My Molly dilema continues. For those of you who have followed you know I was having trouble with Molly getting along with my little tabby and also with the fact that she had "claimed" ownership of the upstairs as hers and beat everyone up that had the nerve to come up there.
Well, I went forward with my plan and moved her from upstairs to downstairs forcing some further interaction and removing her ownership. She's doing ok, but still cannot stand the tabby. Now my question I guess is how long should I give her before I make a tough decision on whether or not this is a good life for her? Here's the scenario - she now has run of the downstairs with the other cats, but remains only in the two downstairs bedrooms and the hall between them and will NOT cross the threshold into the kitchen/dining area. When she sees the tabby coming she dives under the bureau and will stay there for hours on end (and the funny thing is the tabby just wants to play now). She sleeps under the bureau when my daughter is at her dads
, but will sleep with my daughter when she's here. She loves people, but will not come see me at night because the others sleep with me. I find her under the bureau fast asleep.
As far as her not crossing the threshold - It's like there is an invisible barrier up. She plays with all the cats (except the tabby) as long as play occurs in the bedrooms. This morning she was running from room to room chasing and being chased by Pebbles, but then Pebbles went flying out into the kitchen and Molly just put the brakes on and stood there and looked at Pebbles. It was so sad. She really loves to play, but won't follow them into the house.
I guess I am just worried that she will never come around and that this will be a sad life for her. She loves people and loves to play, but she is just too chicken to come out into the rest of the house. Living under the bureau is no life. I pick her up and carry her to the living room and the minute I set her down she runs back to the bedroom.
I've tried putting food and treats for her down in the kitchen and she just runs. She won't touch any of it. Sad thing is that my other cats have been going into the bedroom and eating her food too, but when her bowl is empty she won't come out to the kitchen to get more - she just stays hungry.
That is the least of the problem too because all my litter boxes are in a big room in the cellar and if I can't get her to come out for a little food, she's not coming out and going downstairs to do her business either (so there's a litter box in my daughters room right now too
)
We love her, she's a sweetheart, but we also want to do right by her. I don't want her to live a depressing, sad life where she's always scared and hiding.
Well, I went forward with my plan and moved her from upstairs to downstairs forcing some further interaction and removing her ownership. She's doing ok, but still cannot stand the tabby. Now my question I guess is how long should I give her before I make a tough decision on whether or not this is a good life for her? Here's the scenario - she now has run of the downstairs with the other cats, but remains only in the two downstairs bedrooms and the hall between them and will NOT cross the threshold into the kitchen/dining area. When she sees the tabby coming she dives under the bureau and will stay there for hours on end (and the funny thing is the tabby just wants to play now). She sleeps under the bureau when my daughter is at her dads
I guess I am just worried that she will never come around and that this will be a sad life for her. She loves people and loves to play, but she is just too chicken to come out into the rest of the house. Living under the bureau is no life. I pick her up and carry her to the living room and the minute I set her down she runs back to the bedroom.
We love her, she's a sweetheart, but we also want to do right by her. I don't want her to live a depressing, sad life where she's always scared and hiding.