Some kitty advice?

[Evelien]

I am not amused

We have two cats, two 7 month old sisters. They're best friends, they play a lot, sleep together and take care of each other.

We keep them inside, but by accident Nava got outside today and stayed there until we got home from work. I found her and took her back inside. Mila smelled her and drew conclusions: Nava is now the enemy. She does not tolerate or accept her sister anymore. She keeps smelling her but immediately hisses, growls and claws at her. This has been going on for about 6 hours now. It's time for bed and usually the cats stay in our hallway overnight but We're wondering if we shiould split them up for Nava's safety.. Or will that only make matters worse?

help

[E-Beth]

Split them up for now, then re-introduce them to each other just as if Mila has always been in your house and Nava is the new cat. It will take a few days and you may need to have separate food, water, and litter for them for a while, but they should eventually settle down.

Here's a good article on introducing cats.

[K2!]

I don't know jack-bananas about four legged cats, but I'm wondering if Nava needs a bath to get the "outside" smells off of her.

[kiki-chan78]

I second the bath idea.... if Nava got into something, that might be setting Mila off. If a bath doesn't help the situation, then re-introduce them as though they've never met each other before.

<3

-Kiki-chan78.

[DollyKim]

They've had that on My Cat From Hell, check the Animal Planet website.

Keeping them apart and reintroducing them as E-Beth said is the way to go.

[Greyhaunt]

Yea, same thing happened whenever one of my cats went to the vet and then came home. Cat #2 always had the proverbial hissy fit for a while and then got over it. In this case I think the chances are good that the cat who got out ended up with a seriously unfamiliar and unpleasant (to other cat) smell on her. I think that combination of bath with reintroduction will cure the situation just fine.

Cats are finicky buggers.

[Evelien]

Thanks for all the responses guys. We tried that bath idea but that alone didn't work, so We're gonna have to reintroduce.

[Evelien]

When I was at work today, my boyfriend decided to take Mila out so she'd have the same smell on her. Bad idea. Now they're both very agressive. On top of that, Mila is now extremely scared. She hid in my hobby room for about an hour until I managed to lure her out from under a bookcase by calling her. From that moment on, she held onto me - she was obviously really frightened - and she's been lying in my arms on the sofa as if she was a baby for about an hour. SO NOT MILA. She's now slowly moving around the house again, calling out to me because she wants to hide in my hobby room - my cats aren't allowed here because of my BJD and other fragile stuff that may fall over - and she's looking around to see if Nava is close ALL THE TIME. In the meantime Nava will hiss at her from across the room. I don't recognize my own cats anymore. I know we should split them up now - I read your link E-Beth - but it's REALLY hard for me to accept that they suddenly don't recognize each other anymore.

My boyfriend was going to college to study all day tomorrow but he will now stay home to keep an eye on our kittens. I'm still hoping it'll all magically be over tomorrow. Or the day after. This situation saddens me so much