The Training of Cats

[deird1]

Dilemma: Smudge is getting way too dominant, and making Elf's life a misery. Elf, being a big wuss, is not going to stand up for himself to change this.

Our solution: When we feed the cats, feed Elf first, and insist that Smudge wait his turn - thus asserting Elf's dominance in the food-getting department, and levelling the playing field slightly.

(This is not such a random solution as it sounds: part of the problem was that Smudge was jumping in front of Elf to eat food, and Elf would just sit there and let him, looking sad and confused.)



New dilemma: Because we are now feeding the cats in order, they've each ended up with their "own" bowl.
Elf has figured out that he eats food out of his bowl, and shouldn't touch Smudge's. Smudge has not figured this out. I keep on being woken up by frantic requests from Elf, who is starving - because Smudge has calmly eaten half the food from Elf's bowl, and has saved his own bowl for later. Elf is too polite to touch Smudge's, no matter how hungry he is.
No kidding: the last three mornings, I've gone out to feed them, and found Elf's bowl licked clean and Smudge's STILL FULL. And Smudge looking extremely smug.

Our solution: Um...

Comments

[swellen.livejournal.com]

Ah. Tricky. Of course they both think they're top cat because... they are. Okay, in that case I have no suggestions. (And given that, after 6 months, my older cat STILL hisses and growls when the younger one comes too close to her, you might not want to listen to any of my suggestions anyway!)

[nimthiriel]

Well, I'm going to make en effort to pat Elf first as well. I'll also be taking their food bowls away after 20min, so that there's no "grazing" happening, which is when the problem of Smudge taking Elf's food occurs.

Hopefully these two measures will soon fix the problem!