Cat Chat 2

[doriengray]

1 and a half weeks until I bring home my little girl :) still haven't fully decided on names, I think we're leaning towards Luna (Luna Lovegood), Molly (Molly Weasley) or Nova. Super excited to get her home!

[Rachley]

I've found that neutering my little guy hasn't really stopped their fights. Though they seem to be caused by the little one being a butthole and attacking the elderly ones back legs from behind. And at some point the old dude just won't stand for that anymore and catches him and they fight.

Neutering isn't a sure way to stop fights, and hypothetically, cats could be on bad terms due to fighting before the neutering. So the cats may need to be reintroduced. But neutering definitely can decrease fighting, and can completely stop fights! So I highly encourage neutering! There are also different kinds of aggression. Fear aggression, territorial aggression, sexual aggression, and more.

But different energy levels can definitely be the cause in your case. I made the mistake, twice, of getting a young one with an older one already. The young one always tries to wrestle with the old one, which makes the old one mad, from my experience. Playing with the young one to get all their energy out every day is important, but you still may need to save the old one from being attacked. That's what I've had to do. ._.

Also, my two young ones fight sometimes. What happens is they play nicely, then they start getting rough and the longer it goes on, it turns into a fight. So I separate them for 5 minutes to let them cool off, and it works very well!

& congrats lumos! c:

[Thalassic]

But different energy levels can definitely be the cause in your case. I made the mistake, twice, of getting a young one with an older one already. The young one always tries to wrestle with the old one, which makes the old one mad, from my experience. Playing with the young one to get all their energy out every day is important, but you still may need to save the old one from being attacked. That's what I've had to do. ._.[/size][/list][/color]

Yeah, it wasn't much of a choice in getting the kitten, as he was literally found on the street at around 1.5-2 months old and very sick. And he pretty much became my child from the moment I held him.

We do try to play with him a lot, and chase him around the house (he really enjoys being chased and then chasing you when you run away from him), but at around 7 months old, he just has sooo much energy that it can be difficult to deal with, especially with living in an apartment and being an outside cat not being an option whatsoever.

Here's something I wonder though. We do try to stop him when we notice him annoying mr old cat, but one time my mom said "can't we just let them fight it out once to get it out of their system?" and I must admit, I'm not really sure how to answer that. I've been told that most cat fights sound much worse than they actually are, especially when the cats dont actually hate eachother. And by now the little guy is about as big and strong as the big guy, so I'm not really worried about a fight ending up in serious life threatening stuff. But yeah, would that just be a terrible idea to not interfere when they fight? So far any fight has been broken up by someone running at them and yelling at them to stop basically, and I just wonder if there's anything we should be doing differently about that.

[Sixx O'Clock]

I'm glad I have a dog that loves to play with my newest kitten. She takes most of the kitten's attention, so the kitten isn't constantly going after my other two girls. She's a big help in mediating the other cats, too. Whenever she hears them fighting, she'll stick her nose between them and nudge them apart.
If you don't have the luxury of a "nanny" dog, though, keeping all of your cats occupied and happy is helpful in reducing the occurance of fights. My two older girls have places they can go where the kitten can't reach them, so they get their alone time and in turn don't become stressed by the little one's constant playfulness. And of course my kitten has lots of toys to play with and boxes to hide in, plus the dog to play with, so she's happy as a clam.
At the end of the day, though, it's pretty much impossible to completely end fighting between your cats. Cats are technically solitary animals, so obviously having two or more cats sharing the same turf will result in some fights. Honestly (and I'm not sure this was the best option, so I'm sorry if it's a bad thing) I just let my cats duke it out for a while, unless it gets really heated, and eventually they'd figure out what's what. After a while, I noticed a drop in their fighting, so it seems like, at least with my cats, they were either fighting because they were bored and wanted to play, or because they wanted to test themselves against each other. I don't think there's such a thing as "top cat" in a household, so that probably wasn't why they were fighting.

[Thalassic]

I just found out my grannys cat died. He was only 7 years old and he died from sickness, because no one would take him to the vet..

[non]

guys.. i have a serious problem. PLEASE HELP.
so i'm going to my grandma's house for 4 days for thanksgiving.
i want to bring my cat, but i find out there'll be eleven people in all staying at the house (including my family)
and of course they're all fine with cats but will honey be fine with living in the same house as eleven other people- six of which she doesn't recognise? she's not good with new people and has bad manners. she scratches and bites quite a bit.
so i want to bring her at the same time; i think of her almost as my child and i'd always be missing her.
i'd be almost... empty without her. i want to find out a way to bring her without causing too much trouble.
the house is in new york city, so i can't keep her outside. she's pretty big, but usually stays compact,
and my grandma isn't exactly the quietest person in the universe. (she stomps around a lot)
it seems like a lot to read but it's not, i promise. i'm highlighting the important stuff.

[Sixx O'Clock]

guys.. i have a serious problem. PLEASE HELP.
so i'm going to my grandma's house for 4 days for thanksgiving.
i want to bring my cat, but i find out there'll be eleven people in all staying at the house (including my family)
and of course they're all fine with cats but will honey be fine with living in the same house as eleven other people- six of which she doesn't recognise? she's not good with new people and has bad manners. she scratches and bites quite a bit.
so i want to bring her at the same time; i think of her almost as my child and i'd always be missing her.
i'd be almost... empty without her. i want to find out a way to bring her without causing too much trouble.
the house is in new york city, so i can't keep her outside. she's pretty big, but usually stays compact,
and my grandma isn't exactly the quietest person in the universe. (she stomps around a lot)
it seems like a lot to read but it's not, i promise. i'm highlighting the important stuff.

Ask if there's a room in the house where your cat can stay, somewhere she won't be disturbed very much. Other than that, though, I would have to recommend you just leave her at home, and ask someone you trust to look after her while you're gone.

[DrinaLestrange]

New places are highly stressful for cats, without the addition of strange noises and people. I'd say leave your cat at home.

[Thalassic]

guys.. i have a serious problem. PLEASE HELP.
so i'm going to my grandma's house for 4 days for thanksgiving.
i want to bring my cat, but i find out there'll be eleven people in all staying at the house (including my family)
and of course they're all fine with cats but will honey be fine with living in the same house as eleven other people- six of which she doesn't recognise? she's not good with new people and has bad manners. she scratches and bites quite a bit.
so i want to bring her at the same time; i think of her almost as my child and i'd always be missing her.
i'd be almost... empty without her. i want to find out a way to bring her without causing too much trouble.
the house is in new york city, so i can't keep her outside. she's pretty big, but usually stays compact,
and my grandma isn't exactly the quietest person in the universe. (she stomps around a lot)
it seems like a lot to read but it's not, i promise. i'm highlighting the important stuff.

I agree, you should consider keeping her home.
Do you have any friends or relatives or even neighbors who you'd trust to check up on her?
You could also leave out a full bowl of dry food and a good amount of fresh water, as well as full access to at least one litterbox.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but she wouldn't starve in 4 days. We've had to leave our cat alone for a couple days at a time, and he.. didn't really seem to care much at all.

Consider this, you might like her being there, but she will be very stressed and confused, and probably scared. She might get in the way, might make a mess due to not knowing where her temporary litterbox is, or she might even get out if someone happens to leave a window or door open for too long. And that could be very dangerous. I think you should really consider what would be best for her in this situation.

[fluffycat6]

guys.. i have a serious problem. PLEASE HELP.
so i'm going to my grandma's house for 4 days for thanksgiving.
i want to bring my cat, but i find out there'll be eleven people in all staying at the house (including my family)
and of course they're all fine with cats but will honey be fine with living in the same house as eleven other people- six of which she doesn't recognise? she's not good with new people and has bad manners. she scratches and bites quite a bit.
so i want to bring her at the same time; i think of her almost as my child and i'd always be missing her.
i'd be almost... empty without her. i want to find out a way to bring her without causing too much trouble.
the house is in new york city, so i can't keep her outside. she's pretty big, but usually stays compact,
and my grandma isn't exactly the quietest person in the universe. (she stomps around a lot)
it seems like a lot to read but it's not, i promise. i'm highlighting the important stuff.

I agree, you should consider keeping her home.
Do you have any friends or relatives or even neighbors who you'd trust to check up on her?
You could also leave out a full bowl of dry food and a good amount of fresh water, as well as full access to at least one litterbox.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but she wouldn't starve in 4 days. We've had to leave our cat alone for a couple days at a time, and he.. didn't really seem to care much at all.

Consider this, you might like her being there, but she will be very stressed and confused, and probably scared. She might get in the way, might make a mess due to not knowing where her temporary litterbox is, or she might even get out if someone happens to leave a window or door open for too long. And that could be very dangerous. I think you should really consider what would be best for her in this situation.

I think 4 days is too long for you to just leave out a bowl of dry food. I can't speak for everyone's cats obviously, but I know that if one of my cats would be in that situation they would probably pig out on the first day or two and then go hungry for the rest of the time. Also, wouldn't the water just evaporate? The litter box would likely be very dirty by the end of the 4 days, and if it is too dirty she might just go outside of the box.

I know it would be hard to leave her behind, but I think that would be the best option for her. Do you have any friends or family that could watch her while you are gone? That would probably be the best option, for someone to come check on her once or twice a day to feed her, refill her water and clean the litter box. One of the problems with bringing her, is that people without cats might not remember to leave windows closed, or not leave doors open. Depending on how long the drive is she could get hot or stressed It would probably be the best option to leave her at home with someone to check in on her. But if you are really set on bringing her, maybe keep her in one room for the first few hours or up to a day? Let her get used to the new surroundings and where her new litter box is, and bring some stuff that smells like home like a cat bed. You can try introducing people to her one at a time as not to stress her out, and then slowly let her wander the house, just make sure she has a quiet space to retreat to. Just make sure you are really careful about transporting and even having her at the house, cats that escape or go missing at new locations almost never come back because they have no idea where they are.

In the end you're the only one who can make this decision for her, you know your cat best. Think about if she adjusts to change well, when you got her, did she hide for a few days or did she get used to her new surroundings quickly? If you really want to, you could invest in one of those cameras that let you watch your pet. (x, x,x, x ) Most allow you to watch, feed, speak to and even play with your pet with a laser light connected to a smartphone (one even has a feature that lets your pet call you, but that one is significantly more expensive), but these can be very pricey, and probably wouldn't be worth just a 4 day trip unless you would use it every time you travel