(10-01-2014, 03:33 AM)Danyel72 Wrote: We have had some issues over the last few months. We have a cat that is 12 and another cat that is almost a year old. We are having an issue with them getting along. Sometimes they are ok and sometimes they fight constantly. The younger cat is always trying to bully the older one. We have been trying to work through it in hopes that as the younger one gets older he will calm down a little bit and realize that the other cat is here to stay too!!!!
That sort of thing concerns me, but I only worry about it until they get past the point where they are likely to physically harm one another. After that, it becomes pretty much a cat thing, and something for them to work out.
Fortunately, our young cat, although she is as large as the older ones, and twenty-three years younger, gives deference to her elders. My older cats are slow, they have arthritis, and one of them needs stairs to get up on my desk, so there is little doubt who would win if there were an actual fight. Yet Ella will go through the submissive gestures, allowing the older ones to keep their dignity.
She knows she's in no danger because all she has to do is jump up on a chair and they can't get her. She has proven to be expert at kitty politics, and has made fast friends with one of the older cats and is continuously working on the other.
I would be more concerned, as you are, if the younger one were dominating the older one, because that has to be particularly rough on an older cat. Quite likely though, they will work it out in time.
In another thread, I just told the story of a cat that I had, until recently, whom I had taken in as a feral. Together for fifteen years, my other cats never grew to like her, but they did arrive at an uneasy truce. There were occasional skirmishes, but only two that required a visit to the veterinarian. There were also moments when I was able to catch them being nice to one another. For example, one cold morning, I found them all, including the formerly feral cat, under the same couch cover, where they had huddled for warmth.
