The cats had a big 'ol fight. (Don't worry, they're okay.)

Yesterday, the cats had a big 'ol fight. It was horrible. Right up there with the two times Christmas bit me. Let me stress that this fight was not the cats' fault. It is not their nature to be mean unless they are scared.

Here's what happened.

On Friday, around 6pm, Jelly and I heard a loud noise from the bedroom. It startled us. Christmas had jumped up on the very tall dresser to try to eat some dry food out of the bowls we keep up there. For some reason, there were a few kibbles left in one of the bowls, so he obviously smelled it (pig) and decided to jump up to eat it. It's actually pretty amazing such a big cat can hoist is 17 pound body up on the dresser, but he does it!

Cat Olympics, anyone???

I immediately went to lift Christmas off the dresser. He is on a diet, so I didn't want him eating extra food. Jelly was standing to the right of me, looking all indignant that he wasn't getting in on any of the food action.

My plan was to lift Christmas off the dresser, put him on the floor, and then give both of the cats a couple kibbles so they felt like they "got something".

However, when I picked Christmas up, his back legs clawed at my chest. He didn't do it to be mean, he just felt uncomfortable because of the way I was lifting him. He was up so high, I couldn't just scoop him into my arms like normal. I sort of had to lift him up from underneath his belly. It shouldn't have been a big deal, but like I said, his legs clawed at my chest and I had a low cut tank top on. It really hurt. If I had a sweatshirt on it would have been fine, but this was a really painful scratch. So painful that I had to let go of Christmas, even though he was still a little high up. I tried to turn so he would land on the bed, but instead, he landed on Jelly. Jelly had MOVED over by the bed and I didn't see him there.

Both cats immediately hissed and starting making fighting/attack noises I had never heard before. They jumped on each other and rolled around, then came apart. The noises continued. Christmas had a crazy look in his eye- the same look he had when he attacked me a couple years ago!

He is only yawning here, but the picture gives you an idea why I was afraid!

I was too scared to put my hands down and push them apart. I was afraid they would come after me. I yelled for Paul (who was already halfway up the steps, even though this was all probably going on for about 10 seconds at this point) and then I ran into the guestroom and shut the door.

What happened next, I can only describe from what I heard, as I was safely in the guestroom at this point. Paul was yelling at the cats in a really deep voice. I heard pounding and stomping coming from the bedroom and I heard the cats continuing to make those strange attack noises. After about 20 seconds, Paul managed to push Christmas out of the bedroom, and shut himself and Jelly in the bedroom.

"Are they okay, are they okay?" I kept asking. Paul said he and the cats were fine and that there was no blood. He stayed in the bedroom, holding Jelly, trying to calm him down.

I cracked the guestroom door open and peered into the hallway. I wanted to make sure Christmas was okay but I didn't want him to get into the guestroom in case he was still in attack mode.

Christmas looked fine, but very shaken up. He was walking sideways- you know how cats do when they are sketched out. He looked at me, but didn't seem angry or anything. I summoned up some courage to try to get Christmas to come into the guestroom so he could chill out for awhile. I ended up trying to lure him with treats. It took a lot of coaxing but I did get him into the guestroom. He didn't want to walk by our bedroom door because he knew Paul and Jelly were in there. It seemed like he was afraid of Paul. Once Christmas was in the guestroom, he went under the bed and curled up. I shut the door.

Paul came out of our bedroom with Jelly in his arms. Jelly looked calm, so Paul set him down. He walked around a bit cautiously at first, then laid down in front of the guestroom door. He knew Chrissy was in there. He didn't seem mad about it, more like he was curious.

That's when Paul told me about how he got the cats apart. Apparently, Christmas looked like he was about to KILL Jelly, and Jelly was not backing down. Paul had picked Jelly up and yelled at Christmas. He tried to shoo Christmas away so he and Jelly could leave the bedroom and shut the door on Christmas, but Chrissy wasn't having it. Instead, Paul had to scream and pretty much push Christmas into the hallway. Paul said he slid across the hard word floor and then he slammed the door to keep him out.

It sucked.

I know you aren't supposed to yell at animals and I am sure you are not supposed to PUSH them or throw a pillow at them (I think he mentioned throwing a pillow too) BUT when they are literally about to tear each other's faces off, what are we supposed to do? Let them kill each other?

Then I had to fill Paul in on what actually started the fight. He felt better hearing that I had dropped Christmas on Jelly and that is what instigated their attack. We can't be mad at the cats. They were scared out of their minds. What were they expected to do? They are both full grown male main coons. Had the fight just come out of no where, we would have been devastated because we can't have cats just randomly deciding to attack each other. But knowing the cause, we felt a lot better. 

I felt very guilty for dropping Christmas. He had not landed on Jelly, he would have been totally fine. I just didn't know Jelly was there and I tried to get him to land on the bed but because he had clawed my chest so badly, it was just instinctual what I did.

Ow!!!!

We kept the cats apart for about an hour. Once Jelly was walking around the house like normal and I gave Christmas a little guestroom visit (he was purring and licking me), we unleashed the beast. When Christmas came out of the guestroom, Jelly was laying in the hallway. Christmas pranced into the dining room and neither of the cats even looked at each other. The were as relaxed as can be. We watched them for awhile, and they were totally back to normal. We did treats and then we all watched Colbert together.

I feel really bad that Christmas was scared of Paul at first, but it only took an hour for him to forget about it. I guess 9+ years of love and affection trumps 60 seconds of terror.

Here are some pics of our beautiful kitty cats! Normally they are very calm and happy!

Baby Christmas!!!

Jelly has the most perfect profile.

A boy and his cat.

My baby boy!

And here are some of my favorite posts I wrote about the cats... Most of them are more humorous than dramatic!

Christmas, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
Urban Cat Dictionary
I Think My Cat Is A Sociopath
Catspiration
Catspiration 2.0
Shitstreak 2.0 (literally!)
Ways Chrissy Ruined Our House

Thanks for listening to my cat story! I'll be back tomorrow with my weekend wrap up!

Any scary animal stories to share with us today?