Ours is a multi-cat household--we have five cats who are permanent residents, three fosters and one "inpatient". We've pretty much reached "critical mass" for a two-bedroom rowhome, especially since one of the fosters requires his own bedroom and the inpatient requires isolation in our one bathroom. All have been spayed or neutered (it took a while to get that done--my vet of choice is surgically booked up until December!). Two of the fosters should be homed pretty quickly--one has a home lined up and the other is a strikingly beautiful kitten--and the inpatient will only be with us until he recovers from his respiratory infection.
But this kind of "indoor colony" is stressful for the cats. Two of our regulars are rivals for alpha cat status as it normally is, and with additional cats they're acting out in ways they normally wouldn't.
Nigel, the de facto alpha cat, is relatively calm about the whole thing but Francis, his rival, is becoming more obnoxious. He frequently attacks other cats, most notably Nigel and Jesse (his littermate), and earlier today he slipped accidentally into the bathroom and sprayed--no doubt a message to Bob, our patient. Even Ludwig, our "scaredy-cat" (but also the closest to being feral) beta has sprayed on two occasions. Furball (our eldest and a female) wants little if anything to do any of them, but that's always been the case--she's never been very sociable and especially doesn't like Francis. Lately she's been puking more than she normally does, and I suspect that's from eating too quickly before the others gobble her food. In the case of Shlomo, our FIV/FELV positive elderly shut-in, the opposite is true--not being able to freely move about is making him unhappy.
I hope that when we move Gretchen (the kitten), Elizabeth (her mother), Bob and Shlomo out things will return to normal, but I don't see that happening for a good while--there will be other patients and transients....
But this kind of "indoor colony" is stressful for the cats. Two of our regulars are rivals for alpha cat status as it normally is, and with additional cats they're acting out in ways they normally wouldn't.
Nigel, the de facto alpha cat, is relatively calm about the whole thing but Francis, his rival, is becoming more obnoxious. He frequently attacks other cats, most notably Nigel and Jesse (his littermate), and earlier today he slipped accidentally into the bathroom and sprayed--no doubt a message to Bob, our patient. Even Ludwig, our "scaredy-cat" (but also the closest to being feral) beta has sprayed on two occasions. Furball (our eldest and a female) wants little if anything to do any of them, but that's always been the case--she's never been very sociable and especially doesn't like Francis. Lately she's been puking more than she normally does, and I suspect that's from eating too quickly before the others gobble her food. In the case of Shlomo, our FIV/FELV positive elderly shut-in, the opposite is true--not being able to freely move about is making him unhappy.
I hope that when we move Gretchen (the kitten), Elizabeth (her mother), Bob and Shlomo out things will return to normal, but I don't see that happening for a good while--there will be other patients and transients....