(03-31-2015, 09:50 PM)kfander Wrote: Indoors right now, but most of their lives they were indoor-outdoor. I lost a cat, probably to a fox, a year and a half ago so and, since (being older) they weren't going outdoors much anyhow, I decided to leave the cat door closed. The younger one has never been outdoors on her own.
I've had four cats live into their twenties, one of the others being the mom of the two older ones I have now, who got cancer at 23. For their age, they are pretty active, and Ella (the younger one) is very good with them, in that she plays with them an their ability level. One of the older ones is very thin and fragile, but the other is not at all so.
Ella doesn't challenge them, which is nice. The exceptions to this is when they try to take her food, or when they try to take the one sleeping place that she has claimed for her own. She mostly sleeps up high, where they are unable to climb, but she has one enclosure that she claimed a while back. It is a carpeted cat enclosure that I have had for years, and neither of the older ones showed the least bit of interest in. Now that Ella has been sleeping there, one of them keeps going in there when Ella is away, and Ella will slap at her until she leaves. It's funny, because Ella will do that even when she doesn't want to be in there herself. It's like she's saying, "That is mine! Get out of there!" Which is probably the case, since she has never taken one of their heated beds.
One of my older ones is the alpha female too, and Ella makes quite a show of being submissive. After losing the other older cat that we had, Cutie and Lydia (the two older ones) would barely get out of their beds. Although they never particularly like the other cat, her absence seemed to give them nothing to live for.
When we got Ella, they hated her at first, but Ella was the perfect diplomat. Watching her make friends with them was very interesting, and it is nice to see the older ones playing with her now.
Oh, sorry to hear about losing one of your cats to a fox (probably). We don't let out cats outside, but our older one, Herman, use to the countryside years ago. Our younger one, Eddie, never go to explore, similar to your Ella. Which by the way, I love the name Ella. It is an old family name that runs through many generations. Anyways, one night Eddie escaped through the side door that leads to our garage. Yep, daughter left the doors open. We think she was out there a few hours. We have a lot of racoons out and about here and being dark there were a lot of head lights shining down the road. All new to her. By the time, we found her, which was right across the street, she was stiff and crouched into a corner of a neighbor's house. I think, she was too scared to move! Now, if it had been Herman, she would have come right back inside proud as a peacock.
I know what you mean by claiming certain areas to sleep, too. I think this the only time, Eddie feels like Queen of the Jungle. She knows that Herman can only jump up on certain boxes we have by the window sills, but not up on the built in shelves or the ledge to the stairway. One of our closets has a series of shelves and she climbs up to the highest one to sleep, too. I think it is pretty cool because there is a window up there.
I liked how you described Ella's behavior, as a show of being submissive. I think you hit the nail right on the head with this description. We also laugh at our younger cats melodramatic behavior when it comes to being submissive. So this really made me laugh.
Well, your two older cats sound like real survivors! I hope the one is not suffering too much with the Cancer. One of cats passed away from this ailment, years ago. It really was quite a sad experience.
