Can one cat resent another?

[raggiedoll]

Well i can say for SURE yes!!!
When i was a kid we had family cat and back in the 80's neutering wasn't really an issue, or at least wasnt warned about. And our little bella all of one years of age was flaunting herself off the small brick wall in front of the garage and as typical she got knocked up lol

We had three kittens born and kept one, one of them went off to canada and last one went just 4 doors away, now the one we kept and the last one were always very close and wuld meet up in the gardens or they would go call for each other at our house our wndow etc, once the kitten had settled into his new home he had obviously developed a new scent and from that moment our mummy cat bella hated her son we kept all she could see was a new unknown cat, and hissed and growled all the time.

[Blue Rabbit]

Thanks for your reply Sue, I think you've hit the nail on the head regarding Archie becoming their 'prey'. I think Ben can still sometimes see him as such (for example when he tried to trap Archie up the tree yesterday), but now they're back to being supervised almost 24/7, Ben knows he can't get away with it any more. It's lovely to see Archie and Jerry's relationship now though, Jerry is quite antisocial and likes his own space, but he's curled up to snuggle with Archie quite a few times and grooms him regularly 

The housemate definitely didn't understand cat dynamics and still to this day doesn't. He was still trying to wind them up before bedtime which meant they kept us up all night as there is nowhere for them to sleep other than our room. He's only just started to leave them alone when we go to bed, so they're back into sleeping through most of the night now.

Humph, unfortunately, won't be coming to live with me and OH until September BUT these three are going to stay with Humph's breeder from May-Sept whilst we stay with my mom. She has said that we can have the cats at hers but they will live outside, an absolute no no for my three. The house has a huge main road behind it and none of these are at all smart enough to go out roaming, and they would most certainly think we'd abandoned them. So they'll be going into fostering whilst we get a routine with the new arrival sorted and then move into our own place come September. I'm hoping that because they'll be in a foster home with someone who actually knows what they're doing, and it's not far from my mom's so we'll be in seeing them frequently throughout the week, there won't be even half as much damaged caused as there was over Christmas.

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

It's a really difficult one to know for sure, but I would say the dynamic between them definitely changed whilst you were away, and probably because all of them were unsettled at your absence.  Add to that the fact Archie was gretting stressed over the food situation, just as he'd begun to feel more comfortable.  That would have made him more vulnerable to the attentions of the other two, which in turn would have increased his anxiety levels.  Quite possibly the other two resented the fact your housesitter favoured Archie, and in a way, he became their "prey" in a poorly supervised situation, where their normal caregivers were absent.

Am sure that your housemate didnt understand the complexities of cat relationships, so didnt realise the impact his deviation from the "routine" would induce.
   
Am very glad you managed to turn things back round again - no mean feat in the circumstances.   

Has Humph joined the fold yet?  If not, when he does, he may buddy up with Archie, and take some of the pressure off. 

[Blue Rabbit]

This is something I've been pondering on for a while now. Over Christmas, myself and OH had to go and stay with my family for three weeks due to family circumstances. As we live in Northern Ireland and my family are in England, we had to leave our boys with one of our housemates, who we gave a strict set of instructions to.

We found out after about two weeks of being in England that he had completely disregarded their feeding specifications of being fed in separate rooms (Archie can't be with Ben and Jerry as it sends his stress levels through the roof, and B&J must be monitored as Jerry sometimes tries to steal Ben's food). Instead, Archie was fed out in the hallway and B&J were fed in the living room, and the door between the two was left wide open, causing Archie's eating to speed up dramatically just as we had got it reduced to a relatively normal speed.

This housemate also favours Archie very obviously, and has done from the beginning. If Ben or Jerry is getting cuddles from him and Archie comes for a cuddle, he will stop cuddling the other boy and start cuddling Archie.

When we got back after Christmas, all hell had broken loose. B&J were bullying Archie to the point where they were attacking him as he walked past them, and they often pinned him into corners where he would hiss his head off and wet himself.

We were able to rectify all of this within a few weeks and now things are completely back to normal, all three will cuddle and snuggle up together like the pals they are, and their rough play is just that, play.



My theory is is that the housemate did something to change the dynamic between them. Jerry is very much top cat, with Ben in the middle and Archie at the bottom, and all three were quite happy with this until we went away. I know cats get stressed when their owners are away but I have never seen it as bad as these three.

What are your thoughts, do you think the housemate could've done something to them, or changed the dynamic between the three? Fire away with your theories!