Kitty: 18 year old female cat who loves food. She's a bit overweight at 11 pounds and isn't afraid of anything or anyone. Takes care of Sinclair and Gizmo and puts them in their place as needed.
Sinclair: 6-year old, large, 17-pound cat that looks like a Maine Coon. He can peer over the edge of our counter without much of a stretch. He resembles a furry version of a baby mountain lion. He's terrified of anything new and won't hurt my small critters like rats (when we have them). Gentleman, and hardly ever meows.
Gizmo: About eight months old now. All black, highly intelligent, plays fetch, loves food and attention, not afraid of anything except Kitty. Terrorizes Sinclair.
Now meet Rosco. Rosco is over ten years old I think, and is staying with us for the week. He is my brother-in-law's cat. He usually faces a puppy and a pre-schooler. He isn't afraid of anything and regularly bites people because he can. He's very handsome but has liberty of the house - he can jump up on anything he wants. He holds his own. Usually.
So here's the rundown on how these interactions have gone.
Rosco meets Gizmo. Gizmo hisses and runs away. Rosco lends chase. Kitty sees this and chases Rosco. Rosco sees this and runs away. Kitty lends chase. Sinclair nowhere in sight. At the time, I assumed that Sinclair wanted no part of another tomcat. That was the other night.
Tonight, Rosco meets Gizmo. Gizmo hisses but holds his ground. Rosco gets closer. I expect a cat fight and begin to move into position. Sinclair stalks up behind Rosco and surprises him. Rosco hisses at Sinclair. Sinclair really holds his ground. Rosco runs upstairs. Sinclair follows. I bring him back downstairs. Gizmo runs upstairs and Rosco forces him to start back down the stairs. Sinclair goes upstairs. He traps Rosco. Rosco backs off, hissing and growling along with Sinclair. Sinclair then places himself at the top of the stairway and hisses at Gizmo whenever Gizmo tries to get close to the top of the stairs. Rosco stands around the corner as if he'd like to go back downstairs, but wants no part of Sinclair.
What I've deduced from their activities is that Sinclair has not been terrorized by Gizmo at all, but has been allowing a kitten to be himself. Whenever he hissed, he was just trying to tell the kitten to cut it out, but he put himself in the position to be played with. Meanwhile, Kitty won't let Gizmo mess with her, but she will care for him and chase away a perceived threat. Sinclair will then in turn stand up for his pride (as in cats) and make sure Gizmo is protected by both keeping him downstairs and cornering the foreign threat upstairs.
Talking about pride, you have now idea how much I respect Sinclair right now.
~w
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