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Old April 15th, 2017, 10:00 PM
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Reg Reg is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Thunder Bay, ON
Posts: 462
Hello Silverwind:

We're sorry to hear the problems you are experiencing lately with Lily and Betsy. May we suggest some possible reasons for it.

First we should ask is if you or someone is clipping the cat's claws? This would help to decrease any chance of puncture wounds to the pup and the family.

The use of soft paws - they are toenail covers - might also help.

Cats are very territorial, and we'd imagine Lily is still dealing with Betsy being in her world, even though they have only been house mates for about 2 months. Lily will still be suffering from stress from having another animal around, and a puppy to boot, not a kitty.

That being said. You mentioned in your last post that your daughter's friends brought a small dog into the house. This would be a major intrusion into her territory which could set off all kinds of scenarios. Still working trying to work around Betsy, and to have another dog enter the scene, would stress Lily out extremely.

The best thing that we can think of to do is if the neighbours bring a dog over again, put Lily into a secure room by herself while the dog is there.

Basically, you have to give Lily and Betsy time to adjust to each other, and this is not going to happen overnight. It could take months.

Also, perhaps your children could spend more time with Lily. They could play with her with cat toys - especially ones that are string mounted, like a ribbon on the end of a wand, or something like that.

If you're using a lazer - keep the use of the lazer short, and finish off with a tangible toy that Lily can capture and play with. Cats don't have any sense of the light - they can't get their paws on it to feel it, and consequently this has a tendency to stress them.

I know with our cats, one of them can't even stand people coming into the house - he takes off and hides. Depending on who the visitor is - governs his hiding time. He might come out after half an hour, but it could be as long as a couple of hours or so.

All of our cats are prone to behaving in a very strange manner should they happen to see a strange animal or another feline on the property. It's an intrusion into their territory, and they express their displeasure. They will even pick on each other over the event. We've seen it take up to three days to get over the event. They will check the windows to make sure nothing is out of place.

We hope this information will be helpful to you in understanding Lily and Betsy.

Is there a chance of seeing any recent pics of Lily? - full body.
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