Thursday, August 19, 2010

Cosmo and Ling :: Loving No More?

One of my biggest fear has come true.  Cosmo and Ling have turned on each other.

On Wednesday night, Cosmo and Ling were sitting at the back door, looking at the back alley as usual.  When my husband heard cats growling and hissing, he went to check it out and saw nothing.  Then he realised it was coming from our own cats.  Before he could do anything, they were rolling on the floor, fur was flying and urine everywhere!  As Cosmo is bigger and stronger, Ling was obviously at the losing end.

When he finally managed to separate them, Ling went upstairs and Cosmo went to hide in the laundry room.  When I found out what happened (I was in the shower), I went down and spoke softly to Cosmo, offering him some treats, which he took.  I carried him upstairs and put the both of them in the room with me.  The aggression was gone by then but they were still tensed, even after a game of "catch da bird!".

While they were willing to play and eat together, I noticed they still weren't grooming each other although Cosmo did try to but Ling walked away.

Later, as we were going to bed, we heard the growling AGAIN!  I managed to separate them before fur started to fly.  Ling spent the night under my blanket while Cosmo had the rest of the house after some cuddling time.  They were both VERY affectionate towards me after being separated.  Does this mean something?

I let Cosmo into the room this morning and they slept next to each other under my blanket.  The both of them seem okay with each other now but they haven't gone to the laundry room together yet.  So I'm not sure if the aggression is really over.

Here's Cosmo this morning.
It sure sounds like redirected aggression to me and I'm going to do more reading on this.  If anyone has any experience with this, I would love to hear from you.

Cosmo is now in the storeroom and Ling with me.  She was crying in the laundry room just before this.  I am going to keep the back door closed for now and give the laundry room a thorough cleaning.  Another thing I've noticed since the fighting is that Ling stays close to me and startles easily at any sudden noise (like dogs barking).

Poor Ling all stressed out when she heard dogs barking this morning (this is not normal for her).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

my 4 cats sometimes fight with each other too... but after a while they will stop and just go on separate ways...it doesn't sound like they(cosmo and ling) don't love each other anymore. maybe just sibling fights? and all part and parcel of growing up? my cats are also both male and female living together :)

Whisppy said...

Thanks for your comment! Do you have a blog I could visit?

Cosmo and Ling do play fight occasionally but they were vicious last night!

They went to the laundry room a while ago and happily, there was no aggression but it was all very tensed.

How old are your cats? Mine are around 2.5 years.

Just Sharlene and the Spice Cats said...

The Spice Cats fight quite often but normally it is quite mild so I just let them sort out their own issues. There have not been a vicious fight before.

Do keep us updated and hope Cosmo and Ling sorts out their issues fast!