Expert: Dear Tabbi - 9/4/2008

Question
This is weird! Occassionally there is a stray cat that roams into my yard. When this happens, my oldest kitty Tori(4 yrs old) goes to the window, hisses, pants and makes this God-awful howling/mewling sound. She has even gone so far as to try to claw through the screen to get to this other cat. But here's the real problem: once the other cat moves away - Tori FEROCIOUSLY attacks my other kitty Mya (3 1/2 yrs old), hissing at her, biting at her and fighting at her. They NEVER fight other than when this other cat shows up and this is NOT playing - she is out to seriously hurt Mya! And if I try to intervene she claws at me in order to get to Mya. This happens EVERY TIME this other cat shows up outside. Even after I diffuse the situation, Tori will still slink around in a crouched position waiting for Mya - usually for at least for a couple of hours. Then they are fine - except Mya is scared to death! It's getting to the point where I 've been keeping my windows closed with the blinds down so Tori can't see the stray. But it's hot and I don't like living like a hermit!

I'm seriously afraid that Tori is going to hurt Mya. Why does she attack Mya when this other cat leaves? And my poor Mya, she's now such a fraidy cat - jumps and hides at the slightest noise! Is there anything I can do to diffuse the situation? Tonight I opened a can of wet food to distract her and it worked - they ate side by side without any trouble. But I'm worried! Plus I don't want her to assocciate her bad behavior with a reward of tasty food!Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

BTW they are both females, we got Tori in January and Mya that same August and they were both spayed before they were a year old. They normally get along fine - groom each other, sit in the window together, etc.

Thanks so much!

Grace  

Answer
Grace,

Actually that is a very common behavior called Redirected Aggression. That happens when a cat sees a strange cat outside and  becomes territorial, but can't get to the strange cat to defend his territory. The cat then turns on the closest animal member of the family and fights with them as if they were the other cat. They have been known to attack other family cats, even though they may have lived and gotten along together (as yours is doing), the family dog, and even their owners (though that is rare). They are not attacking each other in their minds...they are attacking the strange cat. It is also common that they can begin 'spraying' and defecating outside the litterbox due to the stress of the cat outside.

First thing you need to do is block the window past the cat's eye level of the window that they can see another cat out of (out of sight, out of mind). If it is allowed to go on the cats may develop a permanent personality change.

If you can, keep the cats away from each other for awhile unless you are feeding them yummy cat treats TOGETHER. That is so they will associate something pleasant (cat treats) with each other and not unpleasant (the strange cat).

There is a very popular cat calming spray and plug-in you can use called Feliway (or Comfort Zone with Feliway). It is available at pet stores, vet's offices (they use it too), or on-line. It copies relaxing pheromones that cats produce from rubbing their faces on things.

There is also a calming product that you can add to the cat's food or water that reduces anxiety called Bach's Rescue Remedy. It is available on-line and in health food stores (people use it too). Here is a link about it:
(copy and paste, or type the whole link into your address bar)
http://www.bachflower.com/Pets.htm

If the cats are still being very stressed the vet can put them on "kitty Prozac" for a short term (usually 2 weeks) until they calm down. You may want to speak to the vet about it.

I am including links to 2 good articles on Redirected Aggression that may be helpful to you:

http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/aggression3.html

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=redirectedagr...

I hope this answered your question.

Tabbi