Young Resident Cat scared of New Older Cat

by Katie

We adopted Abby last summer from a family member. The household that she was in also had a dog which would get excited and play with Abby. We got her when he went too far and had drawn blood. She came to us very scared but soon she had adjusted nicely to her new home. We have always had at least two cats so we had been keeping an eye out for a friend for Abby.

That winter our vet told us about Mabel. An outside 3 year old cat that a family was feeding but could not take in. We immediately decided that Mabel would be great and went and picked her up. Mabel was very afraid at first. She did not come out of the basement for at least three weeks. However as she became braver and started to adjust to her new indoor home Abby started to shrink back. At first we were not sure who was scared of who and hoped that they would adjust but it was soon clear that the confrontations were not friendly. Mable is aggressive and Abby does not fight back at all, she just runs and hides, and the running makes Mable chase her more. We also think that Abby sometimes eats Mables food. Mable has almost overtaken the house. Abby will only go into two rooms of the house. The fights have become bad, always involving hissing and hair tufts flying. On a recent weekend trip to visit family we came back to a bathroom (one of Abby's rooms) full of hair and the remains of a fight.

Mabel has become a very loving cat to us always wanting affection. We have grown very close to our two girls and can not stand the idea of getting rid of either of them but we do not want Abby to continue to feel so scared in her own home.

Please help! :)

RESPONSE:

As an outdoor only cat, Mabel learned to be agressive to other cats to protect herself when she was young. Moving indoors and living with another cat has been very stressful for her. It may not be possible to get her to leave Abby alone but there are a few things you can try.
Provide more interactive play time. This will help Mabel burn off excess energy caused by anxiety and help build Abby's self-confidence. When Mabel starts after Abby, grab a toy and use it to distract her from going after Abby.
Give them treats when they are in the same room and behaving. This will help them to associate good things with each other.
Try Bach Flower essences or Spirit Essences to help calm the emotions of both the cats. You can read about them by following the links on the left of our website. Mabel needs something to calm her need to bully Abby and Abby needs something to help her be less submissive. You can also try St.John's Wort (100mg twice daily for a week) to help calm Mabel.
When you are not home with them, keep them seperated from each other so they will not injure each other.
Feed them in seperate areas and be sure to have multiple litter boxes so they don't have to share and Abby does not have to try to get by Mabel to get to a litter box.
It is doubtful these two will ever be friends but perhaps some of these ideas will help. Give them a try and see if things get better over the next several weeks. Don't give up too soon and be consistant.

Donna, House Full Cats Mom