Negotiating household peace with nine cats is a feline balancing act. Until I began adopting the ferals, I never had feline territorial war problems. All my cats just got along. If you’ve been following along for the last couple of years, you know that hasn’t been the case.

First, we had trouble with Lady and Rossie. Then Daphne got in on the game, and sometimes Tarzan or Ajax played along. Since Rossie’s confidence has been growing (and since we keep her in the cage at night for her own protection and my husband’s desire for uninterrupted sleeping hours), Lady has mostly backed off. Oh, she makes a half-hearted assault of Rossie’s rocking chair every now and then, but Rossie tells her to go away.

Lady chases Sapphire, and I think they’re playing. Sapphire runs, but I haven’t heard her complaining, and Sapphire doesn’t avoid Lady. Rossie and Sapphire get along well, sometimes grooming one another and sometimes sparring in a friendly manner. I’m encouraged to see Rossie sparring, playing, and generally acting like a cat with Sapphire.

We brought Sneaky into the house a little over a month ago, and we were surprised that Ajax was a problem. He regularly attacks Sneaky and has drawn blood.

We’ve found some protocols that maintain a mostly peaceful atmosphere. As has been the case for quite some time now, Rossie and Sapphire spend the night in a large dog crate — about the size of the area they usually have when they board with Dr. Val. During the day, Rossie and Sapphire must submit to petting before being allowed out of the cage to have the run of the kitchen and parlor. Usually, this is brief. Throughout the day, if Rossie in in her rocking chair, we can usually approach and pet her. She purrs for this. Sapphire will sometimes sniff fingers, or play with fingers, but she will not consent to handling.

I was concerned that after I have my knee replacement we might not be able to let Sapphire out, because she developed a habit of running under the filing cabinet and waiting for me to pull her out at night. I finally figured out to block access to the filing cabinet, and Sapphire began walking into the cage at bedtime. She does not like to be handled, so pulling her out from under the filing cabinet required gloves. Since she walks into the cage, I have a deal with her that I don’t insist on petting her at night. Maybe someday Sapphire will change her mind and allow us to handle her, but for now, this works. I want her out of the cage and able to interact with us as much as possible.

We’ve debated allowing Rossie the run of the house, but we’ve decided she’s comfortable with this arrangement. We can see her and interact with her, which we believe is important. We both think (based upon her behavior when she’s in San Antonio) that she would be right back under the dresser in the bedroom if given the choice, and that’s not good for her or us. In that scenario, she doesn’t get enough to eat or drink, and she doesn’t get to the litter box easily. This way, she has easy access to all those things.

Things have been a little different for Sneaky. When outside, she was always a confident cat. Inside, she began hiding from both Ajax and Daphne. Daphne fancies herself the Alpha Cat-in-Waiting, so she feels the need to remind Sneaky of that just like Ajax does. To give Sneaky some stress-free time, we set up a comfortable arrangement in the downstairs bathroom with litter box, food, water, and towels. She welcomes this at night and has been relaxed in the morning. Some mornings she isn’t in a hurry to come out, so she’s permitted to stay in her room. Sneaky didn’t get a lot of human attention outside, so, while she likes some attention, she doesn’t demand a significant amount. Sneaky is not restricted to the parlor or kitchen, but we’ve seen her upstairs only once. Typically, she’s more comfortable in the parlor. But she won’t go into the kitchen to eat or use the litter box, so that’s another reason why we put her in the bathroom at night — to allow her uninterrupted time to eat and take care of her personal requirements.

During the day, the other cats can come and go when we open the parlor door. Lady meows. Delta and Ajax rattle the door knob, and everyone else manages to come and go when they get out attention to let them in and out. We do have to make sure we get everyone tucked in for the night between 8-9 pm so Ruby can come downstairs and eat. She prefers to spend her days upstairs. While we have water and litter boxes upstairs, we don’t have food up there, so to make sure Ruby gets plenty of opportunity to eat, we have to have the door open for the night at a reasonable time.

It has required a feline balancing act to find what works for everyone, and we think we have a workable solution.