cat problem of the day

[franksolich]

I had planned to give the cats here their Thanksgiving dinner--canned white turkey meat in water--as early as possible, but here it is, nearly 2:30 p.m. central time, 1:30 p.m. mountain time, and there's a problem getting them all inside the house at the same time.

I don't play favorites with the cats; each and every cat gets exactly as much as all the other cats, and so no Thanksgiving chow until they're all indoors.

The problem is with the ancient crippled Gustav.  He was already circa 11-12 year old when he first came here, with a broken front leg, and had obviously always been a feral, or at least an outdoors, cat.

Gustav was mended, shot, and neutralized, and has the past couple of years evolved into a warm, affectionate, loving cat; a wonderful cat.

However, the other cats don't care for Gustav.

Gustav comes in, the other cats head out.  Gustav goes out, the other cats come in.

There haven't been any brawls between Gustav and the other cats (of course, I'm not around here 100% of the time, to notice), but the hostility of the other cats towards Gustav is more or less noticeable.

And it's been almost two years, surely long enough for everybody to get used to each other.

Gustav doesn't bother the other cats.  Usually, when I successfully manage to have all cats in here at the same time, Gustav slumbers on the couch, and Abbie, the most senior cat, on one of the bookshelves in the living room.  Harold slumbers on the table in the dining room.  Snow spends her time on the uppermost shelf in the closet of one of the bedrooms.  Ellie perches on the bedside table in one of the bedrooms.  William, the youngest cat here, sleeps on top of my bed.

This is a big place, with plenty of room for all the cats--and one must remember that at one time I had eleven cats, not just six.  And there's litter-boxes enough, still, for eleven cats.

One can't change the nature of cats any more than one can change human nature (something the primitives don't understand), but one can however slightly modify their behavior, and I'm still working on it.

But at any rate, no Thanksgiving chow for any of the cats here, until every cat is here, inside.  I don't play favorites; every cat gets exactly what all the other cats get, no more, no less.

It's difficult, being a non-cat person, and trying to train cats.

[vesta111]

 

Off the top of my head I would say the other cats KNOW that there is something different about that poor kitty and are avoiding him.

At one time we managed to accumulate 3 cats, for some reason the first 2 would gang up on her and the fur would fly. she was not fixed so perhaps there was jealousy involved.

We had at that time a 150 pound Rottie that ignored the cats, but they took great delight in driving that poor dog nuts.

I watched them in action one day, darnedest thing I ever saw.

Dog was sleeping, minding her own business when I walked into the room and saw that the 3 cats had surrounded her about 6 feet on all sides.  The cars had that innocent look they get when they are up to no good.  They all were looking around ignoring the dog, checking out the floor and the cealing.

I turned around to leave the room when one of them let out this shriek from hell and all 3 latched onto the dog.   One planted on her face and 2 riding her back.

Bless her heart my huge dog could not see due to having one cat covering her eyes, and the other 2 on her back with claws dug in and all 3 yelling at each other.

My big girl knocked over tables and chairs slammed so hard into a wall she put a hole in it.    Hubby walked in about that time and grabbed a mop and tried to knock the cats off the dog but they held on for enough time for him to do some damage to my home himself.

Cost us big bucks at the vet for antibiotics for the dog and what not.

Poor dog, he spent the rest of her life avoiding the cats, and they were EVIL, they would lay in front of her water and food dish, I had to feed her outside away from the cats.
 
 It was the second time my Gangster Cats attacked my sleeping dog that we realised we had to do something.

We solved this problem by giving away one of my cats to one of my kids.

Once there were just 2 things went back to normal, no cat fights and we could get some sleep without the big girl trying to climb in bed with us for protection from the pesky cats.

It is said that domestic cats are no different mentally from their cousins except for size, that all so sweet 5 pound fur ball is no different in instinct and actions from a 300 pound Lion.

I would say if you can keep your wonded warrior in the house and if the others refuse to come in, so be it.    When it gets cold enough outside they just may  change their tune.

[franksolich]

Well, here it is, almost 5:30 central time, 4:30 mountain time, and the cats are still half inside, half outdoors.

No Thanksgiving feast for the cats until 100% of the cats are indoors.

This might take until tomorrow to get done.