[brilyn]

My kitten, bumble, has just hit 6 months but her relationship with my 18 month old cat flo are still rather strained. Bumble tries to be dominant all the time and attacks flo at every opportunity. But on the odd occasion she Will sit with flo and clean her, promptly followed by ear biting. Flo is a shy cat anyway but there may be points now where she won't come from under the bed for hours. I really do love a bumble but do worry for long term effects on flo. Bumble is eve to be spayed soon. Should this help or would it be best to separate? Thanks

 

[marie73]

How soon is Bumble scheduled to be spayed? I might keep them separated until then. And might even move up the appointment a bit sooner.

 

[Straysmommy]

The grooming in this context is often a domination act too.

I have a similar problem, which the cats solved themselves by dividing the house: one got the bedroom, the other the living room. The rest of the house is neutral territory for both. I hear that this is a frequent thing when 2 cats don't get along.

I'd like to believe that there always is hope, but I don't know. I've heard of cats that continued improving their relationship for a long time, even years...

As to spaying helping, I had a stray that was the terror of the other colony cats and of the neighbors. We hurried to spay her, and it made her calm down enough for me to be able to start working on her. It took a few months, but now if you saw her you wouldn't believe it: she spends most of the time on my lap, purring and doesn't scare other cats anymore - too content getting her chin rubbed with the slicker brush, her fav pastime. That said, this is a stray, so there was the factor of gaining her trust and training her to come to me instead of attacking when scared, which isn't relevant in your case.

 

[brilyn]

we were taking her to be spayed at the end of January unless she comes into heat first but i Will pull this forward. She has a lovely sweet personality with us and purrs so much. I think she gets very jealous of flo if I'm paying her attention. The problem with them having different spaces is that they've both chosen my side of bed as their spot!

 

[Straysmommy]

Prince and Princess fortunately have taken to sharing the bed, with me in it or not. That's the miraculous time they don't fight...