Perhaps you can help me decode my 11-month old male cat's behavior. I brought home a 16-wk month old male kitten (same breed) on Sunday. My older cat is big, about 14 lbs while the kitten is small, about 3-4 lbs. We started to keep them separate but the kitten is fast and snuck out of the bedroom. He wanted to play around the 11 month old who reacted immediately with hissing, meowling and going after him. We've kept them separate at night, swapping cats so one night the older cat is in with me while the kitten explores "his" territory, and then the next so the kitten gets to cuddle with me in the bedroom and the 11 month old stays out with my mom (he normally sleeps with me).

Since the 11 month old meows pitifully outside the bedroom door we've allowed supervised visits during the day. While I'm at work, my mom says they have moments where they seem ok and will just regard each other, but then the kitten starts to move around or my cat just gets the inspiration to pounce on him. The kitten is no dummy, however, and while he growls and hisses like a tiger at my older cat, he can't do much else and just curls into a ball when the older cat comes to check him out.

The older cat has gotten much praise/petting when he lies next to kitten not doing anything but what starts as a curiousity tap quickly becomes a heavy paw-beating. I don't want to make my older cat feel unloved but I don't want to encourage this behavior! I also don't want to harm the kitten socially. He's spunky as anything if he's in the bedroom (his 1st room) and even in other parts once he knows the older cat is gone. But whenever the older cat comes near him he growls, and flattens, with reason! My older cat is purrfectly content even in the kitten's presence, but it's like once he remembers he's there, he feels the need to put him in check, and the kitten isn't doing anything, often sleeping!

Btw, he spent a month with a foster brother before and after 3 days of sorting differences, they were fast friends. But they were evenly matched by size; the foster was EVEN an UNneutered male. Help? Hope?

Julie

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