Cats have been together for months but still fight.

Cats have been together for four months but still don’t get along

I(21f) and husband(26M) have two cats. Fig(2F) and Shallot(4M). Fig will have been our cat for a year in January and we have had Shallot for around four months now. When we first got Figgy she was a very loud and anxious cat, meowing constantly, seeking validation(pets, cuddles), and had major separation anxiety. She got put on some anti-anxiety meds but we didn’t notice any differences and we weaned her off and noticed no large changes her behavior.

After we moved she settled into our apartment much better and settled into our routine. My husband lost his job right after we moved and was at home with Figgy everyday for about three months until he got a new job. Because of her previous behavioral issues I was worried if we left her alone for eight hours a day five days a week she’d go back to old harmful habits. When she used to be alone she’d sit by the front window and not use the litter-box until one of us got home.

The very foolish solution which I realize now was idiotic was to get her a friend. That’s where Shallot comes into play. He was a street cat that wasn’t neutered until he was four years old. We didn’t want to get a kitten since neither of us would be home. We got Shallot two weeks before my husband started his job so the cats would have time to settle with a person in the house.

From what we know about Figs past she was in an awful environment where her owners had too many cats to keep up with and over 30 cats were removed from her care. So naturally I thought she just wasn’t used to being alone and when we weren’t at home she got overwhelmed. Fig was brought into the shelter with only male cats and we were told she didn’t get along with them so we ended up only adopting Fig.

Shallot was also in a bit great situation being an unneutered cat in a feral colony. It seemed Shallot ventured into a housing development for food so he was much less feral than a lot of the other cats that got trapped. The shelter warned us against another female cat since they can be territorial so we ended up with our Shallot boy.

They seemed to settle in well and while they weren’t exactly best friends they didn’t try to kill each other so we thought they’d start bonding at some point or another. Shallot is a very playful cat and is much larger than Fig. Shallot is around 12lbs and still fairly lean and Fig is a bit chunky and around 7lbs.

In the past month they’ve started playing together but Fig seems to get intimidated whenever Shallot chases her. I can tell when they are playing vs when he’s just trying to fight(which isn’t very often) and it really is just him trying to get some kind of interaction from Fig.

We are not looking for advice to rehome one of our cats we aren’t doing that. We are looking for advice on how to help Fig gain confidence when they are playing. When Fig is the one chasing it’s all fun and games until it’s Shallot’s turn to chase. About half the time it end up with Fig screaming. I often see this when it happens and Shallot will usually just have a paw on her or something so it’s not her genuinely getting mauled by him.

Thanks for whoever read this far!