Chatzi is a 6 month old Bengal boy. Our local cat rescue centre called us one
afternoon, to see if we’d be interested in him, as they thought he needed an experienced
owner as he’d recently arrived unwanted, and they’d been flooded with inappropriate
people to adopt him. He’s not a bad boy, but without firm and
consistent discipline, he’d be very to likely develop many bad behavioural traits. He’s very intelligent and boisterous like
many Bengal cats, so he’ll need careful supervision being introduced to our two cats,
Freya a 7 year old rescued Bengal former breeding queen, and Teego a 2 year old Mixed Breed
and also a rescue. The first thing is to keep him safely locked
away in his own special room for the first 3 days … oops! Well, at least try to! The reason for keeping a new cat locked away
for the first three days is to allow the resident cats time to get used to his smell through
the door, and to allow supervised introductions. Teego was first, as he was fascinated by this
visitor, often sitting outside his door for long periods of time. The escapee is caught and returned, and runs
over to meet his new brother. Fortunately, there are no big problems with
the first introduction - Teego very uncharacteristically hisses a few times at Chatzi, just to assert
dominance early. This is Teego’s patch, and Chatzi’s a
trespasser…. And he’s too close! Chatzi adopts a classic submissive pose, with
a low down head, no to be confused with lying on your back which is more of a defensive
pose. A tense standoff then happens, with both cats
looking at each other. Fortunately there are no flat ears or flicking
tails to indicate possible confrontation Incredibly confident as he is, Chatzi is somewhat
knocked off his stride here, Teego moves around, doing this amazing slow motion walk avoiding
making any sudden gestures that might escalate matters. Chatzi is frozen to the spot – not necessarily
by fear, just surveying the situation safely without creating any trouble We break up the first introduction to let
both cats calm down and relax again although Teego wasn’t really showing any signs of
wanting to go! A few hours later, we bring Freya in - she’s
a very timid middle aged Rescue Bengal. You can see straight away that she doesn’t
want to stay. We’ve no intention of keeping her in against
her will, but it’s good for her to see him for a moment, and then see if she shows any
signs of curiosity from the other side of the door later on. The Next day, Chatzi seems to be even more
confident – giving us an amazing display of fluffed up back! Curiously, this is quite a half-hearted display,
as I’ve seen it much more pronounced, and usually the tail will double in width too. He looks a bit like a miniature Stegosaurus! Teego responds with an equally half-hearted
display, you can see his back is arched, but minimal fluffing up. he then sets off again with his slow motion
walking. Chatzi is clearly nervous, running on pure
instinct, he’s acting defensively, but just because he thinks he should – he probably
hasn’t met any other cats before, and has no idea if he’s in danger or not – so
better safe than sorry This whole episode is tense, but with a minimum
of aggression. Both are walking around, strutting their stuff,
saying YOU DON’T WANT TO MESS WITH ME but without actually backing it up with any actions. As Teego approaches, he lets out a high pitched
sound a Chatzi, which doesn’t seem aggressive, but it’s unusual , as Teego is NEVER vocal
but it is a warning. Chatzi doesn’t really react, although he
HAS got himself a little cornered there. Again, Chatzi resorts to his submissive head
low position, maybe because he’s feeling Teego’s come a little too close, and Teego
IS almost twice the size of him. It always amazes me how cats can turn their
back on a potential adversary in a tense situation like this, but it happens so often, it’s
not a fluke… Maybe there are unwritten rules of sportsmanship
in the cat world? Again, Chatzi resorts to his head down submissive
pose, but keep watching, he’s not feeling completely beaten! His ears go back, and he makes a semi-sudden
move towards Teego! But take a look at his body language – he’s
still low down – he just wants to play, but doesn’t know how to instigate it! And another sudden lunge – It’s almost
as if Chatzi wants to start something, but doesn’t want to make the first move? His ears are completely back, so he’s clearly
expecting or hoping something will kick off? Teego plays it ultra-cool as usual, barely
even reacting to Chatzi’s provocation Chatzi’s almost like that annoying kid in
the playground that keeps picking at people to get some attention – not so much a bully,
but very mischievous! This
has all become a bit too tense, maybe just for us, and we cause a little distraction
to break the tension Notice Chatzi’s tail position as he moves
away from Teego and over to us it goes straight up, like a happy confident cat Chatzi gets a new air of confidence, and moves
over to Teego Little brat! I guess he hasn’t read the rules on cat
Ettiquette and turning your back! This was very rude of Chatzi, and we give
Teego the option to leave if he’s had enough. But he makes it clear that the little Brat
is much more interesting than outside! All this happened on the second day of Chatzi’s
life at his new home – Subscribe to my channel to find out what happens later in the week!
