# Neutered Male, attacks Spayed Female



## BrianC (Dec 9, 2011)

:frown2:

Sissy: 4 years old, female, spayed at 6 months.
Henry: 3 1/2 years old, male, neutered at 5 months.

On October first of this year, I had to introduce Henry to Sissy's home. When I first introduced them, Sissy would hiss, and stay away. Henry would let out long, high pitched meows (and I mean, uncharacteristically high pitched, and up to 5 seconds long) and slowly walk toward her. While doing this, he would squint his eyes and sniff the air all around. With her still hissing and growling, he even went close to her, and rolled onto his back, exposing his belly while squinting his eyes at her.

The first few interactions consisted of Henry apprehensively trying to approach her like this. Eventually though, Henry started becoming aggressive, to the point of stocking, pouncing on her from behind, and scratching her butt.

For the last few months, a normal day entails Henry being locked in a room for the first half the day, and Sissy being locked in a room for the second half, so they may each have time to roam the house. When the time comes for Henry to be let out, he IMMEDIATELY heads toward the room Sissy is in to see if the door is open. During any occasion when Henry either *a)* escapes his room, or *b)* gets into her room, an _extremely frantic chase ensues_, and it seems like _Henry's prerogative is to HURT her_. Today, Henry escaped while Sissy was out in the house. Without hesitation, he found her, and chased her. When this happens, she becomes so frightened that she will run without looking, bumping into things, making loud hissing/crying sounds. Today, for the first time, she tried to jump through the window glass (we live on the fourth floor  )

Any thoughts on this? I want to fix the problem, rather than find a new home for Henry.


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## benrees21 (Jul 22, 2011)

When you first introduced them, henry was submitting to sissy but now he sees sissy as a softee and wants to dominate her territory. When he chases sissy, grab hold of him and make sure he knows he has done wrong and put him back in the room. Do not lock sissy in a room, henry is the one who needs to learn he will not come out of the room unless he behaves. Hope it helps.


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## BrianC (Dec 9, 2011)

Sounds worth a try, do you know of cats responding well to this type of reprimanding? And thank you for your reply.


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## spid (Nov 4, 2008)

Sounds like he is being quite dominant - not sure that keeping them this separate all the time is helping as he gets to tells her who is boss and then he gets put away and so has to start all over again each day. Firstly I'd put in a couple of feliway or pet rescue diffusers, then I would start scent swapping with a vengeance - rub cloths on them and then rub the cloths on the wall corners, door frames, cupboards and each other (if fact rub anywhere the cats rub up against), choose times to play with them both together with dangler type toys etc, feed them in the same room at the same time (watching obviously), if he gets too violent move him away, maybe give him a 5 min time out, but bring them together again fairly quickly, he needs to get used to her and stop seeing her a threat to his territory; he hasn't come to terms with her being it his territory (even though she was there first) as he doesn't spend any time with her. She invaded as far as he is concerned. Having the run of the house on his own confirms to him that it is HIS territory. The chasing and 'fighting' is normal and is a way of sorting out the pecking order. It way take a while to settle - my mum and dad had a cat and then introduced another adult cat - six months of blood and fur flying fighting (and I mean serious fighting) ensued - then one day they found the two cats snuggled together on the sofa together and they were friends ever after. It can happen. Try the feliway, do the scent swapping and allow a bit of chasing etc (put something on the window so it i=doesn't look like an escape route) and hopefully things will settle.


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