We arrived home Wednesday evening, only an hour or so behind schedule.

This time, the cats were not hiding. They were all waiting just inside the door when we entered from the garage. Kali and Kinikini were clearly most excited by our return, because they are reluctant to develop relationships with other people. In plain language, the hide from our catsitters. Kinikini just somehow disappears. Kali doesn’t totally disappear, but only watches from a distance while Bessie and Kiko reap the benefits of being almost normal and friendly with visitors (and cat sitters).

The first two photos in today’s Feline Friday collection are of Bessie enjoying (a) the attention (and the accompanying toy) and the Churu treat offered by our cat sitter, and (b) the absence of Kinikini and Kali, who still periodically chase her and force Bessie to take refuge under a chair in the living room until they get past the bullying phase. In that sense, Bessie enjoys our absences. Even though she misses us, she enjoys the absence of Kali and Kinikini, who pretty much hide when our cat sitter is here, while Bessie gets treated like the queen of the house.

There appear to be lessons to be learned from watching how Kiko has handled Kinikini and Kali. When she first entered the house, she was only about 5 months to 5-1/2 months old. As a kitten, she had little fear of the big cats. She had obviously learned play behavior, including mock fighting, from her litter mates, and treated most of their aggressive moves as signals that play was coming. She did show respect, and back off if Kini let her know that he was not amused. But she would come right back and tempt him with her “come hither” behavior, not sexual but playful. It wasn’t long before Kiko and Kinikini were chasing each other through the house, through the cat tunnel and out again, and mock fighting for control of the empty Amazon box that now graces the living room floor.

Now the two enjoy a close relationship. Often Kinikiki will strut his stuff into the living room. From a distance, Kiko will see him, run toward him at full speed, and launch herself across his body, grabbing ahold and proceeding to bite his ears and perhaps take a playful swipe at him before dismounting. Meanwhile, Kinikini seems to enjoy the attention and just keeps walking, or sometimes turns and gives her a good chase back into the cat tunnel.

Bessie, on the other hand, interprets any approach by Kali or Kinikini as as assault, and reacts by seeking safety in one of her hiding places. And when she runs away, it just triggers their more aggressive behavior. We have tried punishing them for chasing her, verbally or with the feared squirt bottle, but it hasn’t had much effect.

My working theory is that Bessie was separated from her litter mates too early, and didn’t learn the basics of cat play through interactions with them. It made her comfortable with people, but kind of at a loss about how to relate to other cats. She never learned the skill of turning possible aggression into play.

She will hang around with Kiko, but so far that hasn’t led them into 1-on-1 games of chase.

In any case, we’re glad to be back. And glad that the cats made themselves available to photos yesterday, just in time to be delivered to you now!