Cat psychology

Something is changing in the social order of the cats. This happens from time to time, and it's always a bit stressful and puzzling. Sometimes I can identify the cause of the shift but more often than not, I can't.

Having a multi-cat household is challenging.  Having a mega-multi-cat (> 5 cats) household is insane. In order for everyone to stay happy and healthy, relationships and territory must be constantly watched and managed. As with any species, tensions arise  when sharing space with others. No matter how much you like/love someone, irritations are inevitable when sharing living space for an extended period of time.  Just like humans, cats have moods, feelings, strong preferences, and this can lead to conflicts.  Just like humans, cats form relationships with one another--sometimes distant-but-friendly, sometimes extremely close, sometimes antagonistic, they have back histories with one another, some hold grudges. These relationships can change and ebb and flow; it would be so much simpler if they remained stable.

Ivan and Lila (Oliver also eats at this station).
*Time to re-rope the cat tree.

Because of this complexity, our house, and the placement of furniture, feeding stations, window access, litterboxes--all of this is carefully planned, based on the cats' relationships with each other. For example, all of the cats (we've had 11 at our max) need a food dish. They need to be fed on an elevated surface or the dogs will eat their food, so floors are out. These feeding dishes need to be left out. We feed twice a day (dry kibble in the morning, wet in the evening) but leave the food out to accommodate their different meal preference times. Some like to eat all at once. Some eat a bit when I feed and like to snack frequently throughout the day. Their food dishes need to be arranged such that those who hate each other don't have to see each other during meal time. I don't want any food aggression or blocking, and worse, some cats will simply avoid eating if it's a stressful environment and can make themselves quite ill. This is why we currently have 5 feeding dishes in the dining room (2 separate areas in the room), 2 in the kitchen, 1 in the cat room, and 2 in our bedroom. This allows everyone to eat in a room in which they are comfortable, without having to encounter anyone they dislike.  

Petey eating from Mimosa's dish

 

Jasper eating from his dish on our/his bed

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been a few feeding position changes, and I can't identify why. It usually indicates a shift in relationships/territories, so there is always more fallout than just feeding changes will be coming soon.  Petey and Mimi get along, and they both eat in the kitchen, Petey has been eating from Mimi's dish. Upstairs in our bedroom, Jasper is rejected his dish in favor of Carrie's. She is not comfortable in the area of our room where Jaspy's dish is, so I can't just switch them. Jasper is happy to eat on the bed, but that only works when I'm present, because the dogs will help themselves if it's unattended. Neither Mimi or Carrie is happy with the situation. I have to figure out a rearrangement that makes everyone happy at mealtime, and I have to closely monitor everything else, watching for other ripples and trying to identify a cause.

Poor Charlie eats alone since his brother Basil died.

We just got Charlie's urinary problem resolved (prednisone and pain meds) last weekend, and now Petey has bloody urine, so we'll be back at the vet this week for drugs. These problems are usually caused by stress, and since Petey is one of the food-dish shifters, this is another potential puzzle piece.  

I've been going in to record my class, so I've been gone much more recently than normal (and perhaps that's a part of the stress for the cats, too), I haven't had the time needed to watch for territory shifts/conflicts, but I'm sure they are occurring.  Territory, with cats, isn't really as simple as "this is Jasper's room" or "this is Ivan's chair", because they don't so much care about permanent ownership of territory. They really only care about it when they want to use  it, so their territories are both space and time based. For example one of the high shelves in our bedroom (highest shelves are the most desirable "real estate" for the cats) belongs to Jasper for the first part of the night, but he transfers, after a few hours, to our bed next to me. The other cats know and respect this and won't try to use his shelf when we go to bed. It's Tica's shelf from about 3AM to 8AM or so.  Again, it's all very complicated with cats. Dogs are much easier.

When territory challenges occur, they are very unpleasant for all of us. They tend to start out small and infrequently and quickly start to increase in both intensity and frequency. They can result in nasty physical altercations, non-physical "fights" that involve much hissing, spitting, and growling and much sleep loss for the humans, but worst of all are the silent altercations that consist of an intelligently-engineered bullying campaign where the more timid cat is blocked from areas/resources repeatedly and becomes depressed and sick because of it. That's why I have to watch these slight shifts so carefully. The earlier I identify and resolve these issues, the quicker we return to a healthy and happy state.  Also, most of the cats are vicious little grudge holders, and the less time they spend engaged in a war with someone, the more likely they are to give it up and move on.