I have 2 cats. The first, a female, I adopted as a kitten 5 years ago. The second, also a female, I found last summer as a young stray outside my apartment. I took her in, got her fixed, the whole nine yards.
Cat #1 was extremely close to my absolute soul mate cat who passed away about 7 months before I took in Cat #2. They didn’t get along right away, but I thought that with time, they would adjust. However, it’s been a year, and things have only gotten worse.
Cat #1 is cranky all the time now, and Cat #2 stalks and hunts her. They eat separately, have separate litter boxes, and plenty of places to climb and have their own space, but they still sit next to each other and growl. They fight all night. Sometimes I wake up to find litter scattered everywhere and things knocked over—it looks like someone broke in.
I even took them both to the vet (separately) a couple of months after their regular checkups to see if there was anything causing extra agitation, but the vet didn’t find anything. They only suggested putting one of them on some kind of kitty Prozac.
I’ve tried everything: calming sprays, diffusers, separating them (which just makes me feel bad because they’re both very clingy to me), eating together, eating apart, playing together, catnip, tarot readings—you name it, I’ve tried it.
My last resort is rehoming Cat #2, but then I look at her, and her brain is just so small. I’m really torn about what to do.