Pay it forward, You mentioned about your cats batting each other. Some years ago, I had a litter of 3 cats who did not like each other. They used to bat at one another frequently, and they hit hard, because it was possible to hear the "thump" over and over again, as two of them would go at each other. Some of these bat-sessions would last for 10 minutes. I believe that this behavior is not particularly friendly, at least not from what I have seen of it. I have never seen this behavior since then.

.......wayne