Expert: Ali - 6/11/2010

Question
Our family adopted a "Bootsy" almost a year ago. He has a clumsy, loving, cuddly nature and has always been affectionate and warm. He's always at the window crying and purring when other cats were around so after doing some research, we decided he needed a friend. As it turns out, I rescued  an abandoned kitten "Engie"who was stuck in the engine of a car. I brought her home and kept them separate until our resident cat "Bootsy" stopped hissing.  The dilema is this; I now have one fixed older male who weights about 12 lbs and one baby kitten (non fixed) who probably weighs 2+lbs. Bootsy hasn't been the same since we brought her home. He's non affectionate and territorial. I know this is normal, but on several occasions, they will start off chasing one another, playing nice, then Bootsy gets too rough and makes her cry. I've found him on top of her bitting hard enough to make her cry, but not enough to make her bleed or anything like that.  Although he usually ignores her and has been incredibly tolerant, I'm worried that he might hurt her when we're not around. Also, "Engie" is usually the one that gets things going because she wants to play. Bootsy has become much less engaging and practically inactive when I try to play with him. Occasionally, he'll hiss at her if she invades his space. Can this behavior be corrected? What are the warning signs that it's a dangerous situation? I want safety and happiness for both cats and ideally, we want them both here. What can/should we do?  Thank you!

Answer
Yana,

I'm not entirely sure how long you've kept Engie isolated from Bootsy, but I normally recommend that pet parents isolate new arrivals for a minimum of 2-3 weeks particularly when the new arrival is a very young kitten and the resident cat(s) are older. That being said I've looked at what you're describing and based on my experience what it looks like is that Bootsy's simply teaching Engie to follow the rules in "his" home. I'd keep a close eye on it, but kittens aren't known for being stoic when they're pinned down by their scruff to be dominated by an older cat so keep in mind that loud squeals of protest from Engie don't necessarily indicate excessive roughness on the part of Bootsy. Obviously if you happen to notice any wounds where the skin is broken (you can simply brush the fur backwards with your finger to get a look at the skin underneath, the longer the kitten's fur the more persistance you'll need) then it's time to separate the two "siblings" until things settle down somewhat. Basically I'd say allow Bootsy to enforce the house rules ~ after all in terms of feline hierarchy in your home he is the boss and interfering with kitty social structure often leads to more serious behavioural issues in one or both cats over time. If you're interested in learning more about a variety of topics including normal developmental stages of kittens, providing your feline companions with the best possible species appropriate nutrition, ensuring that you don't accidentally harm your cats by providing too many vaccines administered too frequently, how to incorporate holistic health care into a routine part of regular medical care or any one of a whole host of other kitty related issues please don't hesitate to contact me again, I'll be more than happy to help you out to the best of my ability.