How Do You Know For Sure That Cats Like Each Other?

[terestrife]

Kitty and Elsa thankfully never get into fur shredding or bleeding fights. But i sometimes wonder if they like each other. lol

Kitty will sometimes let Elsa sleep in her tree, other times she will give her an annoyed look and slap her away. She'll sometimes slap Elsa when shes coming out of the toilet. If Elsa gets near her during our play times, she slaps her away. Elsa jumped away from the table, and knocked into a chair.

They seem to trust each other as they show their backs and bellies to each other. but sometimes they'll be staring at each other with the tails swishing from side to side. usually one of them will walk away and keep looking back. lol

Kitty left her alone, and didnt try battling with her, when Elsa was recuperating after her dental procedure. How can i know if they actually like, rather than just tolerate each other?

 

[susanm9006]

Cats who like one another will sleep along side one another and will groom each other. They may also head butt one another or touch noses. Yours sound to me like they are still at the tolerating one stage

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I tend to agree with susanm9006 , and that is just fine. Cats do not, generally, NEED those deep friendships that people and dogs seem to crave. If they live peacefully next to one another, they're just fine.

 

[terestrife]

Cats who like one another will sleep along side one another and will groom each other. They may also head butt one another or touch noses. Yours sound to me like they are still at the tolerating one stage

darn i thought they had a really good relationship lol

I tend to agree with susanm9006 , and that is just fine. Cats do not, generally, NEED those deep friendships that people and dogs seem to crave. If they live peacefully next to one another, they're just fine.

thank you! makes me feel a lot better =)

 

[5starcathotel]

I'll add that cats that "like" each other may NOT necessarily groom or cuddle each other, but will sleep in the same space....say the foot of your bed or the top of a cat tree.

As an example, consider my Hobo and Blue...if all you knew about them was this photo, you might think they were great friends! But Hobo doesn't really like other cats, and Blue is the kind of extremely high-energy cat that used to drive him insane! And yet, when I came home one day, here they were! This was around 14 months into their relationship.

So, do they /like/ each other today? Depends on the time of day and their mood. It still surprises me to see Hobo engage in chase play with Blue. But Blue is still very high energy (at 20mo old), and can simply take things too far with Hobo or other cats.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

And, let's not forget, "peaceful toleration" actually is a good relationship for cats!

 

[terestrife]

I'll add that cats that "like" each other may NOT necessarily groom or cuddle each other, but will sleep in the same space....say the foot of your bed or the top of a cat tree.

As an example, consider my Hobo and Blue...if all you knew about them was this photo, you might think they were great friends! But Hobo doesn't really like other cats, and Blue is the kind of extremely high-energy cat that used to drive him insane! And yet, when I came home one day, here they were! This was around 14 months into their relationship.

So, do they /like/ each other today? Depends on the time of day and their mood. It still surprises me to see Hobo engage in chase play with Blue. But Blue is still very high energy (at 20mo old), and can simply take things too far with Hobo or other cats.

that sounds like my cats. kitty will sometimes let elsa sleep in her tree, on a level below her. lol then she'll randomly slap her away. lol i wonder if its jealousy now that i have two cats to care for, and shes not the only one.

 

[duncanmac]

My two boys get along pretty well. I don't notice them sleeping together, but they will groom each other a little, wrestle, chase and play.

In the beginning, it was 90% wrestling with one cat clearly trying to dominate the other. The other 10% was mostly ignoring each other. Now, after almost a year, it is 90% play and chase and fun with 10% of dominance.

I guess they like each other because they generally travel around the house following us as a pair and seem to relax around each other. That tension from when they were first introduced is totally gone. If it is a tolerance of each other, it is more like US-Canada relations than cold-war US-USSR relations.

You may never know if they like each other. As others have said, give it a little time you will either get buddies or a slightly tense but relatively stable detente.

 

[arouetta]

I was sure my cat Shadow hated my other cats. Then I was in a roommate situation where the roommate also had cats. Even when Shadow was recovering from major surgery, she would charge hissing and growling at either of the roommates cats if they were showing threatening behavior towards one of my other cats. Clearly Montressor was her cat to pick on, no one else's.

Edit: She only did that with the roommate's cats. Our third cat Midway could pick on Montressor and she would only glare from time to time as if to say they were disturbing her beauty sleep.

I thought my third cat Midway and Shadow had a mutual assured destruction treaty between them. But Midway took it really, really hard when Shadow died.

Sometimes cats can like each other and just not show it in a way that can be interpreted properly by humans.

 

[Kieka]

My prior cats rarely spent any real time together. Peaceful toleration was probably a really good term for it. They might occasionally share a sleeping spot, they don't fight, they don't seek each other out; they just live in the same place and share food (and humans).

My current cats? Whole different experience. When I explained it to my vet she was a little surprised because the peacefully tolerant is usually the normal for cats. If you look at feral cat colonies you usually do see them just tolerating each other since there is enough food for all. Females might share in raising kittens but not much beyond the rare bonding between one or two.

My house? It is really weird and hard to explain but the three cats interact more then I've ever had cats do before. Sleeping together, seeking each other out, waiting for each other, bringing prey to share together, grooming, playing, I really think Rocket is the glue that binds them together but Link is a very social cat.

Edit: I have a little more time so to detail some occurrences:

Rocket hates using the cat door. If she wants in and Link is around he will come in the house. Then he finds someone and leads them to the door to open it for Rocket.

Rocket and Link will wait for each other to go outside. One will pace just past the steps and meow for the other (who is usually still eating).

Nightfury will catch and bring in rats, mice or lizards for Rocket.

Link is super protective of Nightfury and Rocket. Rocket has run into the yard with another cat on her tail. Link will appear out of nowhere and chase off the other cat. If all three are around Link will face off with the intruder, Nightfury will groom Rocket and watch whats happening, Rocket will hide behind Nightfury hissing at the intruder.