Peace making ideas?

[catnapper]

The lines of peace between Abby and Pouncer are breaking. At this point, I really think HE wants to be friendly to her, but SHE doesn't trust him one iota. Every time he comes nears her - regardless of his intensions - she starts hissing, growling, swatting.

The other day she was resting on the shelf above the radiator, and Pouncer wanted to join her. PURELY sweet and loving on his part. She did NOT think so. Of course a fight broke out I think at this point, when SHE starts hissing and swatting, HE starts getting defensive back at her (hey, I would too after a few well-place bops on the nose with nails out!). Off they go with her fleeing and him chasing her. Then she gets cornered and starts screaming.

Last night was the worst... maybe since it was 2:00 in the morning. Maybe meowmie wanted sleep... but last night's fight scared me. They woke me up growling and hissing under the bed. I called under the bed my normal "POUNCE-CER!" which normally he looks at me and walks away. He did not do that this time; he kept cornering her. I couldn't get under the bed, and couldnt get the bed away from the wall to get to her. She was NOT running to the safety of meowmie like she normally does. Next thing you know, she started SCREAMING, they were a brown and black striped ball rolling around under the bed. At that point hubby intervened and litterally yanked the bed off its framed and got Abby out. Pouncer took off. Abby was bleeding - she tore off a nail attacking him. She was FREAKED, and growled at ME!!! I cleaned her up as best I could (it WAS 2:00 in the morning after all) and hunted down Pouncer to see if he was ok. The dude was just as normal as can be He looked at me like I was nuts for fussing over him. I can't see one little scratch on him.

Things are getting progressively worse between them. What can I do? At this point, I think the issue lies with ABBY, not Pouncer. How can I get her to relax and learn to trust him? She starts growling and hissing whenever eh comes NEAR her. And I'd be willing ot bet 99% of the time he has no intention of doing anything to her. I bet half the time he'd be willing to CUDDLE with her, but she does not think so.

[rosethecopycat]

Can you get the Feliway diffuser?
It only works in the area of one room, so if they are fighting in several rooms, I'd recommend getting several.
To start, I'd quickly get one 'expensive' one from Petsmart, but you can get them much cheaper on:http://www.petsuppliesdelivered.com/...search=feliway

Can you separate these two with a screen door, so she can see him, and he can get close, yet not get to her?

You can also try putting a drop of vanilla at the base of thier tails. This confuses their scents.

I really think that a slow re-integration of the two would be the best approach, it's a lot of trouble and work, but you can't have Abby injuring herself and getting all wound up over him.

I hope this helps.

[kimlovescats]

Kim, I have a couple of screamers like Abby too! Roxie is probably my worst one, but foster Trinity is that way too. I swear if any cat even looks at them in the wrong way, you'd think they were dying!!! Redfurd seems to be like your Pouncer. He is such a big sweet goofball .. that he
thinks everyone should want to play and be chased by him. To his surprise,
it ain't always so!!! I spend more time telling him to just find another playmate, but he wants them to like him sooooooooooo bad.

I wish I had the answer .. all I know is try to keep them as separated as possible, and keep the claws trimmed!

[catnapper]

Duh! I forgot all about Feliway (perhaps because its currently out of my budget range ) I will try to keep them separated. I was even thinking of giving Abby some sort of kitty Prozac (I have some that was intended for Pouncer, but he didn't need it by the time I got it) Maybe a week of kitty prozac would be sufficient to show her he's not all bad. I don't know.... they used to cuddle and love each other Even Flutter knows Pouncer's just a sweetheart in hissy boy clothing.

[smokey the elder]

I adopted a cat to a person who said she'd heard of putting a tiny amount of vanilla extract on each cat to disguise the scent. Since that's alcohol-based I'm not sure how safe it is, but doing something to disguise the scents may be helpful. Other than that, maybe starting from scratch with the re-introductions (separate rooms, exchanging bedding, the whole nine yards.)

Good luck!

[barncat]

Sometimes a real fight..like you had a two a.m.... establishes the order and things settle down. It sounds as if he did not hurt her...that her claw was hurt on him...

If this episode doesn't end the conflict, can you make a yowl like a very angry cat? When mine get out of hand (Belladonna will tease the others until they chase her and then scream that she is getting killed) a "war-whoop" from me ends it.

[orangemm]

That has some truth; we had 2 male cats, Buzzy & Mikey. Mikey was such a LOVER, so calm, so easy-going. I don't think I EVER heard Mikey hiss or growl (not even when we bathed him!).

Buzzy was fine with all of our cats, but once in a great while he'd get into a snit and start harassing Mikey. Growling, hissing, howling like a banshee, then swatting and finally chasing. We'd yell, squirt water at him, scare him. Nothing worked.

One time he started in and began yowling. I was home alone with them so I decided to reply in kind. Gave it my best "whaaaaaaaooooh". Stopped him in his tracks! Guess he thought someone was after HIM.

Didn't work every time, but it gave him something to think about!

[catmandu]

I m sorry to hear that your Cats are having trouble getting along.
And I have a bit of a problem like that with the Found Cats where Precious and Diane like to tease and chase the Princess.
And shesblind so sometimes she walks into them.
But its not a case of constant fighting.
I hope that you can get Abby and Pouncer to be Friends!