Part 1 here is the background on my feline crew, and how they all mesh together. For some follow up photos giving an example of the relationship with Asia and Dexter, click here.
So life continues to get increasingly amusing, entertaining, and energetic around here with Asia growing, Bayou feeling better slowly (he has been under the weather the last two weeks), and everyone settling into a routine of having a kitten in the house.
I thought it would be appropriate to give a little background on the balance in this multiple cat household. I have learned so much about feline behavior in the last few years, and I still have a long way to go.
Cosmo is the oldest, we call her the princess, but she is more the queen. She is 14, and being a typical female, she is usually near us, but on her own terms. She has no major issues with either adult boys in the house, but for the most part, she keeps to herself. On a rare occasion you will find them sleeping on the same area of the bed, but always with a buffer of about an inch or two. Cosmo and Bayou will play games of chase several nights a week, but he will usually get too wound up as the game progresses, and she will walk off grumpy, but that doesn’t stop another game from starting the next night all over again.
Dexter is the next in line, at age 10. He is the loner of the bunch, and has never really meshed well with other cats since I got him at 4 months old. He plays, but usually only with humans. He cuddles, but only with humans again. If someone else is getting attention, he is usually found trying to weasel his way in between. He is known to herd and try and control people, areas, and other cats. In reality, he probably would have done best as an only cat, but we make the balance work as best we can to his needs. He is better in the last couple years after implementing a lot of changes, positive training, exercise, and just a different attitude. He can be a total goof when he is relaxed, he adores being loved on, but sometimes it is hard to get him to stop being concerned about what the rest of the feline population is doing. Bayou and Dexter (the two boys of the house), bicker now and again, with Dexter being the primary instigator. All the same, Dexter is learning to relax more, and has provided me a great challenge which I always am grateful for (sincerely). To be honest, our best progress has come from giving him some of his ‘own’ space and own litter box. I did get a super large cat cage, and he stays in there for meals and when we are not home, and this has greatly reduced problems. Having his own space, where he can relax and not worry for a period of time helps. We did have some marking issues, but those have pretty much disappeared using this technique. Not the path I thought I would be taking, but for now, it is working well.
Bayou, well, what can I say about him. He is the most laid back of the crew, and outside of some occasional antagonizing due to boredom, he is the least concerned of what happens. He goes with the flow, and nothing really phases him. His worst issue might be when he gets bored, he can pick on the other cats, but we have learned to keep him occupied. As long as he has entertainment, all is well. He has tried to cuddle and play with the other two cats, with little success. This is ultimately why I decided to bring another bengal into the household, before he got much older, and before Cosmo got to an age she could not take his energy.
So now we bring Asia into the mix. I choose a female specifically because I already have a dominate male, and it would be super risky to try and meld another boy into the house. I also tried to choose a breeder with super socialized cats, to help facilitate an easy transition. My three adults have been around kittens in the past as I used to foster, so I did not expect too much drama upon her arrival, which has been the case.
Arrival brought what I expected, Bayou wanted her out of the crate and to come play the moment she was carried in the door. Cosmo, if she could would have been rolling her eyes and going “sheesh mom, did you have to bring another, OY”, but that was about it. Dexter was a bit perturbed, some hissing and running off the first day, but he returned to his normal routine within days, and as long as the kitten does not enter his personal space, he ignores her. All pretty much what I figured was going to occur.
Fast forward almost 3 weeks.
Asia is gaining confidence every day around the other cats, although she never skipped a beat with Bayou. She chases him up cat trees, runs and plays and constantly is after his tail. With Cosmo, Asia tries to rub on her like she does humans and bayou, but Cosmo will usually act miffed that she was ‘touched’, and trot off to a safe distance. Asia has chased her once or twice, but she is not nearly as much fun as Bayou.
The funniest dynamic has been her relationship with Dexter. She seems to know he wants to be left alone, but also that most of his drama when she approaches is just fluff. So she has taken it as her mission to make him lighten up. She will sneak up on him from behind, and when he turns and notices her, she jumps up and down, and dashes off while he makes a noisy to do about it all. If he was playing with a toy and turns away, she will sneak up, put a paw on the toy, and when he turns and hisses, she seriously looks like she smiles, giggles, and then trots off to the safe distance again.
For Dexter, he is mostly drama. He will pat her on the head if she tries to touch him, but he never runs off, doesn’t bite, and most of the time just makes noise. She has learned this, and she now just teases him on the edges of his personal space he has made. Somehow I think this might actually be good for him.
See Part 2 for some photos of Asia pushing Dexter’s buttons.
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Sounds like a great kitty crew =^_^=
purrs!