re: #390 reine.de.tout

I’ve seen that behavior as well when “new” cats are introduced into an established set-up. It seems to be part of the social interactions establishing what the revised cat hierarchy is going to be. Hopefully without a full-scale fight.

This sort of growl-state-pace can also be the preliminaries to a full escalation yowling contest/fight. And if the fight is a draw with neither party running for it there can be a long drawn out growl-stare-pace contest as things wind down.

Saw one of my cats and a neighborhood cat do this for 30-40 minutes *after* they apparently popped each other a few times. I turned up after hearing all the yowling start and they were 40’ down a hill slope where I couldn’t interfere with the festivities. They eventually backed away from each other to about 5’ range and then both turned and left the battlefield. Mine promptly came up to me and claimed victory. He also went to the vet the next day and got treated for a single fang wound in the bottom of his front paw. (All I can figure is that he hurt it *hitting* the other cat in the mouth.)

More likely it is not that bad. When my brother introduced two kittens into his wood shed cat population the resident adult cat hissed/growled and occasionally chased both the kittens for a few months. They’re one big and happy social group now.