Get two cats, they said, they'll keep each other company. They'll like it, they said.
So, after 18 years of having one very lovely single cat (still much missed), we get two cats. Sisters. We have had them from kittens, so not mistreated or anything.
Fast forward three years. They hate each other, and have divvied up the house between them so that they are rarely in the same room. When they are, they swipe each other. Neurotic Top Cat bullies Soft and Dim Cat until she gets recurrent cystitis and pees on the front door mat, in the recycling basket and anywhere else she can find. We have to give her pills every day and she hates us for it.
Neurotic Top Cat also whines at us all the time, mew mew mew, but then scoots away when you try and stroke her. Meanwhile, Soft and Dim Cat recently had agrophobia for two weeks and refused to go out (we had seen a buzzard overhead and then next door's elderly cat disappeared, so we thought she might have seen an awful sight, but next door's cat is back, so have no explanation at all).
I know some of this is our fault - we had a baby and moved house. But the fuckers won't even sit on our laps, and it's not much fun. Normally I love cats, but to be honest this is really starting to grind me down. So:
how do I get nice cats out of this situation? (other than a straight swap, which I am still soppily reluctant to do).
and what do I do differently?
We've tried Feliway, they just hate each other a bit less with the diffuser on.
Sigh. Thankyou for staying with me to the end of this. You could have read a much more interesting post instead.