At last! We have peace between the cats! They still chase each other and wrestle some, but there's no more growling, huffing, hissing and/or full-on attacks. These behaviors were brought on by the sight of another cat outside and is called re-directed aggression.
It took six weeks to get back to normal. During that time we had to keep the cats physically separated, which meant keeping doors closed that are normally opened. That wasn't just inconvenient. It impeded the flow of air through the house, which affected the temperatures of various rooms.
To get them used to each other again, we had to open the door a little so they could see each other, and eventually referee by standing in between them with a spray bottle of water at the ready.
However, all is well now, and we're really, really hoping there isn't another sighting of the neighbor's cat any time soon.
2 comments:
Hi. I'm so glad that they have decided to like each other again. It is much easier to live in a house where the animals get along. My favorite "Irish Blessing" (right after "May you be half an hour in heaven before the devil knows you're dead") is "May the roof of your house never fall in, and those beneath it never fall out"
As I mentioned in a previous comment, we lost Splash to a car. We have since discovered that there is no longer any cat pee on our kitchen counters. Either he was the culprit or the cause. As much as we miss him, we don't miss the pee.
We might have gained a puppy, however. It was following us yesterday as Lucky and I were walking. The lady whose house it followed us from said it had showed up the day before and she had no idea wo it belonged to. To keep it from getting hit by a car, I brought her home. I have an ad out, so hopefully, her owner will call. If not, we might keep her.
Rosemary
P.S We had one cat so frightened of the water bottle, all we had to do was say "Monster, water bottle!" and she would immediately stop whatever she was doing and run.
Glad "normal service is resumed" lol. Caroline x
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