Hi all, having a few problems with my two boys lately. In the last week or so, Hendrix has become increasingly aggressive towards Jagger, who is starting to retaliate and a huge fight is brewing...
Hendrix has always been the 'alpha' at home. However, outdoors I think he's probably pretty low in the neighbourhood cat hierarchy. He's been beaten up a couple of times and generally jagger will take over any protection of territory disputes with other cats, and though he doesn't fight them, I've watched them roll over and slink away when he is in full confrontational mode. On the other hand, Hendrix will be literally hunted and stalked by one certain cat who appeared in September. To be honest, a lot of this has started since this cat appeared in September and he is really bad for 'hunting' Hendrix even if we are around to protect him.
So I'm guessing some of this is down to Hendrix feeling insecure territorially. This morning, I got up, Hendrix ran into the bedroom, jagger was sat outside in the hall. We came out, and Hendrix launched himself at jagger for no apparent reason. When they went outside, I heard a cat fight, and then they both came flying in, jagger chasing Hendrix. Jagger went straight back out so I think he had a go back at Hendrix and no other cat was involved. Hendrix then didn't go out for the rest of the morning until jagger came in to eat his breakfast. I kept jagger back for a bit but as I left for work I saw jagger chasing Hendrix across the road
I have a pet cam in the kitchen now so I could keep an eye on things from there and the day seemed to pass without any incident, but tonight has been pretty bad. One incident for example, Hendrix was on the cat tree, playing with the blind cords which meant jagger came in and wanted to play as well. Hendrix immediately started to hiss and growl at jagger and attacked him when he jumped on the cat tree. Jagger jumped down onto the armchair, and Hendrix continued his growling etc and it ended up with them both flying out of the room and I had to break up a fight.
I'm getting feliway tomorrow and I'm praying that will help calm things down a bit. I'm working hard to make sure they only spend positive time together, they have plenty of places /beds to go to away from each other and they 'own'. Any 'bad' interaction I end ASAP and separate them to calm down. The other half is back as of tomorrow to try to keep an eye on things, but he is of the mind that they should fight it out... I'm terrified that this will exacerbate matters and one of them might even leave home.
Sorry for the long email, I'm feeling a bit stressed about it all! I guess this is a problem that can arise with two males, however if anyone has any other ideas as to how to calm things down and have them getting on together again, please let me know!