Changes

==The relationship between resident cats==

==The relationship between resident cats==

[[File:Cat relationships example.jpg|350px|thumb|right|Example of a diagram illustrating the relationships between cats within the same household]]  

[[File:Cat relationships example.jpg|350px|thumb|right|Example of a diagram illustrating the relationships between cats within the same household]]  

In situations of both [[Indoor Marking - Cat|marking]] and [[Inappropriate Elimination - Cat|elimination]] behaviour within multi-cat households, the relationship between resident cats is often an underlying factor in problem expression. Competition between resident cats for access to constrained resources, such as food, a litter tray or an outdoor access point, leads to stress. Cats may use urine spray and claw marking in an attempt to organise access to space; trying to maintain temporal and spatial separation from one another. This is intolerable for owners, and is ultimately dysfunctional for the cats. Hostile encounters around the litter tray or an outdoor access point my force less confident and assertive cats to find other places to eliminate within the home. </br>

In situations of both [[Indoor Marking - Cat|marking]] and [[Inappropriate Elimination - Cat|elimination]] behaviour within multi-cat households, the relationship between resident cats is often an underlying factor in problem expression. Competition between resident cats for access to constrained resources, such as food, a litter tray or an outdoor access point, leads to stress. Cats may use urine spray and claw marking in an attempt to organise access to space; trying to maintain temporal and spatial separation from one another. This is intolerable for owners, and is ultimately dysfunctional for the cats. Hostile encounters around the litter tray or an outdoor access point my force less confident and assertive cats to find other places to eliminate within the home. An assessment of the '''relationship between resident cats''' is therefore an important part of the investigation process.

An assessment of the '''relationship between resident cats''' is therefore an important part of the investigation process. Likewise, the relationship between the cat and the owner should be considered and questions about the owner’s reaction to the discovery of deposits within the home should be included in the consultation. It is perfectly understandable for people to find it unacceptable that their pet is depositing urine or faeces within their home but the use of punitive techniques may be a factor in perpetuating the behaviour and confirming the cat’s perception that the house is no longer a secure [[Feline Territorial Behaviour#Core Territory|core territory]].

Owners cannot be relied upon to assess the relationship between cats, because they frequently misinterpret feline communication and social relationships. For example, they may interpret all chasing behaviour as playful, and underestimate the significance of fights and aggressive vocalisations between cats. Most importantly, positive signs of stress and anxiety, such as the typical whining, agitation and restlessness observed in dogs, are very noticeable, but negative signs, such as the typical inhibition and reduced activity observed in cats, are often overlooked.

Owners often misinterpret relationships between cats in multi-cat households because they are unaware of the significance of certain behaviours. For example, cats will often be described as ‘getting on well’ because they eat and rest in proximity to one another on the owner’s bed or couch. Unfortunately, this apparent tolerance may exist only because the cats are forced to be close to each other when they are feeding or resting. They have no other choice because there are no other feeding stations or equivalent resting places. The cats may be very wary and hesitant whilst feeding and the owner will report that there are frequent bouts of hissing or spitting around the food bowl. Likewise, as one cat leaves a resting place or feeding area, it may be pursued or attacked and cats may attempt long distance intimidation, such as staring eye contact, to frighten each other away from resting places or latrines. Some cats will try to pull food out of a dish with their paws so that they can take it to eat in private. The same desire for privacy will drive them to make a toilet of their own somewhere in the house.

Within multi-cat households, there may also be "factions"; groups of cats that show affiliative behaviour with each other, but which are indifferent or hostile toward other resident cats. A simple way to evaluate the relationship between resident cats, and identify factions,  is to create a diagram of affiliative and aggressive behaviours between them (see example). This can be annotated with information about changes in the relationship, such as after the death of one of the resident cats.

It is important to make a formal assessment of the relationships between cats in the household. A diagram should be constructed to illustrate the relationships. The social function of cats that have died or been re-homed may be important so it may be necessary to draw more than one diagram to illustrate the changing relationships as cats have departed or been added to the group.

The names of the cats are written in a circle, and information about behavioural signs of the relationship between each pair of cats is added to the diagram. Positive affiliative behaviours include allorubbing and allogrooming, tail up and trilled greeting between cats. Overtly [[Feline Aggression|aggressive behaviours]] include chasing, hissing or spitting and physical attacks, as well as more passive threats such as staring eye contact, and threatening body or facial posture. Positive and negative interactions and their direction should be noted on the diagram (see example).  

Positive affiliative reactions that should be noted include allorubbing and allogrooming, tail up and trilled greeting between cats. [[Feline Aggression|Aggressive behaviours]] include active threats such as chasing, hissing or spitting and physical attacks, as well as more passive or distant threats such as staring eye contact, threatening body or facial posture, or spraying in front of other cats. These classes of behaviour and their direction should be noted on a diagram of interactions, as illustrated in the figure. This may enable certain factions to be identified within the household. Combined with the information already obtained about where cats spend most of their time in the household, this makes the allocation of resources easier during treatment. It may also help to identify feline despots. Making an assessment of this kind is important even when looking at a multi-cat household with what appears to be reactionary spraying due to conflict with outside cats. If resources in the home are sparse, then certain cats may perceive there to be a local  overpopulation problem which is made worse by competition with outside cats. Sorting out internal conflict is likely to improve the cats’ general welfare as well as help to resolve [[Inappropriate Elimination - Cat|elimination]] and [[Indoor Marking - Cat|marking problems]].

The diagram should indicate the general relationship between the cats, and whether there are factions within the group. In combination with information about where in the home the cats (or factions) tend to spend time, this diagram can provide useful information about where to place resources so that they are easily accessible buy individual cats and factions. It can also provide an indication of social problems that may need to be resolved. Constructing the diagram with the owner also offers a valuable opportunity to explain feline communication and social organisation with the owner.

==Identifying the Culprit==

==Identifying the Culprit==