Are you pulling your hair out because you have cats in your house that don’t get along? Fighting cats? If he does, I can sympathize with you, because he happened to us.

We have a lovely cat we call Figaro. He is a Tuxedo cat: black with white fur on his throat and all below, and white booties. We adopted him from a vet, where someone had left him outside the door in a cardboard box, along with 2 of his siblings. We called the vet at the request of someone we knew who was aware of his situation. When we arrived to pick up our newly adopted pet, who was as big as my hand, we saw the other 2 kittens and said I’d like to take one too. Unfortunately, they had already found homes. So we took Figaro home alone.

As time went by, we started to wonder if Figaro should have a playmate, especially when we were on short trips. We talk about it from time to time, but he never got anywhere. I worked full time, my husband did too, except he was lucky enough to work from home. It seemed to fall naturally on him to take care of the litter box. He took on that job without complaint, and besides, Figaro adored him and he adored Figaro. As time went by, from time to time we brought up the theme of a partner for Figaro, but now Figaro was a year and a half or older.

One day we took him to the vet for a checkup and there was a kitten in a large pen off to the side of the waiting room. They needed a home for him, they told us. Well, without much thought, we immediately agreed to take him. We never wondered if we were going to have a problem with 2 male cats of such different ages asking to live together. It didn’t even occur to us that Figaro had had control of the house and the master’s attention all to himself for almost 2 years.

And so it began. The new kitty quickly took over the litter box. He was very playful and jumped on Figaro with his paws. Figaro acted afraid of him, even though the kitten was half his size. He had forgotten how difficult a kitten could be. We call him Rusty, because of his orange color. Rusty liked to climb up the curtains, leaving little holes in them. He managed to jump onto the dining room chairs, which had leather upholstered seats. From there, he would jump on the dining room table. He left long scratch marks on the wood. Figaro leaves. Rusty took care of the cat toys, which we kept in a wicker basket on the floor. Figaro was clearly unhappy.

She stopped sleeping in her bed and we wondered why, until we found her soaking wet and smelling of urine. I thought the kitten did it. We throw it away. Then one day I was cleaning the rug in the living room and I lifted the edges to vacuum the floor. What I found was a bunch of what should have been in the litter box. What he didn’t understand was the fact that he had seen the kitty using the litter box constantly, so why would he stray like that?

Then it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen Figaro using the litter box since we brought Rusty home! It was Figaro who ruined his own bed and messed under the rugs. Things went from bad to worse. Figaro was no longer running from Rusty. In fact, now when Rusty tried to play with him, he kicked him with his paws.

After 3 weeks, I couldn’t take it anymore. My cat was miserable and my house was slowly being destroyed. I called the vet and explained my situation, apologizing for having to admit that he had given up on me and that I would have to get the kitten back. The vet was very understanding and said not to worry, they already had someone looking to adopt a kitten for his little girl.

I learned that I obviously lacked a lot of knowledge about cats and how to deal with those issues. The good news is that within a few days of Rusty being removed from the house, Figaro was well on his way to being his old self again. We had cleaned the carpets. Figaro was using his litter box again. Everything was fine again.