Welcome to the War Zone

Panda appears to have declared war on Taz.

She attacks without warning, and without any apparent provocation. She is swift and deadly, like a Ninja kitty. One minute there's peace and serenity, the next minute the fur is flying.

And because Taz is devoted to Panda, he does little to defend himself.

Dante is the double agent - sometimes he sides with Taz, sometimes with Panda. Julius is Switzerland - when the fur flies he makes himself scarce and stays right out of it. Romi does a great impression of the cowardly lion. As I type this, he's hiding in a corner of the basement where he hopes no one will find him.

We have no clue what brought this on. The only thing the vet could suggest is that maybe something in the family dynamic changed that's making Panda need to assert herself as alpha.

The last couple of nights we've had to keep Panda locked up in a room by herself, and she was there yesterday while I was at school. We've put the calming drops we bought when the daughter's cats were living here in her water, and today I've sprayed the house with a pheromone spray that's supposed to keep everyone calm.

We'll see how it goes.

Right now, Taz is sleeping on top of the six foot high bookcase, which is his favorite place, and Panda is on the chair across the room watching him. The boys are wisely staying out of the way.

Panda was like this yesterday, content to just watch Taz, until Taz jumped down off the high book case onto the lower one. I guess he forgot to ask permission, because Panda flew into a rage and had to be locked away (once I was able to catch her and wrap her in a towel so she didn't rip me apart as well).

The big question today will be, should I lock her away while I'm at school or not? I hate to do it for no reason, but I'd also hate to come home from school and find little Taz parts scattered throughout the house.

I feel like I need a dose of those calming drops myself - I have an exam in Microsoft Word this afternoon. :-)