Cat Fight

http://able2know.org/topic/111313-1

I need the cats to eat the rats!

Why not coach the bats to coax the cats into consuming the rats who'd wear silly hats?

There was an old lady that swallowed a dog;
What a hog, to swallow a dog;
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.....

Does this old lady need some Pepto Bismol by now? What a glutton!

No she dead...the end of the story/poem/song - is I know an old lady who swallowed a horse...she's dead of course.

You can't stop it. Maybe it will lessen or go away on its own, but the cats have to work it out.

We have a "new" puppy - this puppy has been with us for months and the cats still hiss and spit and crap (not literally) whenever the dog goes near them. On a rare occassion, they will just sniff at each other before it breaks into some angry noise again.

A friend of mine had an issue with her cat and new dog too - she did say one day it just stopped.

I would like to take a look at their secret peace treaty the cat and dog signed just to make sure your friend isn't the Poland in their peace accord equation.

I was reading up on all this and I took one suggestion to heart. Feed Screamy in front of Fatty, having Fatty in a kitty carrier, thus unable to eat, thus reversing the dominance dynamic.

That sounds cruel - or at least unfair to the original animal. He had his proper order in the house and humiliating him can't be right.

All I know is about dogs though, if I were you I would post a link in the cat thread - someone there should be able to help you.

I wouldn't do this either - when I read it I thought it was a joke. The original cat is supposed to be the dominating one and the other usually finds his place. This is true of our puppy - but he still needs to learn it.

Cats are always the boss.

OK, but I only do this for a few minutes while Screamy eats...does that still make it bad? Fatty is pretty harsh on Screamy, as things stand now it get pretty noisy.

I'm not saying I do not feed Fatty...I feed her once a day because she needs to lose weight, I feed Screamy twice a day and it's the second feeding where I put Fatty in the carrier to watch.

What's wrong with modulating cat dynamics? After all cats have been domesticated for thousands of years and man has been moderating their behaviour for thousands of years and cats have been very successful.

Go ahead and try - I think it would escaluate things those and not help - cats don't like to be screwed with.

just a thought...

when you push a cat to the point that it decides to demonstrate it's displeasure, the next play on the cat's part is usually VERY unpleasant for it's human counterpart.

(please let us know what happens, eh?)

Maybe Fatty will run up my credit card and I'll be shocked to find a big tabby!

Nah, I suspect poop will be left in the worst areas, certain items will be clawed, attacks on humans - things knocked over and broke...I could go on and on what cats like to do when unhappy.

Agree with Linkat that treating any animal like this borders on cruelty. If you must feed the one more than the other, put them in separate rooms, then wait until the bowls are all washed and there's no smell in the air. Why keep an animal if you're going to make it miserable?!

It's quite a stretch to consider that Fatty is miserable especially considering the alternative for older mature cats is prolly the glue factory...I see no cruelty in the idea behind having Fatty watch Screamy eat for Screamy's second portion so as to alter the dominance dynamic so Fatty stops attacking Screamy.

I have no intention whatsoever to let cats run amok and uncontrolled in my home, they never have and they never will. They have rules they must live by, those rules are nonnegotiable and all the cats I've ever owned had to live by them.

Again cats have been domesticated for thousands of years and man has been moderating their behavior for thousands of years and cats have been very successful. Using your viewpoint man has been cruel to cats for thousands of years in terms of moderating their behavior so as to reduce cat fights.

Domesticated cats are not wild animals.