Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Another Cat Socialization Update

Gawd, it's one step forward, two steps back with these animals. I've gotten to the point where I'm leaving Mickey out pretty much all day when I'm home and awake, and while Vir still has periods of growliness, they're able to be in the same room for longer and longer periods with no ill effects whatsoever. I think feeding Vir treats while Mickey's around was very helpful, if not exactly good for Vir's diet.

On the other hand, now Happiness is being all pissy and dangerous. Yesterday, she got into a hissing, tail-puffing confrontation with Vir, and then last night she and Mickey got into a full-fledged claws-out slap fight. Fortunately, neither of them was injured, but she got me pretty damned good when I leaped in to intervene. And then Mickey clawed me up a bit more in a panic to get down after I picked him up to put him back in his room for a cooling-down period. (Note: Conventional wisdom is that you should never get into the middle of a catfight. Conventional wisdom is sensible on this topic, and you should listen to it. I don't listen to it, but that's because where cats are concerned I'm kind of an idiot.)

And then today, apparently Mickey was sitting in a spot on the windowsill that Happiness wanted, so she jumped up there and knocked him off. The poor little thing was hanging by his front paws with his back feet scrabbling desperately against the wall. I had to go over and catch him. It was less cute than it sounds. Sigh. And here I used to wish Happiness would be more assertive with the other cats. I take it back!

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