IsabelleI have a wonderful tabby cat named Isabelle. She’s lived with me for over four years, and has never had any significant problems. Recently, though, another cat moved into the house. We introduced the cats through a closed door for a period of about two weeks, then let them meet, supervised. There was initially a bit of territorial juggling, but it seemed that things had evened out.

Until last week.

Isabelle suddenly decided that Artemis was no longer welcome in the house, and started attacking her. Now, Isabelle is a very small, thin cat. She weighs only about 6-7 pounds. Artemis is much bigger, and outweighs Isabelle by double, at least. This, of course, was no deterrent to Isabelle, who came away with large tufts of Artemis fur in every encounter.

We tried isolating Isabelle in a large kennel and keeping her in the same room as the other cats so they could see that she could hiss, but could do them no harm. Unfortunately, Isabelle became very agitated in the kennel, dumping her water dish into her litter and flinging mud all around the cage.

For me, that was the last straw. It’s clear that the message Isabelle is sending is that she will not allow Artemis to live in the same house with her. Unfortunately, since Isabelle is the aggressor, I feel obliged to remove her from the situation.

I have taken her to work with me today, and posted signs with the above picture, asking someone to take her in. If no one responds, I will have to take her to a no-kill cat shelter in Boulder this afternoon.