I have a problem. My two cats get along most of the time, especially since Bruma spends most of the daytime outside. But sometimes when Gandalf gets his crazy pants on he likes to play rough with her and she doesn’t like it one bit. She hisses, she draws the paw of doom on him but it seems he doesn’t get that he’s not welcome. I usually break it off by clapping or ultimately taking one of the cats with me to be petted and calm the moods around the house.
It seems Gandalf doesn’t understand the hissing language, isn’t bothered by it or is encouraged by it to keep seeking Bruma. I know Bruma is not hissing over nothing: sometimes she’s sleeping and he goes all wrestlemania on her. Out of the blue. I’ve also witnessed when she’s willing to play and even if they’re running all over the house there’s no hissing.
How can I teach to Gandalf to stop when there’s hissing involved?
We are toying with the idea of bringing another kitten but I’m scared he’s going to go all tough love on it. If it helps: Gandalf was fostered by someone that only had huskies at home. He was first introduced to cats when we adopted him at 2 and a half months old. He’s now 1 year and 5 months old. He doesn’t hiss and he barely meows (only to complain that he’s not being fed fast enough or when he’s being handled which he hates). Bruma is almost a two year-old kitty and a really talkative one! Thanks for your insight!
I’ll be honest, my first thought was that Gandalf needs a kitten to play with – it would give Bruma a break, and of course kittens have endless energy. I don’t have any other insight, though, so I’m hoping someone (or several someones!) will have some suggestions. Please chime in if you have ideas!
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Also, the phrase – snuggle of kittens — needs to be added to the dictionary. Perhaps with the opposite – a bounce of kittens.
A BOUNCE OF KITTENS. I love that!
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Aww, sweet little Dennis and his baby pictures. I’m so glad he finally found his furever home .*wink wink*. I had never realized he was such a scaredy cat. Is he still skittish around you?
He is not skittish around either of us any more – but any strangers who step foot in the house will NEVER see him, except maybe at a distance as he runs to hide under my bed. But with Fred and I, he is completely confident and will let us do whatever we want (though he might complain). Also, he loves to be kissed, and I suspect that’s half the reason he comes into my room in the morning and flops down against me, because he knows I’ll kiss him 130 times all over his face.
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I cannot believe it has been three years since the Norbster was with you Robyn. Time flies. Thank you Kirstin for the update. Speaking of that Robyn, maybe you could make a post about the “most popular” kitties you’ve had. I think Stompers, Rocky Horror Pickle, and those little Cheese Doodles would be among the choice picks for sure (not to slight any of the others of course).
Those would be some good Throwback Thursday posts – who do y’all want to see?
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I haven’t been paying attention, so someone may have already noted this: Temptations Made a Collar That Finally Gives Your Cat a Human Voice, So It Can Talk to You.
I hadn’t seen that, though of course now I’ve seen it posted all over Facebook and Twitter. It seemed obvious to me that it was a joke, but judging by some of the responses I saw on Facebook, I wondered if I was wrong. A Google search showed me that it IS a joke, thank god. Because I would be scared to hear what our permanent residents had to say – Fred has a bit of a potty mouth*, and you know the air would be thick with profanity if I had the nerve to try to sleep in instead of get up and give them their morning snack!
*Which he got from me.
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Creed is still listed as returned. Does he have some problems or something?
Creed was at Petsmart for a while, but he got stressed out and started pulling out fur. He’s back at the shelter now, and doing well. Unfortunately, being at the shelter doesn’t give him a lot of exposure – there are occasional adoptions directly from the shelter, but most of the adoptions happen at Petsmart. As mentioned, he’s doing well at the shelter, and last I heard, he’s the first one to greet and demand love from anyone who enters the cat room.
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I’ve noticed weights in some of your videos and am wondering how much the kittens can lift?
Those are 25 pound weights; obviously the kittens like to lift heavy. How do you think they stay so buff and lean?
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I saw this online recently and thought it might work well with some cats (you never know – each cat has their own personality) : Cat-In-The-Bag.
I’ve seen that! Has anyone out there tried this carrier for their cat? I’d be very interested to hear how cats react. I feel like mine wouldn’t like being in a carrier like that, but I note that they do offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, maybe I should just suck it up and give it a try.
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“I thought I was going to have some “me” time, but then she hunted me down. Even in the top platform of the cat tree, I can’t get away from the little monsters.”
Chanandler Bong enjoys the ham-mick.
Bert Macklin. Is he a gorgeous boy, or what?
I think the pie plate is a little overfilled – not that Regina seems to mind.
Rolling around on the window sill, fighting with the cat bed. As you do.
I don’t know why the camera decided to white out everything around Chanandler (cameras continue to be a mystery to me), but I love this picture.
Susie is a helpful girl who was juuuust about to fold that shirt for me (as soon as she was done biting it, that is.)
Art Vandelay and Princess Consuela look at something (possibly a feather toy that I am wildly waving over their heads.)
I love Regina’s spray of whiskers.
Susie thinks that Art Vandelay makes a comfy pillow.
“I AM MORE THAN A PILLOW, I AM A MANCAT WITH HOPES AND DREAMS!” proclaims Art. But Susie slept on.
Bert Macklin gets his smug on.
Art Vandelay is pretty sure it’s time for a nap.
So, the countdown has begun – mama Regina Phalange will be headed to Petsmart next Thursday! I suspect that her kittens will be attempting to nurse as I’m putting her in the carrier for the ride to Petsmart.
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Videos! In the first one, Ken Adams is chasing his tail (until Art Vandelay jumps in to distract him).
And in the second one Chanandler Bong and Princess Consuela are fighting, and they are FIERCE.
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“GIMME that camera, lady. I need to take a selfie!” says Joe Bob.
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Previously
2015: Crooked Acres Wednesday.
2014: Thomas Tuesday.
2013: Meet the Dragons.
2012: No entry.
2011: Do you just get lucky with the pictures or do you take thousands daily?
2010: Prince Corbett.
2009: Such a big baby – he was whining at me because I wasn’t petting him enough.
2008: “We iz sleeping pls leave alone thx.”
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Claudia:
I got another kitten when Sidney did this to Emma. Well, 6 years later, Sid still tortures Emma. He does LOVE LOVE LOVE Lola, though…but he has taught Lola that it can be fun to chase Emma and make her “cry” (she doesn’t do it often). So, it can backfire. Be sure you want a third cat no matter what. I have not been successful at getting Sidney to be respectful. I now have four cats (shush…the forth found me). Emma is the ONLY one Sidney picks on. Sidney is a big Ragdoll x (15 lbs) and my youngest is only 8 lbs. You would think he’d pick on her, but he doesn’t. He focuses on Emma, the ears lay back, and he becomes obsessed. I do what you are currently doing and I can say, “Be nice to her!” and he will flop on his side like he was innocent the whole time. It is the only thing that breaks his focus. He never hurts Emma…just torments her like a rotten little brother.
Throwback Thursday – Dandelion, Trader Joe….
What is the white “box” in the video with a black cat stencil on the front?
I thought for a second maybe it was a washer or dryer. Wouldn’t that be cool?
I thought so for a second, then thought a bathroom cabinet.
That’s actually a cut-out, not a stencil. It’s a “Wooden Cat Hideaway House / Litter Box Cover“, which I got from Zulily last year. Stefan REALLY likes to snooze in there at night (and sometimes during the day, when he’s allowed access to the upstairs – which he isn’t at the moment). Regina enjoys sitting on top of it to greet me when I come upstairs. 🙂
Love it.
Chanandler Bong: The White Album Featuring her mega hit “Shades of Gray (and white)” and the power ballad “Disappearing Into Light”
😉
Love the videos! And Joe Bob needs a kiss on his pink nose please!
“A Whiter Shade of Pale!”
I never noticed before that the pie pan has kitty ears!
Gandalf and Bruma sound just like my Orlando harassing sweet Hobo… Then we added young Rizzoli and she became Orlando’s BFF!! For us it has worked wonders! There are still moments when Orlando goes after Hobo but it’s so less often now. We have been very blessed with Rizzoli’s effect on our other 3 cats, knocking on wood. But I had known her for months from cleaning at Petsmart and had a good feeling…. If you choose to try adding another cat, choose carefully and hope for the best, no guarantees. Best of luck! Oh… before her, I also tried Jackson Galaxy’s Bully Remedy and Safe Space drops, helped a bit. Then found that diffusing my Young Living Lavender oil also helped make happy cat spaces. That worked great when we transitioned her in.
I’ll try some lavender oil at home. Maybe it will help. Thank you!
Gandalf: is he getting enough play time? wearing him out should help some with keeping him from harassing his sister. And bear in mind that he is still a teenager….I would see if some daily hard play sessions help before another kitten that may lead to Bruma getting more harassed.
kisses to Joe Bob and good luck to Regina – we hope she gets adopted quick
You might be right and it’s not enough play time. I’ll try to wear him out at night.
LOVE your blog, have been following for about a year now. I have a house panther who is of course my baby! He’s such a great cat even though he won’t let me pick him up and walk around with him. His name is Ozzie after Ozzie Osborn ( Black Sabbath). He does tolerate being hugged and kissed though.
I look forward to reading your blog each day.
Hi, Chris – nice to “meet” you! I love house panthers, and I LOVE the name Ozzie! 🙂
Another kitten can help a lot — I’d say make sure it’s another dominant and confident kitten or young cat, because I’ve seen a newcomer put a bully cat in his place and stabilize the entire household. It’s sorta odd — and I have the same issue with mine, but I have five and adding another is not an option.
As for the photography, that looks like auto white balance (AWB) run amok in a very cool way. Was she on a white background similar in color to her, or maybe in the sun? I wonder if you accidentally blew out the exposure in such a way that AWB decided EVERYTHING IS WHITE NAO and went nuts.
I think Robyn should just say that it is how she intended the picture to come out. Yes, her whites are blown out.
Yeah, I was basically shooting into the sun. I thought the entire picture was white until I got a look at it on my computer. 🙂
So massively overexposed to where the AWB decided it was white. I dunno if your camera has exposure compensation?
No matter. A very cool shot and it gives me some ideas.
That white-out photo of Chanandler looks like a kitteh is breaking through from another parallel dimension! Those babies are growing like weeds, getting to that awkward teenage state where they zoom and leap, hardly ever stay still unless they suddenly drop over to cat-nap.
We have two sets of brothers. Oldest are going on 16 and the youngest just turned 4. The two “kittens” chase the smallest of the older set. It used to be on a daily basis but now it’s just a couple days or so. But Pogo (the one chased) brings it on himself now-a-days. Merry and Pippin will be sitting there minding their own business when Pogo will go skulking by acting like a victim or prey. That of course brings out their drive to catch him. Luckily there’s very little actual contact as Pogo will run and hide, he’s quicker than them, even at 12 years their senior. LOL Even having each other to play with they started stalking him within a few months of being in the house. I think it started as them trying to play with him as he was not much bigger than them but he wanted nothing to do with that and it turned into badgering. All we can do is try to diffuse the situation if it gets a little too heated. What cracks me up about it all though is that at night they all curl up together on my pillow surrounding my head and sleep very peacefully together all night. Every single night. LOL
When you act like prey, you get treated like prey. Yep, that is my Emma. However, they do not curl up together at night. If Emma was confident like the other two girls, my boy (Sidney) would not bully her. Lola and Laney will take-him-down in the most non-violent of ways. They just don’t take crap and he actually surrenders VERY quickly to anyone who bows up at him.
TBT with a Louis and Stompers guess-who quiz!
I hope that you immediately kissed Joe bob. What a flirt!
This is the “every body gets a participant medal” part of me but frankly, they’re all most popular In their own ways.
I have 2 cats. The old girl, Gollum, is barely 6 lbs and is 13 years old. Wesley is 3 years old, as part Maine Coon he is 14 lbs of lean muscle. Wesley was my bottlefed baby. Gollie had many opportunities when he was growing up to teach him some manners, but she would just walk wayyyy around him, ignoring his existence. He has been stalking her and jumping on her since he was 6 months old. He treats her like one of his toys. She hates him. The thing I don’t understand is Gollie is such a fierce little cat otherwise. It takes 3 people to trim her nails or medicate her, and she will still bite and scratch all of them. If my son is wrestling with Wesley and the cat growls, Gollie will go after my son. But I’m sure if we took a vote, she would send Wes somewhere far away. I really dislike cat-to-cat dynamics.
I have a Cat-in-the-Bag! I bought it for Figaro because every time I put him in a normal cat carrier, he acts like he is heading to his own execution. He howls and thrashes around inside the carrier and just really stresses himself out. I decided to try Cat-in-the-Bag because I thought maybe if he didn’t feel so confined he would do better. He still doesn’t love traveling in the car by any means, but at least I’m not worried about him hurting himself. I buckle him into the passenger seat next to me, and I can reach over and give him comforting pats as I’m driving.
Thank you all for sharing your experiences! I´m feeling more confident in getting another kitten. I’ll keep my eyes open for an energetic and dominant one. Hopefully it will bring my cats together. 🙂
Looks like those kittens have finally found your secret canned stash of whup-a$$.
Well I’m going to be the voice of dissent when it comes to ‘getting another cat to fix the behavior’ suggestion.
Twee is my problem child. She has issues anyway, she is developmentally (well mentally) delayed, and the animal communicators who have talked to her said she sounds like a kitten. She was content to cuddle up to Em when she was around, but when Em died, Twee looked for someone else. No one else wanted to deal with her. She will try to get them to play and they want nothing to do with it and walk away, she follows, tries to engage, and they rebuff and rebuff until it gets to a hissy fit – which is when I break it up. We adopted three additional kittens after her, and she still ‘goes after’ / chooses to engage in the older cats who want nothing to do with her. She doesn’t get it when they hiss at her.. she thinks it is all in good fun.
Only get third cat if you can deal with more issues.. because it could very easily go that way