Rivalry help?

I need some smart rpca advice, please; I have never dealt with a
mutli-cat situation, and am not sure what to do.

I'd posted recently that we are trying to coax timid office cat Tiger
into staying inside more; Ozzy has always stayed inside. It's
working; Tiger is still nervous about the Scary Inside, but is
spending longer and longer stretches inside before skittering out the
open door. But the more he comes in, the less Ozzy likes it. Oz and
Tiger have co-existed quite well for over a year, but inside has
always been Oz's exclusive domain, and he doesn't want to share.

I'm not sure what to do; Ozzy is kind of a bully to Tiger. Tiger
comes inside and Oz will jump on him and chase him out. If every time
this happens Oz gets yelled at and/or squirted with the water gun, Oz
is going to like the idea of Tiger's coming in even less, and who
could blame him? But that seems to be the way we're headed. OTOH, if
I leave the cats to work it out, I am afraid Tiger will get
discouraged from venturing inside.

Tiger isn't confident enough inside to be able to confine him to try
doing some sort of re-introduction, which is all that's coming to mind
from reading past posts of similar situations. Tiger is losing his
fear of being trapped inside, but it's still a work in progress.

I don't know quite what to do and am afraid of making the situation
worse, esp. as they are jealous of each other (Ozzy especially);
giving Tiger scritches will make Ozzy mad, and paying special
attention to Ozzy will bring Tiger over to try to horn in on any
scritches to be had. Ozzy can be distracted by playing, but Tiger
can't relax enough inside yet to play with any abandon. And they
don't play *together* at all inside, though they do outside.

Does anyone have any suggestions? They would be appreciated by the
human and feline staff of a certain south Georgia law office. :-)

------
Krista
Pics of Mike at RPCA Pictures!
Pics of Ozzy and Tiger at RPCA Photos!

LOL wrote:
Does anyone have any suggestions? They would be appreciated by the
human and feline staff of a certain south Georgia law office. :-)

Well, I do have a lot of experience with multiple cats... ;-)
My best advise would be to make sure to give them both lots of love. A
feliway diffuser (available at petsmart) might help as well. We also try
not to intervene with their squabbles unless it's turning violent. You
have to let them figure out their pecking order. It might take a while,
it took Xoxo a couple of years before he fully integrated into the family.
Best of luck.

--
Victor Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

On 27 Feb 2004 00:25:48 -0800, (LOL)
wrote:

I need some smart rpca advice, please; I have never dealt with a
mutli-cat situation, and am not sure what to do.
snip

sorry to hear about that Oz doesn't like Tiger inside, but haven't
really had to deal with your situation. When I brought Rocky inside
into what Little Bit considered "her" territory, she already
recognised Rocky as the alpha cat outside, so she just hid from him
and gave me dirty looks. Luckily for me, Rocky wasn't a bully about
it, he just sort of ignored her as well. So, for a couple months
whenever Rocky went into a room, Little Bit came darting out as soon
as he was far enough from the door.

The good news is that now, while they're still not the best of
friends, they get along fairly well. No mutual grooming or playing
together, but they can occassionally be found sleeping next to each
other. The other day, for the first time, Little Bit jumped up onto
the recliner even though she saw Rocky was already there napping.

Anyway, guess what I'm saying, is that while I don't have much useful
advice. I don't have any personal experience with Feliway, but I've
read about several posters who seem to swear by it.

Purrs coming from here that the Georgia Lawcats will settle their case
amicably.
--
Steve Touchstone,
faithful servant of Sammy, Little Bit and Rocky

[remove Junk for email]
Home Page: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/index.html
Cat Pix: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/animals.html

"LOL" wrote
I need some smart rpca advice, please; I have never dealt with a
mutli-cat situation, and am not sure what to do.

I don't have advice to give, but can send purrs and soothing Meatloaf
Meditations to make the boys work it out amicably.

--
Marina, Frank and Nikki
Email marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/frankiennikki

Victor Martinez wrote in message ...

Well, I do have a lot of experience with multiple cats... ;-)
My best advise would be to make sure to give them both lots of love. A
feliway diffuser (available at petsmart) might help as well. We also try
not to intervene with their squabbles unless it's turning violent. You
have to let them figure out their pecking order. It might take a while,
it took Xoxo a couple of years before he fully integrated into the family.
Best of luck.


The love is not a problem - both of them are attention sluts. ;-)

I am whacking myself up side the head at not thinking to take some
feliway to the office already. Thank you for the reminder! We have
diffusers here at the house for Mike, and they do seem to help some,
though are not the miracle workers for Mike that they seem to be for
some. We also recently got a bottle of Rescue Remedy, and we'll be
trying that too.

Thanks, Victor!

------
Krista

Steve Touchstone wrote in message . ..

sorry to hear about that Oz doesn't like Tiger inside, but haven't
really had to deal with your situation. When I brought Rocky inside
into what Little Bit considered "her" territory, she already
recognised Rocky as the alpha cat outside, so she just hid from him
and gave me dirty looks. Luckily for me, Rocky wasn't a bully about
it, he just sort of ignored her as well. So, for a couple months
whenever Rocky went into a room, Little Bit came darting out as soon
as he was far enough from the door.

The good news is that now, while they're still not the best of
friends, they get along fairly well. No mutual grooming or playing
together, but they can occassionally be found sleeping next to each
other. The other day, for the first time, Little Bit jumped up onto
the recliner even though she saw Rocky was already there napping.

Anyway, guess what I'm saying, is that while I don't have much useful
advice. I don't have any personal experience with Feliway, but I've
read about several posters who seem to swear by it.

Purrs coming from here that the Georgia Lawcats will settle their case
amicably.


Thank you for the purrs and encouragement. Your situation is pretty
much what I am hoping for with Oz and Tiger; I will happily settle for
peaceful co-existence. It can be disconcerting for clients to get in
the middle of a cat fight; it's bad enough they walk in the door and
the first thing they see is me at my desk with a brightly colored
water gun. :-P

------
Krista

No ideas unfortunately, but lots of purrs and best wishes for everything to
work out fine,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"LOL" wrote in message
om...
snip Does anyone have any suggestions? They would be appreciated by the
human and feline staff of a certain south Georgia law office. :-)

------
Krista
Pics of Mike at RPCA Pictures!
Pics of Ozzy and Tiger at RPCA Photos!