Dominance and submission
November 10, 2002
Simon’s been holding Galen down by the neck at least once a day that I know of lately. He holds on for a while and sometimes doesn’t let go when I call to him. I hear cat mewling noises so go to see what’s up. Galen is the one mewling- but not like he is in great distress, perhaps just meekly protesting and asking to get up like a baby kitten does when his mother is sitting on him to control him. Twice, I heard Simon do his “I got some prey” call that he does when he has brought in a bug, only to find him clamped onto Galen’s neck, like Galen is what he brought in.
When I go to them and Simon finally detaches, Galen just reclines on his side next to Simon and looks at me. He does not seem upset about it and certainly could have left the area. Today, though, Simon would not let go even when I shook a bag of treats, which usually gets him to come running. I had to push on him to make him let go. But then Galen just reclined calmly next to him and just looked at me. Simon does not hiss at or try to fight Galen. Just holds him down. It seems almost like they both like it.
They are both neutered and almost the same size- Galen about 9.5 lbs and Simon 13, but about as tall and long as one another. They are 3 and some months years-old and lived together for a bit over two years. Simon is from the streets and Galen was born in my house, being babied.
I was thinking maybe there is some outside cat getting Simon stirred up so he is trying to control the cat next to him since he can’t get to any cat outside, but it is only with Galen that he does this.
Now, Galen does a similar thing to Minerva sometimes, but only when she has been pushing on him, pestering him to interact with her.
Sumner has been making challenging behaviors to Simon, such as smacking Simon when Simon passes by. Minerva gives Simon no respect at all- just hisses if he gets too close. Jolie is no push over either and is too quick and agile for Simon to catch easily, being that she can dart into smaller spaces than Simon, plus she hisses when the others bug her. Galen is generally docile and I never heard him hiss (he did growl if someone tried to nab his Halo Chicken treats, but that is an extreme circumstance). Maybe Simon fears he is losing control of his kingdom and Galen is the only one he can definitely control so Galen gets an extra dose of it whenever the others “disrespect” Simon?