You’ve Just Been Squished!
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Squish Relaxing in the Dining Room
All of our cats have their own territory. This does not mean that no other cat can be in the designated territory of another cat, but it does mean that a certain cat will usually hang out in a certain part of the house most of the time. Other cats may be welcomed in or perhaps not. It depends on who the cat is and what the circumstances are. Also sometimes territory may shift somewhat, but rarely does it just completely change.
Oliver’s territory is the kitchen, dining room, and part of the upstairs living room. Squish’s territory is the upstairs living room and dining room with a bit of the kitchen. So there is a lot of overlap of these two territories. This can happen when you have several cats and only x amount of space. The reason why this works out ok is because they are both Alphas. Alphas will bully and pick on the weaker, more shy, introverted cats. Oliver does tend to bully more than Squish does. Since they are both Alphas they don’t bother trying to bully each other and have some sort of understanding that allows this situation to work in harmony.
In fact, most of the other cats don’t often venture into these areas because they know this is where the “sharks” live. Some cats that are being hassled by another cat will hang out in this “Alpha” zone knowing that the harassing cat will probably not follow. Morris who is the pack leader of the semi-feral colony we rescued will often hang out in this area to find some peace and quiet from his pack. Since he is not shy or weak he is allowed safe passage into the zone. The rest of his pack are shy and introverted so they will not follow him.
Squish has developed quite an affection for our new dining table. It is large and has a couple of different open levels in the middle of it. There is also an overhang of the table over the chairs. When we combine this with a tablecloth the sky’s the limit in her mind regarding Squish Secret Spots.
Now there are some cats that like to hang out ON the table. Squish prefers all the other options BELOW the table. It’s a duel purpose piece of furniture. This can be a dining table when we eat or a very fancy cat tree when it’s not meal time. Seems like a real bargain now.
