We have two cats called Muffin and Bubbles. Both are tabbys and Muffin is a 2 and a half year old girl, Bubbles a one and a half year old tom. We have had muffin since she was one year old and we rescued her from a very dubious looking flat. We bought her there and then and have lavished attention on her ever since. She used to just sit and stare at us all day and so we bought bubbles at 10 weeks old. She looked after him and they regularly sat and licked each other for long periods of time and played chasing games in the house. There were absolutly no signs of aggression. Both cats are normally very well tempered with each other and with humans.

Recently we moved to a new house and after a couple of weeks muffin began to attack bubbles badly. He has never fought back prefering to run and hide but often he is chased into a corner and I break them up by making loud noises. We never punish muffin beyond the intial shouting and waving of arms and we make an effort to let both cats know that we still love them after they have their spats.

Often a few hours after their fights bubbles will approach muffin again and she will either hiss at him and scare him off or allow her to sit with him and lick each other. I don't know what to do to curb muffins agression towards him. It seems totally unprovoked and way over the top. Once Bubbles started bleeding from his eye after a particularly bad attack. I have noticed that it seems to center around being outside which is somthing they couldnt do at our old property.

I really need some help understanding where this aggression might come from and how I can reduce it because there are times when we can't avoid leaving them in the house alone and both are exceptional at opening doors. They will spend hours at it if they have to and won't give up. We can wedge things in the door handle but they will just jump at it until it falls over no matter which side it is on. It is really hard to keep either cat out of anything. Muffin was already adept at it when we rescued her and bubbles has learnt the behavior from her.

I have tried seperation and reintergration over the course of a few days. It works for up to a week and then muffin starts up again. As I write this she can't be in the same room as him without kicking off but only yesterday they were sat on our large armchair licking each other for almost half an hour and showed absolutly no agressive signs. Once she starts she won't let it go. She just stares at him agressivly until eventually she attacks or one of them is removed from the situation. Usually bubbles will flee after a while but she still looks about for him like shes looking for a fight. I have also filled my house with feliway plug ins. they don't seem to be fighting over food because when it come out Muffin forgets all about her agression and they don't seem to be fighting over the cat litter as I have never witnessed a fight in that area. I have wondered if it becasue of unusual smells they might have picked up while outside but sometimes it happens when neither has.

Any clues?

Are they spayed and neutered?

It may be due to duking out the new territory in the new house. If you need to separate them and they can open doors, wedge a door shut so they cant.

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They are both done. I try to and it usually works but she can get through if she dislodges my wedge after multiple attempts. I am not exagerating when I say she will attempt it for hours. Its not my biggest problem although it can keep us awake at night especially because she meows alot while doing it. I have a feeling she was locked in a room alot before we rescued her otherwise I don't see why she would be so persistent. We have never trapped her in.

It may be of note that bubbles is the only cat to venture out of the garden and the first round of violence occured after he returned one day. Before hand they had a few hisses and spits when bubbles was going round the back of the shed. It almost looked as if Muffin was not recognising him. The problem is that they clearly do recignise each other now but Muffins violence is persisting. It is always unprovoked or so it seems and she doesnt seem to recognise or she ignores bubbles submissive behavior when she goes for him.