Background, Pt. 3

Incident No.1 began on a warm July day when things were fairly peaceful and everyone was lounging about. Big Yellow Hallway Monster was alone in the sunroom and for once I was nearby, doing something-or-other in the dining room. Suddenly, we both became aware of an interloper ... one of the neighborhood kitties had come into the backyard and was crossing from the flower bed next to the sunroom windows onto the open deck by the BBQ. Which brought him face-to-face (through the glass) with BYHM.

At this point, I should say that I was a little fuzzy on the details (and the date ... I would have sworn to you that it happened much earlier in the spring) so I went searching through my e-mail for some help on the timing. Rather than re-write the whole story, here is an excerpt from the e-mail I wrote to my mother about what happened: (Thank goodness for kitty-grandmas who always welcome updates.)

"Well, considering the 3-cat brouhaha that occurred this morning after an interloper cat was spotted outside the sunroom, it's probably an excellent idea to keep the status quo. First, [BYHM] saw the intruder and puffed up and growled and attacked (luckily, the glass wall stopped any actual contact.) Then, [LGK] came out to see what was going on and got all puffy and growly when he saw Leo being all puffy and growly. Then, they jumped on each other and started screaming and yelling and sending clumps of fur flying. THEN, Herself [EM] came flying out into the sunroom and jumped into the middle of both of them! I don't know what on earth got into everybody, but they all managed to get back into the house and arranged in a wary, growly circle before I went to work. The interloper cat seemed to have wisely left the area.

When I came home, everything seemed to be back to normal and nobody seemed to have any new scars anywhere."

Re-reading that, I so wish I could hit "rewind" and do some things differently. But, I honestly thought it was an isolated incident, so I kind of shrugged it off. If I knew then what I know now about re-directed aggression, I would have started the whole "separate and reintroduce" cycle right then.

July morphed into August, and mentions of kitty spraying start to crop up more and more frequently in my e-mails. I think it was around this time that we discovered Nature's Miracle and started buying Feliway in multi-packs. At this point, we were still trying to deal with the pee issues and not the larger relationship issues.

By early August, the harrassment and the peeing had really gotten out of hand:

"Between territorial gentlemen kitties and pitiful little princess kitties who are reaping what they once sowed in the way of being hassled on the way to the cat box, we are discovering that we can't leave anything soft or papery on the floor. [EM] had apparently taken to using the back corner behind the TV as an emergency kitty box, as well as a blanket that had fallen behind the couch. So now the corner cabinet we were using for the TV is gone, replaced by some shelves and a new kitty box so that there are no hidden corners for anyone to get trapped in."

The expensive electric box went downstairs, but nobody really seemed to miss it:

"So far, the new kitty box is VERY popular with everyone. It's like a little kitty rest area on the highway ... if they're on their way to somewhere new, they have to stop off for a quick piddle. Which is a little distracting when you're watching TV."

We had hopes that this would help, but by August 10, things had come to a head and the Little Grey Kitty had entered lockdown after going DEFCON-5 hostile on his siblings one day. And it's time for an uncomfortable confession: The final cat fight that led to him being locked away by himself (where he still is, two months later) was completely my fault.

Next Up: Incident No. 2 and The Cat of Monte Cristo.

(And unrelated to the subject at hand, can I just say I hate Blogger's text formatting sometimes?)