Feisty kitten who treated hooman sister like prey finally calms down thanks to adoption of older calm cat who showed his sibling how to play and what is prey, cat mom says: ‘Despite the play we were giving him, he was very bored and needed a cat friend!’

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    "He has completely stopped stalking and pouncing my daughter."
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    I am not new to cats. I've had many, many cats in my life and have worked through many difficult cat issues. But I'm struggling with this one. The last two of my previous group
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    of 4 cats died when my daughter was 1- 2 years old. They were great with her and she was great with them. I needed some time, and we were without any cats for about 18 months.
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    Late last summer my friend, who is a prolific rescuer of animals and works closely with a local rescue organization, found a stray kitten (4-6 months old.) She got him into a foster and shortly after reached out to me to see if I wanted
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    to adopt him— knowing I'm a cat person and had been without for a while. We were actively looking at that point, and I'd been trying to find litter mates or a bonded pair, but kept missing out.
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    Cheezburger Image 10623428608
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    She said this kitten is the sweetest, so my daughter and I met him. He was the sweetest, so we decided to adopt him. It quickly became obvious that he must have been
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    separated from his littermates and mom way too early. He was very poorly socialized and the feistiest kitten I've ever met. I've been working with him for months. I tried hard to get
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    another young cat or two to bring into our house, so they could hopefully grow up together and help socialize each other. But again, kept missing out on kittens that seemed like a good fit.
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    Cheezburger Image 10623428352
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    He is now about a year old. He has calmed down with me a little bit (not as much as I'd like, but we will often interact with me appropriately now.)
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    He is getting worse with my daughter. He is stalking her around the house and pouncing her constantly. She recognizes his posturing when she sees it and has started just crying other "he's gonna pounce me!!" She is
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    calm and gentle with him. She does not chase him. She does run around and move quickly in general, because she's 4- and that's some of the behavior that is clearly triggering for him to pounce her. But he will even
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    doing it when she's sitting and calmly reading books. I've tried re-directing and clicker training. He gets lots and lots of play time of various kinds. I have puzzle feeders and prey feeders. He has
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    a lot of (indoor) room to roam, multiple safe spaces, multi scratching surfaces (which he uses) and climbing opportunities. It is not working. I don't want my daughter to be afraid of cats because of this cat, and I'm also losing
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    my patience with working with him.
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    After someone commented that he was treating her like another cat, I realized I had literally never had a solo cat before. (Which I knew, because I'd been trying to get a bonded pair to begin with. But it
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    18 143
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    made me realize that despite knowing cats well, I don't know solo/unbonded cats.) I renewed my attempt to get a second cat and we managed to get one from our local shelter just a few days later. He's a bit
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    older than I'd oringly been looking for, but I think it's perfect. New cat is probably 2-3 years old (resident cat just turned 1.) After a reasonably slow introduction, they are now buddies!
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    New cat (orange tabby) will play and wrestle with the resident cat (grey cat), and I think is also teaching some of the manners he missed out on learning very early in his life.
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    Resident cat still has some undesirable behaviors, but it is SO much more manageable. He has completely stopped stalking and pouncing my daughter.
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    ISH GAM
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    Despite all the play we were giving him, he was very bored and needed a cat friend!

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