How to train my cat to understand cat social cues?

by Annelise
(Sacramento)

My cat, Lorie, a 14-year-old indoor/outdoor rescue I adopted 11 years ago, is extremely curious about other cats. He approaches other cats and follows them around.


What often happens is that the other cat starts showing signs of aggressiveness towards my cat, Lorie, and my cat doesn't seem to feel threatened or "get the message" that the other cat wants to be "left alone."

Instead, I have seen Lorie continue to follow another "angry cat" around, without showing any signs of aggressiveness himself (I ended up picking up my cat to protect him from potentially getting injured).

The problem is that it is the second time in the past few months that Lorie got injured and ended up with an abscess and had to be kept inside until he fully healed.

Since my cat does not seem to pick up on certain "cat social cues", I am wondering if there is a way I could train him to stop curiously engaging with other cats and following them around until he gets hurt.

I am sure some of you are wondering why I don't simply keep my cat indoors but he has lived his whole life indoor/outdoor and I have other cats going in and out so keeping this one inside would be very tricky.

Thank you for any advice!

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starstarstarstarstar 		That's a tough one
by: Mike

I'm not sure there is a way to do that. He's going to have learn just how far he can push another cat before getting into an altercation.

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