- Joined
- Nov 28, 2017
- Messages
- 67
- Purraise
- 57
Two weeks ago, our dog died. He was 15 and had a suspected brain tumor. He just keeled over that day with no warning and had a seizure, we rushed him to the vet, he seized again and never recovered so we made the decision to put him down.
About a year ago, we got a 6-month old we named Julian. Julian adjusted to our home within two days or so and wanted out of the bathroom badly to meet the dog, so we let him and they became buddies. They weren't overly close; when Max (the dog) died, Julian wasn't too affected. But he became very bored and was having the crazies 4 or 5 times a day out of boredom. I wasn't initially considering getting another cat right away, but the poor guy was acting very lonely, and, again, very bored. I saw a little guy at the shelter and he seemed like a good fit.
Ironically, his name is Misfit. Or, as I like to call him, "Fitty Cent"! When we brought him home Julian sat chirruping at the door for literally hours trying to get us to let him in to see the new guy. Fitty is REALLY playful, as is expected considering he's still a baby. They played from under the door the past few days. I waited to let them out together until they were both tested for FeLV/FIV. Both came up negative at the vet's today, so I let them loose.
It seemed to go well, Julian hasn't hissed, spat or yowled/growled at Fitty once this entire time. But as the night went on the playing/fighting got more and more intense until I got kind of uncomfortable and put Fitty back into his safe room. What I'm wondering is if I'm overreacting...
When they play/fight, Fitty charges Julian over and over; Jules will often go to laying on his side and then going at Fitty. He'll slowly bat at Fitty's face and then Fitty will launch himself at Julian and they'll start a tumble. Their ears are back and there's a lot of kicking and tumbling and their eyes are really big but I don't think their fur is standing on end... I feel like with a medium hair cat like Julian I'd be able to tell pretty easily. They'll break it apart for a minute, sometimes it looks like Julian is trying to escape but Fitty chases him and it starts over. Sometimes Fitty runs away all the way across the room, zooms around for a minute, then races back to Julian to continue. The only real sound I've heard is that Fitty did do a little growl/yelp at one point like maybe Jules hurt him a little. I checked him over and he seems fine, a tiny bit of fur came off but it looks to me like a scab he already had that got sloughed off during the "fight" (a little bit of skin with some fur coming off).
How do I know when it's too much? I'm used to dog play; I work at a cat shelter but we don't really deal with this part of cat behavior on site, since they're individually housed. Julian used to play with the dog sometimes and because I knew what dog play looked like I could tell when Max was being too much (which was never really) but I'm not familiar with the dynamic between two cats.
Julian didn't hide when I put Fitty away. He drank some water, came out my room, groomed in front of Fitty's door for awhile and now he's chilling on the couch with me as I write this grooming himself. Is this a sign he's not too concerned about things? He's the friendliest cat I've ever met, nobody is a stranger to him, and I worry that he wouldn't indicate vocally that he wasn't having a good time and might hurt Fitty instead. I've only heard him his once in the entire time we've had him, and that was at a visiting puppy who he ended up playing with an hour later.
I know I'm probably overreacting; I would appreciate hearing from you all what you think about this behavior.
About a year ago, we got a 6-month old we named Julian. Julian adjusted to our home within two days or so and wanted out of the bathroom badly to meet the dog, so we let him and they became buddies. They weren't overly close; when Max (the dog) died, Julian wasn't too affected. But he became very bored and was having the crazies 4 or 5 times a day out of boredom. I wasn't initially considering getting another cat right away, but the poor guy was acting very lonely, and, again, very bored. I saw a little guy at the shelter and he seemed like a good fit.
Ironically, his name is Misfit. Or, as I like to call him, "Fitty Cent"! When we brought him home Julian sat chirruping at the door for literally hours trying to get us to let him in to see the new guy. Fitty is REALLY playful, as is expected considering he's still a baby. They played from under the door the past few days. I waited to let them out together until they were both tested for FeLV/FIV. Both came up negative at the vet's today, so I let them loose.
It seemed to go well, Julian hasn't hissed, spat or yowled/growled at Fitty once this entire time. But as the night went on the playing/fighting got more and more intense until I got kind of uncomfortable and put Fitty back into his safe room. What I'm wondering is if I'm overreacting...
When they play/fight, Fitty charges Julian over and over; Jules will often go to laying on his side and then going at Fitty. He'll slowly bat at Fitty's face and then Fitty will launch himself at Julian and they'll start a tumble. Their ears are back and there's a lot of kicking and tumbling and their eyes are really big but I don't think their fur is standing on end... I feel like with a medium hair cat like Julian I'd be able to tell pretty easily. They'll break it apart for a minute, sometimes it looks like Julian is trying to escape but Fitty chases him and it starts over. Sometimes Fitty runs away all the way across the room, zooms around for a minute, then races back to Julian to continue. The only real sound I've heard is that Fitty did do a little growl/yelp at one point like maybe Jules hurt him a little. I checked him over and he seems fine, a tiny bit of fur came off but it looks to me like a scab he already had that got sloughed off during the "fight" (a little bit of skin with some fur coming off).
How do I know when it's too much? I'm used to dog play; I work at a cat shelter but we don't really deal with this part of cat behavior on site, since they're individually housed. Julian used to play with the dog sometimes and because I knew what dog play looked like I could tell when Max was being too much (which was never really) but I'm not familiar with the dynamic between two cats.
Julian didn't hide when I put Fitty away. He drank some water, came out my room, groomed in front of Fitty's door for awhile and now he's chilling on the couch with me as I write this grooming himself. Is this a sign he's not too concerned about things? He's the friendliest cat I've ever met, nobody is a stranger to him, and I worry that he wouldn't indicate vocally that he wasn't having a good time and might hurt Fitty instead. I've only heard him his once in the entire time we've had him, and that was at a visiting puppy who he ended up playing with an hour later.
I know I'm probably overreacting; I would appreciate hearing from you all what you think about this behavior.
