Monday 16 April 2018

Still at Loggerheads!

A few days on...

Gosh! I trying to get 2 cats to knew that trying to get 2 cats to like each other was so hard.

JC has been trying so hard to get to know Nig, but she just hissed and spat and arched her back with a tail like a loo brush.

JC has always jumped on the outside window ledge to let us know he wants to come in and every time Nig saw him, she'd fly to the window scratching and hissing that JC didn't jump up anymore. He was scared.

They'd had been kept separate for a few days and it seemed like Nig was the dominant cat, and I began to think we'd been doing this all wrong and jC was suffering and felt something had to change...

A wire door was built at the bottom of the stairs so that Nig had the upstairs and JC could freely roam around downstairs and a curtain was place with only a small gap so the cats could see each other. 

I thought this going well until JC starting slunking past the curtain - the little Princess Nigella was constantly growling at him! 

Poor JC, a soft and placid cat, was getting more and more depressed and scared.  So much love and affection was showered on him in the hope that he would still know he is the top cat, but to no avail.

After a week another change of tactics...

Thursday 12 April 2018

JC meets Princess Nigella

JC has just got a new companion, not that he asked for one, he got landed with one - Nig (or princess Nigella, by her full name).

moggie-cat
JC

Poor JC was taken by surprise, I did talk to him about Nig a few days beforehand that she was coming to live with us and possibly having some abandonment issues - he looked like he was taking it all in. And when she turned up he was curious and wanted to be friends. But then she attacked him and his face was one of hurt and bewilderment - wtf?

Mad panic ensued in the attack both by cats and humans and of course it made things worse.  JC slunk off defeated and disappeared into the night for a few hours.  Nig was absolutely wired and took a while to settle down. 

Then it was bedtime.

Morning came and again JC tried to be friends but Nig just hissed and howled and JC backed off to go outside and hang out with his cat mates, he plainly thought it was her loss.

Meanwhile Nig seemed to settle into her new surroundings and was laying her scent everywhere and laying over JC's scent, she was still hyper, nipping and scratching while playing. 

But then her background was semi feral, she lived in the backwoods of Marazion and was left much to her own devices - the owners cared for her but she lacked discipline. She also played rough and was allowed to bite and scratch hence she was reared a fighting cat but without fighting any cats, as there were none in her area.

First thing we had to do was keep her calm and walk away when she wanted to play fight, and she learned pretty quickly that it was not ok to be aggressive (to humans).

...and that how it was for a few hours.