Relationships can be difficult...

...for cats in particular, it seems.

We have two cats, Bengals, sisters from the same litter. We've had then since they were kittens, some dozen years and more ago.

They are quite different in many ways - markings, personality, which of them is a lap cat and which not. Sonja is red, and striped like a miniature tiger. Nema, her sister, has a coat that hews more closely to the markings of the Asian Leopard Cat, a wild cat they're only six or seven generations removed from. She's spotted like a leopard and is more of a tan color.

Nema in front, Sonja in the Condo

They grew up together and, while on occasion they chase one another around and spar for the exercise, had quite a good relationship. We'd find them curled together, sleeping. They'd groom one another - though there was always the chance a tongue bath might change to an experimental "chomp". And then they'd be off to the races - and heaven help any poor human who stumbled into their path.

Last week, Nema was unwell. Something didn't settle and she was very much not herself. We took her to the vet in the late afternoon, early evening. The vet checked her out, and did his very best to calm the two of us. Nema was, by then, in no pain and recovering. He took a blood sample. The results the following day showed nothing amis.

And Nema got better. Whatever it was, she threw it off and all was well - with her.

Sonja wants to know who this new cat is. Actually she doesn't want to know. She'd simply like to kill her.

Sonja has always been a 'scaredy-cat', if somewhat territorial. Well, Mamma Territorial is to the fore right now. We can see her nose going busily when she gets close to Nema - and she neither likes nor seems to recognize the scent.

Hissing, growling, racing about the house, and fighting that goes beyond the previous sparring. We've tried a variety of solutions. Nothing works as yet.

Any future time we need to take one to the vet, we'll take both. Prior to this, for checkups and such, they've always gone together. This time, worried as we were about Nema, we made the mistake of only taking the one.

We're hoping time will mend things. That's about all we've got left right now.