Warfare In South County

[Edwina's Secretary]

A cat lives across the street...Margaret is her name. She goes out at night and we usually see her looking in our sliding glass door. Then she goes around the corner and helps herself to the catnip on the salad bar.

Eddie gets VERY upset. He howls, yells and carries on. Edwina just looks at him as if he is crazy.

Last night he got the screen door open. Before I could react he AND Edwina were out the door and through the fence to chase Margaret.

Then an odd thing happened. They attacked each other. Twice. (There was another PT witness...I was on the phone with her...)

Edwina came back to the house. Eddie gave chase to Margaret. My husband came home right then...called Eddie and got him back in the house.

Ever since Edwina has been HORRID. I have a nasty gash on my palm from her back claws to prove it.

She hisses and growls at Eddie. And Eddie (who can be rather thick) insists on following her around and crying. An apology perhaps?

I was up most the night with the two of them. They sit in the same room. She growling and hissing...he crying.

They seem to be getting calmer. I gave them both some catnip to eat.

Any other thoughts? We are going home for the weekend and I hate the thought of leaving them (with a sitter of course) when they are like this.

[catmandu]

Wow!
You shouldnt be like that HH Lady Edwina Rose
We have Cats coming around here all the time.
Dad says they are hungry lost Cats.
Eddies your Pal and you should be nice to him.
Dear I live with 13 Companions and I get along!
They make great Pile Buddies when its cold.
Juke Joint Joseph.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Here's Edwina glaring at Eddie....



At least she isn't hissing.... Sigh.....

[jennielynn1970]

Here's Edwina glaring at Eddie....



At least she isn't hissing.... Sigh.....

At least her ears are not back and flattened or airplaned out.

She looks very pretty, even ticked off.

Come on, Edwina, give Eddie a break. He's trying to apologize and wants to be friends.

[elizabethann]

Edwina is probably pi$$ed off that Margaret came onto her property and tried to entice Eddie. And she's probably mad at Eddie because he paid attention to Margaret. Edwina is just jealous and is putting Eddie in his place.

I think in a few days, all will be back to normal. As long as Margaret stays away.

[smokey the elder]

Edwina, that's not very ladylike!

[Randi]

Eddie, you’re such a brave boy defending your territory and your darling, Edwina.

Edwina, I can see how shocked you are, it is just not acceptable that another cat is entering YOUR garden and even helps herself to your catnip, but you should appreciate that Eddie is trying to help chase Margaret out.

Now, I hope you both have calmed down and can relax together again.

[Fuzzybuns]

I would turn off all noise makers...TVs, radios and such, and then sit in the middle of floor as quiet as possible with a brush or comb and coo at them. No sudden moves and maybe when they come to you they'll realize they're still on the same team.
Just a quiet moment with you and both of them because you're still their center ground.

[AbbyMom]

This is what happened between my Abby and Becky. A cat outside really really upset Becky and she turned on Abby. And Becky was really nasty tempered.

The Cats International site talks about this type of redirected aggression:

For example, Cat A may be sitting in a window as an outside cat walks by. Cat B sees the outside cat and rushes toward the window to attack it. Unfortunately, Cat A happens to be in the way and sees Cat B aggressively charging toward it. Cat A puffs up and hisses. Cat B redirects its attention to Cat A and puffs up and hisses. Then the cats attack each other. Each acts as if the other started the fight.

Although this is not exactly what Eddie and Edwina did, I'm sure it's a similar problem. Read here for their suggestions:

http://www.catsinternational.org/art...ther_cats.html

As they suggest: separate them and then reintroduce them. This worked for Becky and Abby. Abby was still nervous, but the hissing growling and glaring stopped.

Then, of course, there's Feliway. Which does help.

Good luck to you all.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Sounds like it's time for Margaret's "parents" to get a talking to!

I know exactly how this goes because we used to have the same problem with "the nasty orange cat from the condos." Tubby and Peanut used to go at it severely - all at 2:00 in the morning! One time I got so fed up I stormed up to the condo and told the people if they didn't control their cat, I would! I finally had to tape newspapers to the windows so they couldn't see what was going on outside. I think the nasty orange cat was a stray that the people in the condos ended up adopting, because eventually they moved and the nasty orange cat disappeared - whew!

Hope your hand heals quickly and Edwina continues to settle down.

[Barbara]

I think Edwina was really stressed out after the event and needed some time to come back. Doesn't sound unfamiliar to me......

[rkidsrcats]

We get this reaction too with the Tribe...the night managers (Percy and Norbert) patrol the windows after lights out and if the Orange Tabby from 4 doors down or Phyllis and Neo from next door come by for a visit, they do the "meezer howl" and the "get the heck away from our house" growl. Both sounds can get us flying out of bed in 3 seconds!
Well, everybody gets big bushy tail and go into Orange Alert status - then Pippin ( who can't see who he's running into) runs into someone and a spat ensues.
I usually grab the Feliway and sprtiz around everyone so that we all go back into our happy Zen places and we can get back to bed. But it just takes one cat howling to get everyone on edge.
Hope Eddie can get back in Edwina's good graces...

[gini]

Oh Sara, sorry to laugh, but all I could think of is that after all of the time that Edwina ignored Eddie - now she is possessive.

I think she hates Margaret's guts........and is upset she is in HER yard and FLIRTING with Eddie.

And poor Eddie is now trying so hard to get back in her good graces.

Edwina really does look angry in her pictures. Look how dark her eyes are!

[Pam]

Dear Eddie, That's a woman for you. You just can't figure them out so don't even try. Here you are protecting the catnip and she goes and has a hissy (literally) fit. We are glad that things have settled down for the most part and hope that peace will reign. Maybe Edwina just wanted to share a sprig of catnip with Margaret, and you were the odd man out. Sorry, Eddie, we have no experience with women and at times like this we are glad.

Purringly yours,
Trevor and Andy