Animal Welfare Professionals

Good afternoon! We have two adult cats (Punky and Blue) that were brought into our center due to their owner passing away. Blue seems to be adjusting much better than Punky. Blue is rolling on his back, taking all of the love we are giving him. He comes up to the cage for attention. Punky on the other hand has been hiding in the back corner of his kennel, hissing and swatting whenever we try to work with him. Blue does seem to get feed off of Punky's hissing a little, but quickly warms back up to us. We understand Punky has been through a lot and every cat adjusts at their own speed. We are wondering if it would be better to sperate the two since they are adjusting at very different speeds? Or if they need to stay together?

Thank you,
Erin Ammons
#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment

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Chelsea Pittsley
Laramie Peak Humane Society
307-358-6475
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Do you know anything about their history?  Cats who live together don't always get along and it's possible that Punky has lost all the comfortable things about home and is left with a cat who tormented them in the first place.  If this is the case separating them could be a big help for Punky.  If separating them doesn't help at least you've learned a bit about what is bothering Punky.

Fair warning, I've been told I have good instincts with cats but I am by no means a trained professional.

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Andrew Jergens
Board President
The Scratching Post
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Not a bad idea, and if it doesn't seem to help, you can always put them back together.

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Lisa Crawford
Mission Possible Homeless Cat Foundation
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2022 05:54 AM
From: Andrew Jergens
Subject: Cats Surrendered due to Owner Passing

Do you know anything about their history?  Cats who live together don't always get along and it's possible that Punky has lost all the comfortable things about home and is left with a cat who tormented them in the first place.  If this is the case separating them could be a big help for Punky.  If separating them doesn't help at least you've learned a bit about what is bothering Punky.

Fair warning, I've been told I have good instincts with cats but I am by no means a trained professional.

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Andrew Jergens
Board President
The Scratching Post
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Hi Chelsea,

Do you have any video of the cats when people aren't near? Can you set up a phone on a tripod to get some video?  Would be good to see how they are reacting to each other when people aren't around.   Ideally, i'd put them in a foster home. Second choice would be to put them in an office- somewhere where they have more space. With about 98% of cats who we know are social but reacting negatively in a cage - they come around in a larger space.

These two cats are currently undergoing a traumatic experience, having lost their owner and everything they find comforting.  I'd do everything possible to keep them together (if they like each other) to avoid exacerbating that trauma even more.  This article is dog focused, but talks about trauma and how we can help animals: https://humanepro.org/magazine/articles/ask-expert-treating-trauma 

Let us know how they do!

Sheila

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Sheila Segurson, DVM
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
Director of Outreach and Research
Maddie's Fund
9258608284
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I think this is great advice! I love the idea of catching them on camera with no people around. Here's an example of how cameras can help.

Last year, I trapped a feral cat with a bad limp. My vet and I were trying to decide if the cat needed to have one of his legs amputated. (If so, he would have been permanently housed in my cage-free feral cat sanctuary.) The cat's leg had been badly injured at some point and healed incorrectly. It was similar to a club foot. I didn't think he was using it at all, but the vet wasn't sure, so I put the cat in a large dog kennel (8'x10 fully enclosed) with some things to climb on and mounted a night vision camera to the kennel. We get clear video of him using the leg to walk, jump and climb, so we opted to let him keep the leg since he was using it and didn't seem to be in any pain.  The camera footage was the deciding factor for sure, and without the camera being mounted and active while no people were around, we  wouldn't have gotten any footage at all and might have made a different decision. We TNR'ed him and let him go.

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Lisa Crawford
Mission Possible Homeless Cat Foundation
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2022 03:51 PM
From: Sheila Segurson
Subject: Cats Surrendered due to Owner Passing

Hi Chelsea,

Do you have any video of the cats when people aren't near? Can you set up a phone on a tripod to get some video?  Would be good to see how they are reacting to each other when people aren't around.   Ideally, i'd put them in a foster home. Second choice would be to put them in an office- somewhere where they have more space. With about 98% of cats who we know are social but reacting negatively in a cage - they come around in a larger space.

These two cats are currently undergoing a traumatic experience, having lost their owner and everything they find comforting.  I'd do everything possible to keep them together (if they like each other) to avoid exacerbating that trauma even more.  This article is dog focused, but talks about trauma and how we can help animals: https://humanepro.org/magazine/articles/ask-expert-treating-trauma 

Let us know how they do!

Sheila

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Sheila Segurson, DVM
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
Director of Outreach and Research
Maddie's Fund
9258608284
------------------------------

If something had happened to me, my two cats would have behaved the same way. One was friendly and the other was not, and she always tried to attack vets and techs!  And like Andrew said, they may not be comfortable together in the same tiny cage even though they lived together in the same  house.  My cats tolerated each other but always kept their distance and weren't friends.  So yeah, try separating them and see if that helps.

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M Saucedo
GIS Analyst
Pets for Life
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Always a tough decision but observation is key, we rescued 4 cats last year and we adopted one out with no problem. We then tried to do another one by itself and she was miserable. The trio is always together, grooming each other and you can just tell they are bonded. We often talk about splitting them up to get them adopted but we just can't make up our minds. We then had other situations of pairs of cats from persons that went into a memory care facility and when they got to our rescue, you could just tell they were really not bonded at all. You will have to evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. What we do also is "foster-to-adopt" where we want to make sure the animal is a good fit. We stress to the potential adopter that, if the cat is depressed, we take them back and swap them out with another cat to find the right fit. You can always do a "trial" and see how it goes, some cats florish in new environments by themselves or with new buddies.

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Brigitte Ivory
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I agree with the space suggestions....if you have an office or foster home.  Just getting them out of the kennel may help immensely.

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Tracy Arvidson
Sand Springs Animal Welfare
9182462543
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