Chatzi is a 6 month old Bengal boy.
Our local cat rescue centre called us one afternoon, to see if we’d be interested
in him, as they thought he needed an experienced owner as he’d recently arrived unwanted,
and they’d been flooded with inappropriate people to adopt him.
He’s not a bad boy, but without firm and consistent discipline, he’d be very to likely
develop many bad behavioural traits.
He’s very intelligent and boisterous like many Bengal cats, so he’ll need careful
supervision being introduced to our two cats, Freya a 7 year old rescued Bengal former breeding
queen, and Teego a 2 year old Mixed Breed and also a rescue.
The first thing is to keep him safely locked away in his own special room for the first
3 days … oops!
Well, at least try to!
The reason for keeping a new cat locked away for the first three days is to allow the resident
cats time to get used to his smell through the door, and to allow supervised introductions.
Teego was first, as he was fascinated by this visitor, often sitting outside his door for
long periods of time.
The escapee is caught and returned, and runs over to meet his new brother.
Fortunately, there are no big problems with the first introduction - Teego very uncharacteristically
hisses a few times at Chatzi, just to assert dominance early.
This is Teego’s patch, and Chatzi’s a trespasser….
And he’s too close!
Chatzi adopts a classic submissive pose, with a low down head, no to be confused with lying
on your back which is more of a defensive pose.
A tense standoff then happens, with both cats looking at each other.
Fortunately there are no flat ears or flicking tails to indicate possible confrontation
Incredibly confident as he is, Chatzi is somewhat knocked off his stride here, Teego moves around,
doing this amazing slow motion walk avoiding making any sudden gestures that might escalate
matters.
Chatzi is frozen to the spot – not necessarily by fear, just surveying the situation safely
without creating any trouble
We break up the first introduction to let both cats calm down and relax again although
Teego wasn’t really showing any signs of wanting to go!
A few hours later, we bring Freya in - she’s a very timid middle aged Rescue Bengal.
You can see straight away that she doesn’t want to stay.
We’ve no intention of keeping her in against her will, but it’s good for her to see him
for a moment, and then see if she shows any signs of curiosity from the other side of
the door later on.
The Next day, Chatzi seems to be even more confident – giving us an amazing display
of fluffed up back!
Curiously, this is quite a half-hearted display, as I’ve seen it much more pronounced, and
usually the tail will double in width too.
He looks a bit like a miniature Stegosaurus!
Teego responds with an equally half-hearted display, you can see his back is arched, but
minimal fluffing up. he then sets off again with his slow motion walking.
Chatzi is clearly nervous, running on pure instinct, he’s acting defensively, but just
because he thinks he should – he probably hasn’t met any other cats before, and has
no idea if he’s in danger or not – so better safe than sorry
This whole episode is tense, but with a minimum of aggression.
Both are walking around, strutting their stuff, saying YOU DON’T WANT TO MESS WITH ME but
without actually backing it up with any actions.
As Teego approaches, he lets out a high pitched sound a Chatzi, which doesn’t seem aggressive,
but it’s unusual , as Teego is NEVER vocal but it is a warning.
Chatzi doesn’t really react, although he HAS got himself a little cornered there.
Again, Chatzi resorts to his submissive head low position, maybe because he’s feeling
Teego’s come a little too close, and Teego IS almost twice the size of him.
It always amazes me how cats can turn their back on a potential adversary in a tense situation
like this, but it happens so often, it’s not a fluke…
Maybe there are unwritten rules of sportsmanship in the cat world?
Again, Chatzi resorts to his head down submissive pose, but keep watching, he’s not feeling
completely beaten!
His ears go back, and he makes a semi-sudden move towards Teego!
But take a look at his body language – he’s still low down – he just wants to play,
but doesn’t know how to instigate it!
And another sudden lunge – It’s almost as if Chatzi wants to start something, but
doesn’t want to make the first move?
His ears are completely back, so he’s clearly expecting or hoping something will kick off?
Teego plays it ultra-cool as usual, barely even reacting to Chatzi’s provocation
Chatzi’s almost like that annoying kid in the playground that keeps picking at people
to get some attention – not so much a bully, but very mischievous!
This has all become a bit too tense, maybe just
for us, and we cause a little distraction to break the tension
Notice Chatzi’s tail position as he moves away from Teego and over to us it goes straight
up, like a happy confident cat
Chatzi gets a new air of confidence, and moves over to Teego
Little brat!
I guess he hasn’t read the rules on cat Ettiquette and turning your back!
This was very rude of Chatzi, and we give Teego the option to leave if he’s had enough.
But he makes it clear that the little Brat is much more interesting than outside!
All this happened on the second day of Chatzi’s life at his new home – Subscribe to my channel
to find out what happens later in the week!