The Way of Cats

Some cats love fellow cat companionship. Some are indifferent to having other cats around. A few did not get the benefit of being exposed to or interacting with other cats, and must remain Only Cats, while some simply Don’t Get It. Like some people, they lack the social skills to understand other cats.

Puffy is the nerd in the gym. He annoys other cats, just by being there.

Most of it is his engagement style. He will sometimes clean the top of Mr. Bond’s head for him, and Mr. Bond returns the favor (top of the head being a tricky area where help is needed) and when there’s a crisis they will confer, but there isn’t any cat buddying going on.

Puffy doesn’t particularly care for mutual play, or wrestling, or sharing his windowsill. He finds cat relationships tend to ask too much of him, and he just wants to be left alone.

Puffy’s timid demeanor means other cats will see if he can be bullied away from his food dish or off the bed, and he always can be. So we have to stick up for him in such situations. It isn’t that cats are being mean to do this. Cats always want to know boundaries, and when they discover Puffy has none, they accommodate him.

As a kitten, RJ got hissed at by Puffy once a day, and did not bother him the rest of the time. Now that RJ is older, he is often content to sit near Puffy and observe him. RJ and Mr. Bond, being Beta types, are content to let Puffy do his Puffy things. When we had an Alpha kitten, it was a different story. They are highly assertive and love to manipulate objects. This “I’m going to build a super collider in the basement as soon as I get the parts” kind of cat would find Puffy an irresistible object to manipulate. And would.

So if you have a cat who:

• loves keeping the furniture, the routines, and the food always the same
• is very geographically oriented, caring more about the placement of objects than the different kinds of objects
• spends a lot of time hanging out observing, and very little in moving or manipulating objects
• has more caution than curiosity in their makeup, and doesn’t rush over to investigate the new

you probably have a Gamma cat. They are wonderful, easy keeping, affectionate cats, but they are the ones who find a new addition to be extremely stressful. When I had many cats, it was actually easier to accommodate the Gammas among them, because the Alphas and Betas had other Alphas and Betas to hang with, and the Gammas were left alone, the way they like it.

With fewer cats, each cat’s persona has increased impact. So adding a second cat to your Gamma is the trickiest and toughest cat introduction of them all.

An established Gamma will react best to another adult, opposite sex, Gamma. When getting the second Gamma, it is most important to set up a separate room for them, and let them explore it at their own pace. Too much too soon will overwhelm these gentle personalities, and they will react by withdrawal.

Let the situation simmer for a while, like a fine stew, and let the new Gamma out supervised for a while. Soon the new Gamma’s routine will mesh with the old, probably without touching, but in harmony.

Gamma cats like Puffy, unlike the other types, really don’t care if they have cat companions. But with proper care, they will share with like minded others. More than any other type, it’s essential that the others are truly like minded.

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There’s more about multiple cats in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See more posts on the MULTIPLE CAT ADVANTAGE.

We should think of space the way cats do to help us understand compatibility problems.

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We can have two cats who don’t get along and the house is not big enough for both of them. We can have ten cats in the same house, as I once did, and they all get along. Doesn’t this defy the laws of physics?

However, cats do not obey the laws of physics. How much space each cat takes up is calculated not on the mass of the cat, but on their presence.

The presence of the cat is how much influence the cat can exert on the cat environment just by being there. This is how a five pound cat with a lot of presence gets their favorite spots and can be first at the food bowl without us seeing how they do it. But the other cats sense their abilities and defer to it.

For instance, RJ never gets on Mr. Bond’s nerves. Mr. Bond will not let him. That’s how sometimes RJ can leap across the room and wrestle with him, and sometimes RJ changes course mid-leap and find something else to play with. James Bond has a lot of presence, and this makes his wishes something to defer to.

Poor Puffy, on the other hand, has zero presence. That’s why, when RJ was a kitten, he would harass Puffy, unless we stepped in and stop it. Without our enforcement of Puffy’s space, it would shrink to his favorite hiding spot under the bed, and occasional forays out for essential bodily functions. We protect all of Puffy’s usual spaces, and his routes to and from them, so he can remain happy despite having no presence to enforce his wishes on other cats.

When it comes to his humans, Puffy has considerable powers. One begging look and we melt and do his bidding. But Puffy cannot exude presence to other cats. And RJ knows it.

Cats don’t get along when they don’t have enough presence, or support in the lack, to create harmonious relationships among unavoidable shared areas. We used to lock RJ in the bathroom at mealtimes because Puffy can’t, and Mr. Bond won’t, use their presence to keep him in check at such times. Mr. Bond could keep RJ away from his food, but he doesn’t seem to have the heart to divert RJ from his serious food issues. So we step in.

Stepping in to enforce cat harmony is something within our power, but it must be used wisely. We could try to keep RJ away from the other cat’s bowls by standing in the kitchen and continually diverting him back to his bowl. There’s food in it; why can’t he just eat his food and not bother the other cats?

With a normal kitten, this would be good practice and would teach the kitten the importance of sharing. But RJ is not a normal kitten. He was starved in his previous life. He can’t think when there’s other food around. Letting him eat in the bathroom is more than a kindness to the other cats; it’s a kindness to him to let him eat without worrying about others snatching his food. Eating their food first, and saving his own for later, is a survival technique that he won’t be talked out of easily.

How does this help us moderate cat conflicts? We have to distinguish between non-negotiable needs and and simple preferences when we try to impose our will on our cats. A cat rescued off the street might have a lowered tolerance for other cats, a cat rescued from a shelter might have a lowered tolerance for noise and disorder, a cat used to outsmarting their littermates will continue this working strategy with other cats in their new home. We don’t always know what the cat’s history might have been, but we can pick up clues from their behavior.

When there are two cats, conflicts are magnified because there’s only one other cat to be whatever the other cat is seeking. Friendship, a play partner, shared observations, or being left alone; each cat might need something different. If there’s only other other cat, and that cat can’t provide what the other cat is seeking, there will be conflict.

With more than one cat to choose from, the chances of the seeking cat finding what they need is increased. With the seeking cat able to find what they need, the pressure comes off the cat who cannot provide it.

This is how I had ten cats living in harmony. This is how I was able to bring the right kitten home and get him fitting in with only a short introduction period. This is why I say, “The solution to cat problems is… more cats!”

It doesn’t make immediate sense to think of cat conflicts as a result of too few cats. Yet, often, that is the case.

Cats, after all, have their own laws.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more about multiple cats in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See more posts on the MULTIPLE CAT ADVANTAGE.