Cat Agonies

[cimorene]

This week Anubis breached containment again and tried to attack Tristana AGAIN, so we're back to square one.

We talked about consulting an animal behaviorist, but Wax doesn't want to yet. After reading the essays on the animal behaviorist's website (she's a vet specialist in cats with a further certification in cat behavior and evolution) we both did kinda get a sinking feeling, because while Anubis's aggression took us and his breeders by surprise, and it's new for him and also highly unusual for a Cornish Rex at all... it's also completely normal for cats in general.

We've all (Wax, me, and the lesbian cat breeders) met barn cats and other mixed and feral cats with similar issues. And there are lots of potential factors and triggers to be affecting Anubis here, and the prescription for all of them is a slower introduction trying to reduce potential friction.

There's also the fact that he's an intact tomcat. Normally you would never attempt to introduce one of those, and the only reason we are is that he has a hormone blocking implant right now. He wasn't fully grown, and the breeders didn't want to try to breed him yet, but the onset of puberty was making him miserable and he couldn't get along with their other cats, so they decided to try this out. These hormone blocking implants are commonly used in dogs, and their use in cats is comparatively less common. So while it did stop his acne and his pestering behavior back at home, it's possible he smells different or is more anxious or aggressive compared to how a neutered male cat would act, and that's the sort of cat our knowledge and assumptions about cat interactions are based on.

We still might contact her later of course. Meanwhile I guess this is how we live now.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Is it possible to go ahead and neuter him now? Is he old enough?

I'm so sorry you are going through this and wish there was a solution.

[cimorene]

Oh, no, we can't do that. The reason he hasn't just been fixed is that he's still going to be used as a stud when he's old enough, probably this spring or summer. His genes are very valuable and he is the Great Future Hope of our cat-breeding lesbian friends' cattery: his mother was the best queen they ever had but she had a complication and had to be fixed after only one litter, which was all male kittens, and Anubis was the most handsome of these. So they want to make arrangements with several other catteries and hopefully get a few litters out of him, because what they really want is a queen with his (mother's) genes.

Anyway, that's probably only a few months in the future right now. Some (me) might think that that's a long time to be living in a House Divided (because of cat babysitting), but still not long enough to make us consider giving him back. He's bonded really strongly to Wax, in spite of everything else, and we don't want to risk messing that up, especially when that's the main bond he has formed here.

[princessofgeeks]

Oh, I didn't know he was intended for breeding! My mistake.

Hoping you find a solution soon.

[cimorene]

Ugh, yeah. We tend to take 'extra' cats, that is, adult cats that have already been fixed that CR breeders need to rehome, rather than do all the work of raising kittens. That's kind of what he is - the breeders were over for tea and cake and they were talking about what a handful he is, how he destroys everything and kept burning his toes because he pushes the cover off the ceramic stovetop. Wax thought that sounded incredibly cute and was like "Oh!!! Could it be that you will still need a home for him after you breed him?" And they said yes. And we WOULD have just had him after he was fixed except for this little early puberty, not ready to breed yet issue and the consequent implant.