(no subject)

[bluesilverkdg]

OK, no mom news (hopefully on Wed., I'll have some), so I'm gonna ask you about my cats and see if anyone can figure this the heck out.

I did a really awful and irresponsible thing on Thanksgiving, but I swear it wasn't my fault. No, really. It was sleep deprivation and not having my wits about me (gee, I wonder why...)

So, normally when I come in, I drive into the garage, lower the door and come through the house like a normal person. But I realized on Thanksgiving Day that the garbage cans were still out, and had been at the curb all week. So I left the garage door up, brought in the garbage cans and then entered through the front door, rather than through the garage. And then I forgot to lower the door from inside the house. Do you see where this is going?

The boys wanted to go out in the garage, as they often do, and I just opened the door that goes from the house into the garage and let them out there. About, oh, 15-20 minutes passed and I was making something to eat, when I realized "oh. crap." I went running to the door, looked out, and sure enough, garage door is wide open. Fortunately, I found both boys right at the house. In fact, Trouble had not actually left the garage, although General was lounging on the sidewalk in front of the house. I was ever-so-grateful that since neither of them has been outdoors since I've had them, that they had the good sense to stick close to home. I scooped them both up and put them safely indoors while I lowered the garage door, then went about trying to find the girls. Both of them were huddled up underneath the futon like they were scared to death. I think maybe they'd looked out and seen the big, bad world, and declared they didn't want any part of it. Smart girls.

So, when Trouble and General came in from the great outdoors, they started hissing and growling at each other, and it eventually escalated to honest-to-God fighting. Because I seriously need a little more stress in my life, y'know? I finally had to separate them, because (a) I had to be up at 4:30 the next morning to get to the hospital and couldn't sleep for their yowling and (b) I was afraid they were going to hurt or kill each other. I kept General in my bedroom, where he normally sleeps and left Trouble out in the rest of the house. The following morning, they were still sort of stalking each other, but at least they could be in the same room without ripping each other to shreds. By the time I was ready to leave, they were tolerant of each other, so I felt OK leaving them in the same environment together. When I got home Friday night, they seemed sort of "meh." Not friendly by any stretch of the imagination, but they largely ignored each other. However, every now and then, a scuffle would break out and they'd be at it again. The weird thing is, even though Trouble is now much bigger, General was still quite obviously the Alpha cat, and when they'd playfight before, Trouble would always submit and General came out the victor. He never backed down. Since their little foray outdoors, General has been hiding like a little scared kitten and Trouble is quite obviously in control now. Why the power shift? I don't get how 15 minutes outside has changed the dynamic in our household THAT much.

My question is, do any of you have a clue as to what might have gone on? I'm wondering if they got a whiff of an un-spayed girl kitty? Or just the general smells of the outdoors? If that's the case though, I frequently leave the windows open to the screens, so they get smells of Outside. They're just not actually out IN it. And have any of you had a similar instance happen where all of a sudden a less powerful kitty suddenly overthrows the sitting government and takes power? It's just weird and I don't like it. General is almost 13 years old. Trouble is a year and a half, and nearly 20 pounds of solid muscle. I'm afraid he could hurt General (which had oddly never been a concern before, because General kept him in his place.) They're both neutered, so I don't know how it could be a testosterone thing, but they're driving me mad. last night, whenever Trouble would walk through the room, General would run and hide under the bed. It breaks my heart that he is scared to be out in his own home.



I want brothers to love each other again. :-/ I miss my boys getting along and being best friends. Will they ever get back to The Way We Were, or now that Trouble has established his dominance, is he gonna be keeping that title?

Cat people, advice please!!!

Comments

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

Firstly, I don't think it's just the 15 minutes outside. I think it's the entire sequence of events, from Tuesday on. Cats don't like change, and change in the pattern of our behavior freaks them out. It took something more dramatic (your accidentally leaving the door up, etc.) for you to notice it, but I bet something was brewing already.
Don't know why the change in dominance, though. Hope things settle down for you and them, and they work out their stuff. By the way, one thing that often does something like this in our house is a change in the weather, the likes of which you don't have down there. If for some reason the house gets really cold (10-day power outage, us accidentally leaving the heat off after a particularly warm day), the cats become feral, I swear. They run around like lunatics with little or no notice of what or whom they are running over. It's hilarious unless you're trying to sleep.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Well, I know that they were very agitated with me being gone so much. Almost the entire week, I'd be out the door at 6-7 in the morning and not return until 10 or 11 at night. One day (Wed, I think it was), I actually let the food bowl go completely dry. I also had to switch cat litter temporarily, because I'd run out of their usual kind and didn't think to get them more for a few days. (They normally use the pine stuff, and they had to go back to the old clay kind...not sure what they thought of that, but it was a switch for about 2-3 days.) And I'm sure they could probably sense a change in me. I was crying a lot, very stressed, very tense and while I tried to pay them as much attention as possible when I was home, that wasn't much.

They acted like this one time before, when I took in a neighbor's kitty who was in heat (I didn't know that at the time, and thought I'd just found a lost kitty.) The boys growled and fought, but when I got girl kitty out of the basement and returned her to her owner, they settled down in a few hours. This has been going on since Thursday. The ironic thing is, I essentially got Trouble "for" General. When Sabrina died last year, he was literally mourning himself to death. He moped around and wouldn't eat or drink, I guess because he missed his buddy so much. I was so happy when the boys bonded as they did, and their relationship reminded me of the one that General had with Sabrina. (The two of them had a "power struggle" as well, even though she was a female, she was quite dominant, and they had sort of a battle for power throughout her whole life, but it never became vicious.)

I really hope they work it out, too. It's killing me to see General cringing and hiding in his own home. He shouldn't have to be afraid to come out from under the coffee table. :-/ Oh and while days-long power outages aren't common here, we had a crazy one when the big cats were young. It was out for six days and got down to 38 degrees in the house, due to an 18 inch snow. Even then, I don't remember them acting this crazy though.

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

Your cats are definitely picking up on your emotional state and your stress. One thing you could do is give them a "timeout." Just separate the boys and don't reintroduce them until you are in the room and a bit calmer than you are now. Easier said than done, right? I'm sorry this is happening to you all at once.

[nothinganything.livejournal.com]

I'm totally updated on the mom thing now, by the way.

[theldara.livejournal.com]

This is normal, don't sweat it. I've seen it dozens of times, esp when I lived in the city, worked 12 hour shifts, and other people let my cats out occasionally. They'll calm down in a week or two.

Trim their claws again and scrub them both down with a damp towel (get any funky smells off), then let them figure it out. Don't put them in the garage any for the next few weeks. Since they worked so well previously, they should get the picture before too long.

[solfox.livejournal.com]

Any number of things could cause the issue, and you've described a lot of stressors on the cats. Try to get things as close to "normal" as you're able, and buy some Feliway diffusers. Hopefully the combo will soothe ruffled hackles and get things back to the way they were.

[samuraigrrrl.livejournal.com]

We've had a power shift here, but it seems to have happened more slowly that what you report. Kwan Yin has gotten much larger and Vinnie has become rather feeble (he is 16) and it seems now that she does as she pleases and he stays out of her way a bit more than before. Your boys seems to be pretty dramatic though. :( Sorry I don't have any helpful advice. I hope that they calm down soon.

[annietopia.livejournal.com]

I have no clue about the boys. That all seems odd. I cannot imagine that such a short bit of time outside with no real drama occuring could have changed the house dynamics that much! Then again who the heck knows. This overthrow might have been in the works for a long time, and Trouble just decided to go revoluntionary that day. I hope things work out soon, though.

*thinking about your mom*

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

I agree with plantmom that it's the whole thing. I know my kitties are really screwed up when we are gone for a few days. Sassy just makes the whole house her litter box.

[thegrungediva.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the change in routine is part of it, but it's also possible that one of them got "into" something. If General was lounging on the sidewalk, he very well may have smelled something and rolled in it, as cats are wont to do. Just because you don't smell it doesn't mean Trouble doesn't. So, he could have some other cats' scents on him, and Trouble doesn't like that. If it's still going on for more than 24 hours, you may try bathing both of them (separately) ... though this may make them more irritable, especially if they hate baths as much as most cats do. (Some of my cats have not minded so much, and some have downright enjoyed baths, go figure.) I have had outdoor/indoor cats, and have seen this happen on more than one occasion. In my experience, either the scent goes away in a day or two, or the other cat gets used to it and/or figures out "ok, this is my buddy he just smells different". I hope G&T are back to being best of buds soon. God bless!