OMG total chaos

[Marcia]

HA! Total chaos takes a little while to get over! Yesterday I wedged a baby gate into the stairs to keep the resident cats upstairs and the new cat, Lacey, downstairs so she could explore in private. Zipper was able to knock the gate over, it tumbled down the stairs and banged into a small hall table, knocking over the lamp and exploding the light bulb! Talk about pandemonium!! Took a couple hours before everyone came out of hiding. 20 lb jack had wedged himself under a loveseat in the BR! Poor babies.

[Richo]

Well, 2 days later I let Baxter out and fed them and there was initially no hostility, they sniffed each other, etc.

About an hour later I hear growling and see Barnaby just relaxing on the floor, but growling and hissing with Baxter nearby but he's apparently not happy about him being near him, so I put Baxter back into solitary for a while.

Guess I have to take it one day at a time and gradually work things back to normal.

[Richo]

Things are not improving. Today. Let Baxter out and they just sniffed each other at first but they kept encountering each other and Barnaby would lick him a little and then whack at him and hiss.

Then Barnaby walked down the hall and right away Baxter made a mad dash down the hallway and Barnaby started hissing and growling at him. I don't know if he was doing it to get into a room not knowing Barnaby was in the hall or if he was being a brat, but at this stage any fast movement from him sets Barnaby off. So today Baxter was let out for a whole 5 minutes.

Not sure where to go from here because it has been 5 days and there seems to be no progress. Baxter always seems to want to be in the same room as Barnaby, like encroaching on his privacy, and I can tell that he doesn't like it.

[Marcia]

Originally Posted by Richo

I always turn on lights wherever I walk because I expect a kitty to be in my path but she was on her way to the closest light switch and he just happened to be there.

He forgave us after all the chaos. He laid on her lap for hours tonight and seems to be acting more normal to me. I think he got freaked out by me because I chased them all over the house and was frantically pulling out furniture to get at them to break them up. First time anything like this has ever happened. It was vicious.

You are smart to do this! Not long ago I kicked my little 5 pound, 16 year old Missy several feet across the floor because I didn't see her in the dark. I felt SO, SO bad! Imagine getting kicked in the side by a giant! She was ok, but I gave her LOTS of snuggles and apologies after that and I try and be more careful (as does she) about where I step!!