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ProfessorTomoe

Loudmouth's Journey Inside

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

Again, I caution you guys not to be in too much of a hurry.  If it's been helping, but you're still seeing some problems, why not wait a bit longer and see if you can get the situation truly stable?

We discussed this and came to the conclusion that it really wasn't helping enough to continue dosage. I think the sheer act of giving him the pill was more traumatic than anything else.

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The biggest problem we have right now is Loudmouth's paranoia, it would seem. Baker wants to play, but Loudmouth is interpreting that as aggression. Perhaps it's Loudmouth who needed the Elavil instead of Baker ...?

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4 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

The biggest problem we have right now is Loudmouth's paranoia, it would seem. Baker wants to play, but Loudmouth is interpreting that as aggression. Perhaps it's Loudmouth who needed the Elavil instead of Baker ...?

Your vet is better suited than I am to decide that, but it sounds like it's definitely worth a phone call to see what they think!

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1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Loudmouth does not seem as freaked out by the current thunderstorm as your normal household cat. I mean, he had to live out in the stuff for several years.

My Patrick would generally hide under the sink in the bathroom if I wasn't home during storms or construction, but he was fine if I was there, and every other cat so far has been okay.  Mary startles at particularly loud thunderclaps, but then, so do humans!

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For the first time since we brought him inside, Loudmouth ate kitty snacks! He's always turned them down before. We've offered him the Cat-Man-Doo chicken snacks and whatever snacks are freeze dried raw (Baker wouldn't even touch the latter, and he's started barfing the former).

Today, I tried the Orijen snacks. Baker loved them. Loudmouth wouldn't take them from my hand, but he did eat them off of the cushion in front of him. Result!

The Orijen snacks had boneless chicken, boneless turkey, chicken liver, turkey liver, and boneless flounder (?) as their ingredients. Weird mix, but I'm not gonna argue as long as the cats eat it.

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Question: how can you tell when bullying behavior has transformed into play behavior? Baker is still chasing loudmouth down the hall when he sees him, but there is no "hissss" at the end of the chase. Mrs. Prof says that, instead, they both wind up on top of the mattress. Is Baker still bullying Loudmouth, or are they playing now?

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15 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Question: how can you tell when bullying behavior has transformed into play behavior? Baker is still chasing loudmouth down the hall when he sees him, but there is no "hissss" at the end of the chase. Mrs. Prof says that, instead, they both wind up on top of the mattress. Is Baker still bullying Loudmouth, or are they playing now?

If there's no hissing, then that should be playing. I checked these things a while back when my little sister's two cats were playing.

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1 hour ago, partner555 said:

If there's no hissing, then that should be playing. I checked these things a while back when my little sister's two cats were playing.

My two old Burmese cats did this endlessly. They would lie down together curled up, then at some point they would start grooming one another. This would often turn into a wrestling match which invariably ended with them chasing one another all over my apartment in a mad gallop, then they would jump back up on my bed, wrestle for a few moments more and then go back to mutual grooming. I never could work out which of them won, or if there was even supposed to be a winner.

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2 hours ago, partner555 said:

If there's no hissing, then that should be playing. I checked these things a while back when my little sister's two cats were playing.

Even if it's "chase on sight?" Baker still won't let Loudmouth into the living quarters of the house. There's no hissing, but there's no passing, either.

EDIT: I saw Loudmouth come out of the hallway and go to get some water from the big water fountain. He then went back down the hall, past Baker. Baker started to chase, but Loudmouth stood his ground and hissed him away. Baker looked seriously surprised. They've kept this up for several minutes now—long enough to get Mrs. Prof out of bed and have her give them a talking to.

I guess the hissing isn't over with after all. Sigh.

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18 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Even if it's "chase on sight?" Baker still won't let Loudmouth into the living quarters of the house. There's no hissing, but there's no passing, either.

EDIT: I saw Loudmouth come out of the hallway and go to get some water from the big water fountain. He then went back down the hall, past Baker. Baker started to chase, but Loudmouth stood his ground and hissed him away. Baker looked seriously surprised. They've kept this up for several minutes now—long enough to get Mrs. Prof out of bed and have her give them a talking to.

I guess the hissing isn't over with after all. Sigh.

Oh dear. This reminds me of an old story.

I was in the kitchen getting a bottle of Coke from the fridge. My old Burmese Catso (on sight nicknamed 'Fatso' by my wife, and instantly changed into 'Catso' by me, and stuck with that for the rest of his life) was doing the 'rub against Daddy's legs for attention' thing. But somehow when I opened the bottle it let out a loud hiss and poor Catso instantly fled, looking horrified. "Oh no! Daddy is mad at me! What did I do?"

I had to find the poor thing and coax him out from under my bed to reassure him. He was a very sweet-tempered and gentle cat. Just not terribly bright.

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Bed pee isn't over yet, either. somehow, Loudmouth (we assume) got under the waterproof cover and spent a penny on the sheets. He's been finding new and more exciting places to do it as well, like the floor mats of the guest bathroom. We're starting to fear that this is something we'll never get under control.

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4 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Bed pee isn't over yet, either. somehow, Loudmouth (we assume) got under the waterproof cover and spent a penny on the sheets. He's been finding new and more exciting places to do it as well, like the floor mats of the guest bathroom. We're starting to fear that this is something we'll never get under control.

Patience, old friend. You may yet find a solution. If nothing else, I and my wife think well of you both for doing what you can for Loudmouth. And incidentally, my wife loves the pictures of Loudmouth and Baker. :)

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1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Mrs. Prof will happily provide more of those when she has time. She'll be pleased as punch, in fact.

Then please tell her to go ahead. My wife will be pleased as well. She might return pictures of her Saki, mind you. :)

Here is one of Saki on her new futon, which she graciously also allows her humans to use. :)

TasdArk.jpg

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13 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Then please tell her to go ahead. My wife will be pleased as well. She might return pictures of her Saki, mind you. :)

I assume toy lobsters are easier to come by in Denmark than they are as far inland as Dallas. ;)

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Just now, ProfessorTomoe said:

I assume toy lobsters are easier to come by in Denmark than they are as far inland as Dallas. ;)

That one we actually got during a trip to Boston. They have a lot of seafood plushies there. Scarlett O'Lobster went back with us home. :)

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On 8/19/2017 at 11:42 AM, ProfessorTomoe said:

Question: how can you tell when bullying behavior has transformed into play behavior? Baker is still chasing loudmouth down the hall when he sees him, but there is no "hissss" at the end of the chase. Mrs. Prof says that, instead, they both wind up on top of the mattress. Is Baker still bullying Loudmouth, or are they playing now?

Sounds like a very good sign.

You know for sure that it's play when they both initiate it and yet are friends after.  If you realize that Loudmouth just pounced on Baker, they wrestled, and then they wound up on the bed together, that's a good sign they've become friends.

On 8/20/2017 at 5:44 AM, ProfessorTomoe said:

Even if it's "chase on sight?" Baker still won't let Loudmouth into the living quarters of the house. There's no hissing, but there's no passing, either.

Sometimes one cat will claim a resource, and as long as the other doesn't push for access to that resource, they get along just fine.  It may be that Loudmouth will end up with the winning claim to other resources, such as a sunny window or a favorite spot on the bed.  Other resources they may share, with the understanding that one of them gets it first.

Quote

EDIT: I saw Loudmouth come out of the hallway and go to get some water from the big water fountain. He then went back down the hall, past Baker. Baker started to chase, but Loudmouth stood his ground and hissed him away. Baker looked seriously surprised. They've kept this up for several minutes now—long enough to get Mrs. Prof out of bed and have her give them a talking to.

I guess the hissing isn't over with after all. Sigh.

There's a lot of give and take with two cats learning to live with each other, just like with human roommates.  Bob stops leaving wet towels on the floor, Fred starts putting the toilet paper on so it goes over the top instead of along the wall, Bob does his dishes quicker and Fred stops leaving the lights on in every room all night....they figure things out either by fighting over them or, more often, just by seeing who's more determined about it, who cares more, who's willing to fight if it comes to that.  The hissing should get less frequent as time goes by and they sort things out,.

11 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Bed pee isn't over yet, either. somehow, Loudmouth (we assume) got under the waterproof cover and spent a penny on the sheets. He's been finding new and more exciting places to do it as well, like the floor mats of the guest bathroom. We're starting to fear that this is something we'll never get under control.

You only just started giving him the anxiolytic, right?  And they're still in the stressful part of the relationship, where they don't really know each other well enough to know what to expect or how far they can push things.  I wouldn't give up yet.

Keep treating every spot with an enzyme cleaner, though, so you get rid of any lingering smells that might draw him back to the same spot!

9 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

That one we actually got during a trip to Boston. They have a lot of seafood plushies there. Scarlett O'Lobster went back with us home. :)

Surely it should be a stuffed bunny that would be dubbed Scarlette O'Hare!

ETA:  Or, perhaps, an airplane, Scarlette O'Hare, here in Chicagoland....

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A couple of new pics. First up, we have Loudmouth and Baker sharing the same bed:

large.Both_20170823_01c.jpg

Next, we have Loudmouth and his, "Don't touch me" look:

large.Loudmouth_20170823_01c.jpg

Mrs. Prof posted these as she was going to sleep last night. I know, neat trick.

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1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

My wife sends her regards and says she is very pleased that the two of them are starting to get along.

We *think* they are. There's still the occasional "BACK OFF!" hiss from Loudmouth and sometimes bad behavior from Baker. However, Loudmouth has a new spring toy and he's been playing with it in the presence of Baker, without Baker trying to kill him (or vice versa). If they'd just quit chasing each other so often ... it sounds so scary.

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

They really are adorable cats. I hope they make good friends eventually.

Thank you—we do, too. Our goals are a little lower right now, though. We're trying to figure out the peeing problem. I did find one big peeing spot (the guest bathtub), which got washed and enzymed this morning. We've got a blacklight ordered that should get here Friday. It'll help us find the rest of the problem spots.

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The "PeeDar" (not kidding) unit arrived early. Mrs. Prof is still working and I'm hurting, so we haven't done a sweep yet. I don't know whether or not to post reports or pics here, hidden or not.

Maybe no reports. Let's keep this one quiet.

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