Otis meets his match

[L. Wayne]

Otis, my adopted flame point Siamese has assumed the dominant male role among my menagerie. Last week I adopted an older male (probably about 15 years old) to add some elderly grace to my pride. Otis has been picking a fight with Max since I have brough him into the house. Yesterday, while I was in the shower, I heard the most awful cat fight going on in my house.(It seems as though these types of events always happen when I am not in a position to do anything about it). I assumed it was Otis fighting with Max. I had a notion to get out of the shower and calm them down. But, on second thought, I let them have at it because I know that if they do not arrange the "pecking order" by themselves, that no amount of separating will stop Otis' aggressiveness.

When I finally got out of the shower and went into the back bedroom, I found a lot of cat fur on the floor, but little of it was Max's, and Max was laying on the work table, while Otis was in the front room. Then later I saw Otis tiptoeing by Max and carefully watching him as he walked by. I am assuming that Max did a "number on him". I thought that due to Max's age that he would not fight, but was wrong in that assumption. Max is old enough to not do anything except sleep and eat and from the appearance of his coat, he looks like an old "war horse". Max mostly ignores all of the others because he is the oldest of the pride, but also he is the most confident. Both males have been neutered, and are both relatively large cats. In a way I am glad that Max put Otis in his place because of Otis' aggressiveness even towards some of the females, including Tiger and Mopsy.
I will see how Otis reacts to the others, now that he has been "de-throned"

...........wayne

[PayItForward]

It is interesting how cats interact with each other. It seems the more posts I read, that cats internal ordering alters from time to time, not static like I first thought.

I can't figure out who is dominate in my herd but that is probably because we keep adding MORE cats. Hopefully things will sort out over the next few months.

[jenluckenbach]

Good for Max. He probably was thinking "who does this punk kid (otis) think he is messing with me". "I've been around the block a time or two, don't think that just because I am old that you can show less respect"

[L. Wayne]

Jen. I like your post, LOL. Respect appears to be what it is all about with dominant males (just like lions). I remember how Otis would attack any cat that did not show him his due respect, that is until Max entered the scene. Max is old enough and big (heavy) enough so as not to get up and move, unless he sees a definite need to do so and then very slowly. I noticed that Max would automatically draw the respect of practically all of my furkids the time I first brought him in. I think this was part of Otis' problem with him in that he would not move whenever Otis came by. I agree with you, Jen, because of Otis' aggresiveness, he needed to be placed back an notch or two.

.............wayne