Asymptomatic

Since Berta took our cats to the vet last week things have not been right around our house.

I guess they got some strange smells of other animals in their snoots while at the vet's office, and it woke them up to the world outside. But the world outside is not really the problem. Since they've gotten home, they've been literally at each others' throats.

At first we just thought maybe they were acting up, but what start out as a single fur-flying catfight turned into a multi-episode, nearly-continuous brawl. There were literally clumps of fur left all over the house, looking like someone just dumped the innards of several vacuum bags in discrete locations around our house.

Obviously, this couldn't stand. The vet was supremely unhelpful. "You have two intact males, and sometimes the smells they pick up outside trigger something in them that causes this behavior. Separate them." Uh, our house is geared for two cats co-habitating, not two cats living in separate spaces.

But that's what it finally came down to. Berta bought another automated litter box. Another food tray. We locked up one cat in the master bedroom/bathroom, and the other gets free roam of the house. Periodically, we switch the two, just so that one cat doesn't feel territorial over either specific area.

Berta bought some books on cat behavior, and it seems like we may have to "re-introduce" the cats to each other. The books say that this could take as long as a month of separation, and even then might not work.

Keeping the cats separated is a pain. They don't like to be separated. They look for each other. They caterwaul when we switch them up. Yet when they get in proximity, bam! Hissing, clawing, tucked-back "airplane" ears, and eventually, a cartoonish cloud of claws, tails, and shifted number-row characters.

So. Today, they're at the vet. I dropped them off this morning. They're having "that procedure" done. They should have tried to get along.

If all goes well, either the hormones will have dropped to the point that this behavior is curtailed, or they'll have enough fear of what happens when they misbehave to never act up again. Who knows what we'll have removed next time, right? Poor kitties.