The parable of the prodigal cat: how do I get his brother to accept him?

Post date: 2018-07-19 09:10:40

We have a pair of cats that we had adopted years ago as a bonded pair. They loved each other.....until one got lost for four months and returned. But now his brother hates him! What do we do? It's breaking my heart!

Hank and Dean (Dean on left, Hank with Blue collar on right) are two brother cats that we adopted together in 2014. They were found together and were a bonded pair and are now approximately 6 years old.

In February of this year, Dean slipped out an open window in the dark of the night and disappeared. We thought he was lost forever until he returned four months later - a bit scruffier and 3 pounds lighter, but back home. Mrs. Karaage and I were in tears and overjoyed that he returned.

Took him to the vet, gave him a bath, and everything's ready to go for his return to a normal life.....except his brother Hank hisses and chases him and scratches him everytime he sees him. We want to return to normalcy where both cats have full run of the house and sleep together with us again in bed - but we're now having to manage this carefully by keeping Dean locked in the basement while Hank has full run of the house.

Things we've tried:
- Following the Jackson Galaxy recommendation of letting them smell each other in a safe space
1) Regularly allowing Dean to inhabit different rooms in the house, safe from Hank)
2) All meals are fed together on two sides of a door
Doing this has helped a little bit - but Hank is still a jerk to Dean outside of meal time and will chase him down.

- Letting them approach each other in the same room with us watching (this is instant Hank hiss and chase Dean back down to basement).

What else can we do? I've seen the feliway recommendations, but I'm looking for a protocol you can recommend since I'm not exactly sure how plugging something like that in will solve these issues.

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