BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?

Subject: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 04:19 PM

I mean when it comes to territoriality and pecking order. I'm just thinking of the situations I've seen around here among, say, groundhogs or squirrels. I mean there's plenty of scorn and arguing, for sure, the odd scuffle, but not much in the way of genuine hatred. I wish I could say the same about cats!

Of course the differences between cats and other furry animals are less than they used to be, specially since the advent of TV and cellphones, still the sheer animosity displayed between cats can be shocking. It usually starts with a random encounter between 2 cats who could just as well decide to say, "How are you old chap? Lovely day, isn't it?" ....but, no! Instead they glare at one another, hunker down, and devote a good 15 minutes to half an hour exchanging shrill insults and dirty looks. They then leap at each other's throats and roll around in the dirt trying to tear each other to pieces, wake up everyone in the neighborhood, and set all the dogs barking. And to what end? So one or both can limp gloriously home with multiple cuts, gouges, and bald spots.

One has to wonder why? The differences between cats, after all, are pretty minor when it comes to actual issues. They want food, comfort, and prestige. They each know they are the center of the Universe and have no guilt feelings about it whatsoever. Yet they are at daggers drawn with each other. Why this level of hatred?

Perhaps the real problem is that each cat is secretly reminded of himself (or herself) when seeing another cat...and doesn't like what he sees! Sort of a case of transference...

I expect much erudite analysis of this problem to ensue here. Don't disappoint me. It is inevitable that a few differences will arise amongst the assemblage here when discussing why cats hate each other so much, and certain people will take umbrage to what others have to say, particularly if those others are on their personal "hate" list, but if so....try to keep it civil, okay? It may help to remember that no cat has ever joined a political party, and that their only religion is self-worship.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 04:38 PM

It's pussy envy

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 05:08 PM

John!

Little Hawk, I don't know the answer(s) to your sophisticated query. I do know, however, that one cannot put all the cats in one basket, even metaphorically.

Last month I house/pet sat. I took my dog and my cat along and there were already two dogs and one cat living there.

The dogs already knew each other so no problem, but the resident cat took great exception to sharing his home with another cat. There were tremendous growlings and hissings and mutterings- but it was completely one-sided.

My t
Well, you asked.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 05:36 PM

It was clearly a jurisdictional matter, Ebbie. Dogs are usually quite tolerant if introduced properly.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Ed T
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 06:02 PM

I suspect it is mostly male to male aggression and territorial aggression, not unlike, at times, in Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 06:13 PM

My cat has been counseling nexct door's about how to cope with the emotional stress of being locked out of the house for two hours.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 06:14 PM

Why this level of hatred?

They've been hanging around us for too long?

They each know they are the center of the Universe and have no guilt feelings about it whatsoever. Yet they are at daggers drawn with each other.

There can only be one centre (bloody Yanks mangling my language... :p) of the universe. Did you not just answer your own question? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Gurney
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 06:19 PM

Cats, out of the breeding season, are solitary animals by instinct. Dogs are not. Territory matters.

Aggression on Mudcat, Ed T? Very rare. Irritability, sometimes. Difference of opinion, often. We are, after all, mature adults (ha!) often predating political-correctness.

A better question might be, why do dachshunds LIKE each other?

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 06:20 PM

Walking in the San Francisco docks, I came across about 30 cats grouped together taking the sun on an upturned rowboat. Their expressions told me that if I stepped any closer, they would join in an attack that would leave me looking like a torn up rag doll.
Talking to a man working on his fishing boat, he said that they were feral, and at night would take care of rats and mice around the boats. They looked like they would also 'take care' of any human who crossed them.
The meanest looking critters I have ever seen.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 06:33 PM

Not true. We have nine cats. No problems.

More hatred among homo sapiens.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 07:00 PM

My t ??

I have no idea why my post cut off there- and I don't remember what sentence began like that.

However, I will repeat that my cat evidently empathised completely and was mild and conciliatory. When I knew it was going to be OK was at the point when as the Monk was approaching the sofa where my cat lay, my cat dangled one leg down. The Monk sniffed it and from then on things went better. By the time we left three weeks later the two cats (both male, 12 and 17 years old. respectively) were bumping heads together as they ate from the same dish.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 07:22 PM

A lot of the problems never manifest or are resolved once the males are neutered...Hmmmmm...one way to cut out all of the nuts on Mudcat?!

Dogs are very loose while a cat is much more discerning about whom they let sniff their arsehole.:-) It's all a matter of perception, plus, unless you understand their verbal language, a complex blend, I can see how one might mistake their choral pieces for something less than amiable.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 07:26 PM

Raedwulf, I think you have hit upon the crux of the matter. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: kendall
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 07:47 PM

Lions are the only cat that live in groups. It is not natural for any other cat to live that way. I know, some cat lovers have to be surrounded by them, but that doesn't change the law of the cats.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: LadyJean
Date: 01 May 10 - 01:33 AM

I had a neutered male silver tabby named Sebastian. I got an orange tabby male kitten I named Fitz. For 2 weeks Fitz approached Sebastian every now and again, trying to play and was chased off witha growl. Then a woman from the historical society came to look at a box of papers that had belonged to my Grandmother. You could amost hear them saying, "They're paying attention to that box and ignoring us." So the two of them had a nice wrestling match then chased each other around the apartment, and after that they were the best of friends.

I got Hamish as a sparring partner for Viggo. I expected a couple of weeks of animosity, but they were best friends in 2 days. They love to wrestle, especially on my bed, especially when I am in my bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 May 10 - 04:11 AM

kat, I hope you are not implying that all the nuts on MC are male, are you? :)

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Arnie
Date: 01 May 10 - 05:11 AM

My two cats are also fond of wrestling each other and chasing around the garden -this used to include up and down the trees but they've dropped this part as they've got older and fatter. They're both females, but next door lives a neutered tom called Monty. Each evening Monty strolls down our drive and sits around the back garden for a few minutes to show that he's the boss. My two ignore him and he ignores them. However, it's obviously important to Monty to carry out this daily ritual just to establish that our garden is also part of his territory. I suspect that if one of my cats was a tom, Monty's evening stroll wouldn't be quite so peaceful!

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: ranger1
Date: 01 May 10 - 06:54 AM

My cat hates all other cats. The four years that we had two cat, she was constantly beating up the other cat. It is territoriality, she is THE cat in our household and will tolerate no others.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Bobert
Date: 01 May 10 - 07:12 AM

It ain't excatly hate, LH... Ya' see, cats is crazy... They have no idea why either... Ya' neuter tham 'cause the that's sposed to make them less carzy and less able to make more crazy cats and that just makes 'um crazy... They play with imaginary things... They crazy... They paw at the water we give 'um to see if we are trying to poison 'um... They crazy... They beat the crud outta each other one minutes and then the next they are sound asleep next to one another like they was the best of firneds... They crazy... They see a car that they have seen a hundred times so you'd think that they know it is a, ahhhhhhh, friggin' car but no... They gotta run from it... They is crazy... Then when they is in the house they is all lovey dovey and want you to pet 'um and play with them but if yer outside and you try to pet 'um they run from ya'??? Ya see, LH, these is some crazy critters, fir ya' and...

...that's why we loves 'um... Heck, they make the crazy people we hang with seem normal???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Ed T
Date: 01 May 10 - 08:27 AM

I have had a number of cats, two at a time. Some like each other, some tolerate each other. But, regardless, when I take one or both to the Vets, they hiss at each other for awhile, after they return home. Either the stress puts them into a defensive mose, or a brief scent change is in play.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 01 May 10 - 01:05 PM

Kat, you don't want to emasculate mudcatters. It would be reduced to a boring rubble.

I take your point about "male dominance" though. Speak up ladies!

Subject: RE: BS: Why do cats hate each other so much?
From: LadyJean
Date: 01 May 10 - 11:18 PM

When I was in high school we got a kitten from the biology teacher. Of course we had to give part of him back to her. Mom asked the vet if he did a vasectomy or castrated male cats. He said he castrated. She said, "Fine, I want his testicles." The vet turned red, looked at the floor and said, "You're kidding." Mom, who had, heretofore, thought it perfectly reasonable of the bio teacher to want a set of cat testicles explained the situation.
I gift wrapped the jar, with a bow, and gave them to her with a card from the cat.