# Aggressive Blind Cat



## livemath (Nov 30, 2005)

Hi Everyone,

I have a blind cat named Jose (Feliciano). Except for his lack of eyes (due
to herpes from birth), he is a very strong and powerful cat. He is the dominant cat in a house of 6 cats. (Everyone is fixed, of course).

With most of the cats, he just wants to play and wrestle. But he wrestles too hard for all of them, so they all shy away. So now he just chases them around (pretty good for a blind cat, too). 

My oldest cat Kody, however, he doesn't want to play with, but rather I 
think he wants to kill her. She has no teeth, and is 16, and rather defenseless. We keep Kody in a separate room. They have had 3 or 4
fights where I have to pull them apart (not easy). Kody has been injured
once (deep bite on the torso).

I have discovered something that I am hoping someone on this list
will be inspired to solve. The other day I was petting Kody,
and she slobbers quite a lot, so my hand was well marked. Not thinking
about it, I went into the other room and started to pet Jose. He took
a keen sniff of my hand, and then bit me! Not softly, but he drew blood
and was really trying to hurt me.

The smell of Kody triggered his very primal "kill" instinct and behavior.

(Just to be clear, Jose is normally a super sweet cat, purring and rolling
on his back and snuggling up to you. So I don't want to paint the image
that he is always aggressive - this issue is a "triggering issue").

I **should** now be able to use this to my advantage in retraining
Jose. I could collect Kody's saliva into a sprayer bottle, and somehow
use it to retrain Jose's behavior. We are benefitted here by the fact
that Jose is blind, so the number of senses that goes into this trigger
is less - just smell. 

I was thinking of doing something like spraying some Kody saliva
near Jose, and then putting catnip down (his favorite), trying to get
him to associate the Kody smell with something he likes.

My single college course in psycology is not enough to do this right. I am
hoping some people on this list have some ideas and recipes for things to try for this retraining. 

Thanks in advance for your help.
-Robert


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## The Cat Whisperer (Jul 23, 2005)

livemath said:


> .........I could collect Kody's saliva into a sprayer bottle..........


 8O 
The thought of that just amused me! lol

I don't have any advice but I am sure someone will come along with something helpful. 
Just wanted to welcome you to the Cat Forum though!!


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