Introducing Cats – Nippin’ at the Wall

July/August – 2018

Progress has been less apparent these past two months. We still have the cat gate up and we still don’t think it’d be safe to take it down. But we’ve been making some changes in our routines that we hope will pay off in the long run.

For starters, we reintroduced Zylkene into Arya and Django’s diet and that seems to be helping their confidence a bit. Zylkene is a milk-based natural supplement that promotes calm behavior in pets. You can buy Zylkene from Chewy.com without a prescription from your vet.

We’ve also been instituting daily catnip parties at the cat wall. This was one of our cat behaviorist’s recommendations. We are going through a ton of catnip! (Our favorite is KONG Naturals Premium Catnip) Previously, we’d only sprinkle a pinch or so on the ground, but our Cat Behaviorist told us to quit being so stingy. So we literally dump out a handful of catnip during each of these catnip sessions.

Arya and Puddles are usually the first to start rolling around in the nip. They go absolutely insane. Django is a little strange. He actually prefers to eat the catnip. I’m not sure it has the same effect as rolling around in it, but who am I to judge? He appears to be having a good time.

During the catnip sessions we started moving the gate closer to Arya and Django’s catnip spot. We figured the closer we could get them to each other the better. Unfortunately, we may have pushed things a little too far.

A routine catnip party turns sour when Django decides to show Puddles who’s boss. After exchanging a few swats Django retreats in defeat.

Moments later, the catnip party continues for Arya and Puddles while Django bitterly watches from afar. Arya is in pure catnip bliss when Puddles decides to reach through the gate and take a swipe at her. The battle ensues as Arya fires back with some punches of her own. But to our amazement, the fight ends when Puddles casually walks away.

Now you might be looking at these videos and thinking this was a terrible idea. But in retrospect, these mini cat fights aren’t that bad at all. Even our cat behaviorist found the videos encouraging. All cats are “hanging out” and none of them were overly aggressive like they’ve been in the past. i.e. No hissing, no growling, no puffy tails.

I think we have reached the stage where our cats are “frenemies”. We still aren’t ready to take down the gate, but at least we are starting to see some progress.