit on Ellie the most.
Here is soem information Erks sent to me and I quote:
"When Celest picks on Ellie, Ellie usually issues alot of warning growls and hisses and then takes off for another part of the house, followed closely by Celeste, of course. Celeste usually winds up cornering her somewhere where the growling and hissing continues. Very seldom have I seen them actually exchange blows or physically attach each other. With Celeste it's usually a head grab and bite or a swat with her paw(s)
Dude, the cat we adopted at the same time as Celeste, is 2 years old and accepts
absolutely no guff from Celeste. He smacks her, either first if she gets too close with "that
look" in her eyes, or back if she paws at him first, and they actually sometimes wind up
playing and chasing each other around if he's in the mood. Otherwise, he stands his
ground and she eventually backs off, looking very grumpy about it indeed. So far, she
hasn't given up on him, but he has yet to give in to her.
Celeste will be a year old next month. She was turned into the humane society after
being found in a part. It was estimated that she was about 8 months old at the time. She
was very, very skinny and has since put on weight so she is looking much better now. We have had her since late June. She has an absolutely wonderful personality with us and is alot like my Attila, who I lost in early June to cancer. She LOVES attention and being petted and is hyper and active. She is also very talkative.
We have two siblings a year and a half old now, who do play with Celeste. Usually it consists of mad dashes from one end of the house to the other with occasional wrestling matches. Sometimes I think Celeste gets too rough for them, however, and they back up with confused looks on their faces. They don't necessarily back down, but they don't really stand up to her either. I think they just co-exist. They were used to my previous cat,
Attila, playing rough with them though. Attila would always back down to Ellie (Attila was
6 weeks old when we got Ellie.)"
Is this just Celest's way of trying to become the Alpha or could there be something else involved?
How can we get these two to at least peacefully co-exist?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions,etc. that you might be able to provide.
Her problem is with Ellie and Cleleste. Ellie has been with Erika for quite some time and Celest is the newby and has been with her for only about 3-4 months. It seems that Celest is pretty "rotten" to all of the cats howeverb seems to hit on Ellie the most.
Here is soem information Erks sent to me and I quote:
"When Celest picks on Ellie, Ellie usually issues alot of warning growls and hisses and then takes off for another part of the house, followed closely by Celeste, of course. Celeste usually winds up cornering her somewhere where the growling and hissing continues. Very seldom have I seen them actually exchange blows or physically attach each other. With Celeste it's usually a head grab and bite or a swat with her paw(s)
Dude, the cat we adopted at the same time as Celeste, is 2 years old and accepts
absolutely no guff from Celeste. He smacks her, either first if she gets too close with "that
look" in her eyes, or back if she paws at him first, and they actually sometimes wind up
playing and chasing each other around if he's in the mood. Otherwise, he stands his
ground and she eventually backs off, looking very grumpy about it indeed. So far, she
hasn't given up on him, but he has yet to give in to her.
Celeste will be a year old next month. She was turned into the humane society after
being found in a part. It was estimated that she was about 8 months old at the time. She
was very, very skinny and has since put on weight so she is looking much better now. We have had her since late June. She has an absolutely wonderful personality with us and is alot like my Attila, who I lost in early June to cancer. She LOVES attention and being petted and is hyper and active. She is also very talkative.
We have two siblings a year and a half old now, who do play with Celeste. Usually it consists of mad dashes from one end of the house to the other with occasional wrestling matches. Sometimes I think Celeste gets too rough for them, however, and they back up with confused looks on their faces. They don't necessarily back down, but they don't really stand up to her either. I think they just co-exist. They were used to my previous cat,
Attila, playing rough with them though. Attila would always back down to Ellie (Attila was
6 weeks old when we got Ellie.)"
Is this just Celest's way of trying to become the Alpha or could there be something else involved?
How can we get these two to at least peacefully co-exist?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions,etc. that you might be able to provide.
