“If you don’t take him,” my friend said. “He’s going to the pound.” So on April 26,1995, I adopted a nine-month-old Siamese-mix cat. Then I took him straight to the vet, where he was tested for feline-leukemia, vaccinated, neutered, and renamed Pyewackett.
From the minute he moved in, charming Pyewackett followed me around like a puppy dog, sat on my lap on the toilet, and slept on top of me at night. He quickly befriended two of my other neutered male housecats, Bakhu and Aslan. But from the start, shy, eighteen-month old Sho-zen was afraid of him.
Sho-zen began hiding under furniture and perched on the kitchen countertop 24/7. Whenever Pyewackett spied Sho-zen on the countertop, he would leap straight up in the air, landing erect on his hind feet. A cat rescuer who had thirty cats told me, “They’ll work it out. It’ll take about nine months.”
I thought, magically, nine months later my cats would be cuddled up in a kitty ball mutually grooming each other, but I was wrong. Nine months later, Sho-zen was urine marking the countertop, which created a chain-reaction, as the other cats soon began spraying as well. My human friends caused me even more stress, insisting I needed to find a new home for one of the cats (most voting to get rid of boring Sho-zen), but I was so in love with all of them, it felt like Sophie’s choice.
What I did next only makes sense to true animal lovers. I embarked on a mission to resolve what several behaviorists later defined as the most severe case of feline intermale-aggression they had ever seen. Over the course of ten years, I voraciously read everything I could find on cat behavior and consulted with behaviorists, holistic and western-medicine based veterinarians who treated animal behavioral issues, veterinarians who specialized in animal behavior, animal communicators (pet psychics), cat rescue workers, and one animal trainer for the movies.
This was an uphill battle because in 1995 the scientific study of feline behavior was in its infancy. Little information was available in books or on the Internet. Additionally, the field of animal behavior had, and still has, no regulation. Anyone with the means to print up business cards can go into business and claim to be an expert. As a result, some of the advice I paid big bucks for, in the early stages of my quest, made matters even worse.
Some of the unsuccessful and successful behavioral modification techniques I tried:
1. DRUGS: Valium, BuSpar, Alprazolam (Xanax) Clomipramine. Amitriptyline
2. HORMONES: Ovaban (progesterone) intended to lower aggression.
3. NATURAL DRUGS: Bach Flower Remedies, homeopathic remedies, Kava-kava.
4. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT WITH FOOD: This way, they associated eating with positive feelings with the other cat.
5. MULTIPLE FEEDINGS: Fed kitties as many times a day as possible with and without meds.
6. FEED CATS WHERE THEY SPRAY: They sprayed elsewhere, anyway.
7. TIMESHARE PROGRAM: Cats were separated at all times.
8. INCREASE VERICAL TERRITORY: I bought a Floor-To-Ceiling Cat Tree.
9. LITTERBOX STATIGIES: Increased number and type of boxes.
10. WALKING ON A LEASH: Cats hated this!
11. CAGED THE CATS SIDE BY SIDE FOR A MONTH: Big mistake!
12. BOOBY TRAP AREAS IN THE HOME THE CAT’S SPRAYED
13. LOUD NOISE TRAINING: Shook a can of pennies at bully when he attacked.
14. DISEMPOWER THE BULLY: Placed a bell around Pye’s neck and Sofpaws on his claws, which made him look like Robokitty.
15. FELINE FACIAL PHEROMONES: Encouraged cats to “mark” with their face, rather than by urine spraying.
Behavioral modification techniques, recommended by “professionals,” I DID NOT try:
1. GIVE SHO-ZEN A MOUSE: So he could kill it and feel empowered!
2. RAW MEAT DIET: I’m a vegetarian, therefore not an option.
3. PUT CATS IN YOKE: A mini-one like the kind that harness oxen.
4. FIND PYEWACKETT A JOB AWAY FROM HOME.
5. SHOCK COLLAR: This was my dumb idea! What was I thinking?
Ultimately, my own intuition helped me to resolve the problems. I read that the number of male cats that can live peacefully together in a small area, such as Venice, Italy, is in direct proportion to the availability of food and females. I also noticed that Pyewackett would attack Sho-zen if I took Pye to the vet, or if Pye was hungry and it wasn’t feeding time, or if I petted Sho-zen. So, I decided to give Pyewackett what ever he wanted. I stopped feeding him meals at preset times (per his vet’s recommendation due to tendency to look like a sumo wrestler when free fed), gave him as much food as he wanted, and lavished affection on him.
Pyewackett gained a little weight, but his aggression diminished dramatically. Then I lavished affection on Sho-zen and encouraged him to venture out of his safety zones. My cats still hate each other, but they no longer destroy my home. I don’t have to keep a closed door between them. Sho-zen is no longer in danger of being injured, and he has full use of the house. My Psycho Kitties now live together in “manageable” peace.
