Tag Archives: fight

An Unwanted Guest


My stepson, Nick, and his fiancée, Chandra, arrived late yesterday for a week-long visit. They brought along their French bulldog, Cindy. As I was helping bring their stuff in from the car, I witnessed a meeting between Frankie and Cindy. Cindy was on our catio, and Frankie was in the laundry room. The door was open, and they were both face-to-face, seemingly smelling each other.

I thought to myself, Oh, that meeting went better than I envisioned it. Just then, all hell broke loose. Frankie started whacking Cindy relentlessly. He chased her onto the catio and under the table, where he continued his assault. I tried to get Frankie while Rose and Chandra tried to get Cindy. We were delayed because it was difficult getting them from under the table. When we finally did pick them up, we had to remove Frankie’s claw from Cindy’s back. During the scuffle, Frankie got me. too.

We kept them separated for a while, with Frankie outside while Cindy was inside, and then with Cindy outside while Frankie was inside. One time, Frankie was on the Catio while Cindy was in the yard.

I did bring Frankie in on a leash at one point, hoping to introduce them in a more controlled environment. That went okay, but certainly no friendship developed.

Later, Frankie was outside when our neighbor’s dog went crazy, trying to bust through the fence to get at Frankie. I decided he needed to come in at that point.

Once inside, Frankie and Floki met to plan their next move.

I don’t remember exactly what happened next, but a few minutes later another one-sided fight occurred, this time under the dining room table, and again, my hand got in the way.

Later, we sat in the living room for a while with Cindy on Chandra’s lap with a pillow over her for protection while Frankie lay in a chair giving her the evil eye.

I don’t know how we are going to last a week.

How Domestic Cats Fight


We all know that when outside cats fight, it can get brutal, but what about when inside cats fight? I don’t know about all inside cats, but at our house, it’s pretty tame. The exception would be the early fights between Chris and Frankie when Frankie first joined our family, and one other fight a year or two later between those two. It was so bad that we had to separate them between a closed door.

Other than that, fights at our house are more like roughhousing. Sometimes it seems they are fighting in slow motion. For example, here is Frankie and Floki last night.

Do your cats fight? If so, how do they fight?

From Good to Bad in Less Than Four Seconds


I saw something I don’t see too often the other night. Frankie was washing Chris. The photo below was taken at 9:19:20

Four seconds later, I snapped this photo at 9:19:24.

Between the two photos Frankie whacked Chris three or four times on the head. Why this happens, I will never understand.

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Back to Normal


Things are pretty much back to normal in our house since the big fight on Monday morning.

I brought Chris to the vet on Monday afternoon but the vet didn’t find anything wrong with him, other than his weight. We didn’t do blood tests because it didn’t seem necessary but Rose thought it would be a good idea since Chris seems more lethargic lately so we decided to bring him to Frankie’s appointment that Thursday.

Chris and Frankie were separated for a little over a day. After introducing them back on Tuesday morning, Frankie was trying to be nice but Chris didn’t trust him and growled at him for a while. I went to work so I didn’t see anything but Rose sent me this photo.

It was an uneasy truce but it was a truce.

By Thursday things were mostly back to normal.


By Friday everything was completely back to normal.

I don’t know any human who would be best friends with the guy who tried to beat the crap out of him four days earlier.

I took Chris to the vet for blood work and got the results on Friday. Everything is good except for a couple of things that are in a grey area. So for now, we will go on like nothing happened.

After the Fight


We had a major fight yesterday morning between Chris and Frankie. If you didn’t see the post you can find it here. Since Frankie was the aggressor we decided to bring him to the vet but after making the appointment we thought Chris should go instead. That decision came because Chris has seemed slightly more lethargic lately and because Frankie was getting along fine with Floki and with me so I doubted that a physical condition was making him irritable. 

Since moving, I haven’t found a new vet. When I looked for one yesterday morning none stood out above the others so I just picked the one that was the closest to home. I made a 3:30 appointment at The Animal Care Clinic of Largo

I put Chris in Floki’s carrier, which wasn’t easy, and made it there five minutes early. After a short wait someone put us in an exam room and an assistant, or vet tech, came in and asked a few questions and then took Chris away to weigh him. She came back with Chris in one arm and the carrier in the other. I guess she knew better than to try to shove him back in there. She told me he weighed 18 pounds, which was just over the 17.9 pounds on his last vet visit. 

While we waited for the vet, Chris did some exploring. 

He then settled down next to me.

The vet then came in with her assistant and we talked for a bit before she examined Chris. She did a lot of squeezing around his stomach, which Chris did not like. She also tried to look in his ears but Chris has always had a problem with some kind of black gunk that grows in his ears. Another vet gave us an ear cleaner for him which we don’t use as much as we should because he is such a pain to work with.

She did say that when cats lose a sense, such as hearing, they become more defensive. She offered to clean his ears and when I found out she would do it for only twelve dollars I said go ahead. It wasn’t easy. They had to wrap him in a towel and he kept breaking free so they had to keep rewrapping him. 

After the exam, she thought Chris was okay. She didn’t think he had diabetes because of his weight. I said that I thought diabetes was associated with weight gain but she said that cats lose weight and then gain it again after they are put on medication. She offered to do blood tests to rule out certain illnesses but she also seemed to doubt they were necessary so didn’t push them. She said basic blood work was $88 plus more for additional tests. Since I didn’t know what my cost was up to already I thought it would be better to save the money and bring Frankie in.

The vet spent a lot of time with us, more than any other vet in recent memory. That is why I was shocked when I saw the bill was $54. It seemed we could never leave our last vet for less than $180. If I had known, I might have said to go ahead with the blood tests. I might still bring him back after Frankie goes there.

Many of you were concerned about my injuries and I appreciate that. I can tell you that all my wounds seem to be healing fine except for my left index finger which is swollen right now. I am keeping an eye on it. 

When Chris got home Frankie seemed fine with him and almost five minutes passed before a fight started and we had to separate them. Chris slept in our room last night (which means I got very little sleep) and we tried to reintroduce them this morning. Frankie seems over it but Chris hasn’t forgotten and growled at Frankie so we decided to keep them separated for a while longer.

Puck Stands His Ground


I think I mentioned before that Frankie is a bit of a bully and that contributes, at least in part, to Puck’s stress and litter box issues. But while Puck may be stressed by Frankie, he is not intimidated by him. Fights happen all the time in our house but the most aggressive and unplayful fights happen between Puck and Frankie.

We had a night or two of cold weather last week and Rose had out a small blanket to keep her legs warm. On Friday morning I noticed the blanket was still out so I folded it and placed it on one of the cushions. I thought one of the cats would like to lie on it. I was right. Puck found it to be quite comfortable.

That evening, as Rose and I were watching television, Frankie attacked Puck while he was lying on that blanket. There were hissing and screaming and fur flying and yelling (from us humans) and when the dust settled Frankie was in possession of the blanket. But Puck wasn’t done  . . .

He jumped back up and plopped himself down on the blanket right next to Frankie as if to dare him to try to knock him off again. Chris saw what was going on and added his considerable weight to the blanket issue (and his weight is considerable).

cute cats on sofa

In the end, Frankie capitulated and peace was again restored in the land.

cute cats on sofa