I need a dog like Sprocket. Sprocket rescues lost and feral cats and helps his human take care of them. You’re all familiar with our brood.  Lady and Tarzan were born in the parlor to Roxy, a kitty we fostered.  Then there were the four ferals I trapped, too young to be spayed and neutered, and by the time they were old enough (I didn’t dare wait to try to capture them when they were old enough), they were too old to be prime for adoption and two still really aren’t adoptable, even at over a year old.

The challenge we’re having now is with Lady.  She has been resentful of the intrusion of her space by the four kittens (I’m sure she wants to be the only kitten in the household, no matter how old she is).  Lady and I are a lot alike. But reality is, she’s not the only kitten.  She’s been aggressive with all the kittens, but three have worked things through with her and either stay out of Lady’s way, or, in the case of Floyd, usually give her space but occasionally call her bluff and bat back at her.

But Rossie is a different story.  Rossie has become increasingly reclusive.  Lady has been actively aggressive toward her.  Mr. L is at the end of his rope with her and, as I feared, mentioned the dreaded, “Lady may not fit in this household anymore.” He’s concerned about Lady’s aggressiveness with Rossie, and he’s also concerned about how Lady will respond to the new Kitten (she will have a name — Kitten is a placeholder) still in quarantine (but about to be introduced to the household next week).

I’ve been researching how to handle situations like this (they are very common in multi-cat households), and I fear we’ve allowed Lady to let this aggressiveness become a  habit.  And you know how difficult breaking a habit can be.

Here’s my plan (if experienced multi-cat people have suggestions, I’m willing to listen):

First, I plan to isolate Lady from the house.  We have a second dog cage (this is a wire cage large enough for a St Bernard to stay in comfortably either standing or stretched out) I’ll set up in the garage with full kitty comforts — litter box, carrier for shelter with towels inside and over the top to give her a cozy place to sleep and perch, food, water, and toys.  I’ll spend time with her a couple of times a day.  She’s not being punished so much as getting her away from the stresses of the other cats.  This serves two purposes.  She will not be interacting with the other cats, so the aggressiveness will not be expressed.  If Lady is the cause of Rossie’s increased reclusiveness, we should see her out and about more.

If Rossie becomes more active about the household with Lady removed, that will indicate Lady was a part of the problem with her socialization.  If that’s the case, Rossie’s confidence should improve with Lady out of the house.  Assuming that works, we’ll encourage Rossie and help her become more confident and involved in the house.  Once that begins to take place, we’ll consider the right time for Step 2.  (If that doesn’t take place, we need to re-evaluate whether Lady was a part of the problem or not.)

While the first step is taking place, Kitten will be introduced to the household.  I’m curious how Rossie will respond to this.  Kitten is outgoing but much smaller than Rossie.  Will Rossie make friends and bond with the kitten, or will she be afraid?  By the time we’re ready for the second step, Kitten will no longer need the cage in the house (we use the cage to protect the newcomer from any aggressive behavior during the introductory phase when we aren’t around to supervise interaction).

Second, Lady moves back into the house, but she will stay in the cage to allow the other cats, especially Kitten and Rossie to get used to her being there.  We can gauge everyone’s reaction to Lady being back in the house. I anticipate this taking at least a week. (The first step could take up to a month.)

Assuming all goes well with the second step, Lady will be allowed out of the cage for brief supervised time out.  If she misbehaves, she will return to the cage for a few days.

There are a lot of variables to this plan, but I do not want to have to rehome Lady, and I don’t want a lot of other less than positive things to happen to her.  I want her to be a happy healthy kitty, and I want our other kitties to be happy healthy kitties.