I have a 5 yr old male, a sweetheart, friendly, unaggressive. When I took him in, I already had 2 other cats that are now dead. The last death took some adjustment for him. He knew he was alone and we started to bond more.
My cats are indoors. I regularly allow then out to play in the back yard for several hours when im home.
Recently, I had brought in an 8 week female, domestic short hair. Now she’s 3.5 months. It took them 1 week to get along. They play & sleep together; technically, she sleeps with him during the daytime when im not home & @ night she sleeps with me.
She tends to follow where he goes @ times and assumes in taking up his territories, like where he lays and sits on the regular basis. So instead, he is sitting on the floor or somewhere else around the house instead of his usual spots. During meal time, she has a bad habit of eating food from her dish 1/2 ways, then goes towards his dish and starts eating from his… then he swaps over to her dish and eats whats left. He doesn’t harm her in any way, even when I let her out the yard; normally the male tends to wander off to the other neighbor’s yard and disappear, but when she is out with him, he general stays close – so im under the impression that he is protecting her.
So here is the concern… Before he used to meow to me more often and purr when I pet him. Now he doesn’t moew as often (talk to me) and purr when I pet him. He lets me pet him @ times, but not like before. Doesn’t sleep with me anymore.
I do tend to have chat sessions with him and talk directly to him while the other trys to engage me. I do make the effort to show that he is #1 cat, such as acknowledge him first when I get home; feed him first, etc, etc.
I am under the impression that time will pass and his behavior will improve or go back to what it once was… I donno….
Do you have any suggestions and/or advice???