The Stare Down...

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know we have two cats, one we brought home as a kitten from my cousin's farm in Idaho, and the second, we rescued from off the street.

They do not get along.

We keep them separated.

It's not as hard as it seems. The tabby--a male--sleeps most of the day upstairs in the kids' rooms behind a door. He then likes to go outside in the evening or late afternoon to hunt or do whatever cats do outside at night.

Our other cat--the female long hair--stays inside, mostly. She sleeps in various places throughout the day, and we put her in the laundry room at night behind a closed door. There have been times, very few times, when both felines have been together. It does not go well. It is the family consensus that the tabby is the instigator. 

The Taylor family has kept up this cat cold war since January 2012. Like I said, once you have a system it works out.

Last fall we introduced a new wrinkle in the system. It's a door. Normally, doors are a good way to separate the cats. This door, however, is different. It's transparent and the animals can see each other through it. We got the door last fall and didn't have many opportunities to use it before it got too cold. This spring we've used it a lot. When we first put it up, we had animals running through it. Thankfully, it's easy to fix. Still, I wonder what the cats think of the door. Do they think it will stop them? With enough speed they can go through it.

Tonight I watched a stare down. The tabby was outside and the other was in. I took out my camera and began taking pictures. My son built a box house for the cats and they've used it to a degree. The female sat inside staring out at the tabby.

My youngest thinks that if both cats could be near each other more, they might end up liking each other. I'm no cat expert, but I don't think that will happen, no matter how many stare downs the cats have. Still, it was fun watching our two cats interact, even though it was on opposite sides of a screen door.