Am I cruel to keep my cat?

[RolyHippo]

I'm at a bit of a loss on what to do with one of my cats and looking for a bit of advice.

We have 2 cats, a dog, DS1 who is nearly 3 and DS2 who is 4 months. The animals get on reasonably well together, black cat can be a bit of a thug to grey cat but previously we seem to have managed this ok. Since DS2's birth things don't seem to be going so well. Grey cat is prone to episodes of stress cystitis (normally brought about by black cats thuggish antics). Black cat has stepped up her bulling and also appears to be pulling out her own fur. Most of the fur on her belly and inside back legs has gone and she's now pulling out the hair around the base of her tail. I'm thinking that this is probably stress related.

Any ideas on how to combat this? Unfortunately DS1 has a habit of shouting and chasing the cats (this is discouraged and punished) and I think this may be the main source of black kitty's stress. I'm worried that my only option is to rehome her, she's an RSPCA kitty so would need to go back there. I would feel like a terrible pet owner doing this but can't decide whether this would actually be the kindest thing to do.

Has she got a high up place he can’t get her? Like a tall cat tree or a stair gate on the lounge door so she can escape?.

Zylkene might help her. Your ds will learn eventually.

We have a stair gate at the bottom of the stairs, and a downstairs bedroom where the cats sleep on the top bunk. So long as they've got somewhere to escape to, they should be ok.

They have cat scratching posts and high up places. The main issue seems to be when she comes downstairs to stand and watch out of the back door (if you open the door to let her go out she won't always go).

Can you block that area off from the kids?.

It's in the main living area unfortunately so we can't. We're even looking at building an extension that can give the cats their own area but that's a little way off!

Have you tried a Feliway plug-in?

For some reason Feliway makes my lips swell! I'm just been googling alternatives so will try one of those, thank you!

I’d rehome DS1 to be honest. Seriously, you need to clamp down on this behaviour. If he has, as you say, a habit of shouting and chasing the poor cat then you’re obviously not discouraging/punishing effectively. If you can’t provide a safe and pleasant environment for your poor cats then I’d seriously consider rehoming them with someone who can.

@AlexaAmbidextra I'm going to assume you haven't got children. If I didn't care about my animals I wouldn't be asking for advice. I want to do what's best for everyone.