My cat starts fights only when I’m around
I’ve been working really hard over the last several months to help my male cat (Ozzy) who’s become increasingly anxious and aggressive towards my female cat (Cassie). Long story short we have had many big changes in our lives over the last few years and with each change he’s gotten progressively worse - but it fluctuates.
We’ve made environmental changes, changes to our daily routine, increased enrichment, and have collaborated with a new veterinarian to also treat him with medication (it’s necessary, his baseline level of anxiety warrants it and it has been helpful). He has been cleared medically. We’ve done a lot of work to mitigate resource guarding issues and the fights have decreased significantly.
Here’s my problem - when I am around, Ozzy still picks fights with/antagonizes Cassie. He does not do it when other adults are present in the house, just me. So for example, if I’m not home for a span of several hours but my husband is home, Ozzy is chill and keeps to himself. As soon as I return Ozzy starts stalking/targeting Cassie.
They almost exclusively happen in our kitchen where my family spends a lot of our time.
I’m at a loss… what can I do to repair my relationship with my cat so I am not triggering him to start acting up? Our vet explained that it could be the case that I’m a trigger because I’m the person who primarily feeds them - but it’s not happening exclusively surrounding meals anymore. It’s legitimately any time I am in my kitchen and sometimes just in general wherever I am.
Can anyone offer insight? I would love to bring a behaviorist into my home to help us but unfortunately there are none within a reasonable distance to us. I don’t know if a virtual consultation would be helpful but I may need to resort to that. I just want them both to be happy.