New behaviour question about rabbit and cat interacting

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

My cat and Sophie sit beside each other on the couch. My cat has stopped hitting her on the head which is great.

I've posted previously about Sophie circling my cat, shuffling up beside her and also binkying in front of her which some of you replied that Sophie likes my cat/mating ritual etc.

I will add once again that both animals are female and both are spayed.

Sophie has started doing something different. She has been following/sniffing my cat's.. erm...back end and it almost looks like she's trying to stick her head under my cat's body while she's either trying to walk away or sometimes when she's just sitting there.

Sophie also is suddenly obsessed with sniffing my cat's feet but at the same time she's trying to do that it also looks like she's wanting to put her head under my cat's body, near her stomach area.

Snakes alive, what is going on????!!! LOL!

My cat is being a real trooper with all this pestering! She kind of just let's Sophie do these things but at the same time she will try to remove herself from the situation by trying to walk away. I've had to gently push Sophie away from my cat a few times because Sophie was getting wayyy too pesky. It's funny though, when I push her away from my cat, she gets really excited, starts running around and does a binky!

Almost forgot to mention that although Sophie has stopped peeing on the couch, she peed on my cats bed! I cleaned it with enzymes.

Any insight on this? Thanks

 

[Imbrium]

Actually, "courtship" behavior often happens with same-sex animals/humans - it can be used as a non-sexual signal of affection. It can also be a learned behavior (meaning it still occurs even after spaying/neutering has gotten rid of those pesky hormones).

As for what's going on... heh... I can't offer a logical explanation, but I can tell you from personal experience that some bunnies will outright bully cats, like obnoxious little kids on a playground. They'll harass, instigate, play mind-games, you name it.

It could be worse. She could:
~ eat cat food every time you're out of the room
~ camp out the cats' litter box for the intimidation factor (I had bunny-friendly pine pellets in there for safety reasons)
~ pee on *everything* that belongs to the cats so that they won't want to use it
~ pee on all the "cat" furniture that was supposed to be shared with the cats so that the cats won't want to use it
~ generally harass the crap out of the cats to the point that they're not even comfortable going into the living room unless they need to eat/drink or use the potty
~ abuse the fact that the kitten was smaller than them when everyone was first introduced and, as a result, is still very easily terrified by a charging 3.5 lb lionhead
~ designate a "naughty corner" under/around/behind the mess of inventory for your online business that hasn't yet been organized and put away, chewing on things, peeing on things and committing general naughtiness
...and I've probably forgotten a few things, too...

Roo, my boyfriend's 15 year old cat, is lazy and begrudgingly tolerant... plus he's very wise in almost human-like ways when he's not fiending for treats - he clearly understood that it would be unacceptable for him to swat at my bunns, so he'd camp out our bedroom (where we spend most of our time) and stare us down as though to ask "Why the hell aren't you doing something about them??" Dusty, the kitten-turned-adult-cat, has never gotten over the memory of meeting two bunnies that were each a good bit bigger than she was and weren't afraid to get RIGHT in her face - seven months later, she still runs the moment Nala so much as looks her way or stomps a foot.

We had sinus infections during the two weeks that my bunnies were free-ranged, which is why I didn't know about the peeing for quite a while. Apparently Jay found out about it before me but didn't say anything - his explanation was "I thought you knew!!"; I pointed out that if I knew, then why wasn't I doing anything about it?

As soon as I found out about the peeing, I decided that the motherf*ckery in our living room had gotten ridiculously out of control - bunnies promptly went on lock-down in the condo for a few days and were not at all happy about that. Almost instantly, the cats seemed like they were finally at ease in the living room again... and Dusty would occasionally sprawl out in front of the condo, seemingly taunting the bunnies about their lack of freedom. Now my girls are back to living in a condo with playpens around it, because NOBODY trusts them. Nala and Gaz are cute as can be, but they are BAD little bunns!!

Unfortunately, I don't have any advice to offer, as our cat and bunny situation proved unresolvable... but at least Sophie's not as naughty as my girls!

[Heh... just noticed the part about her peeing on the cat's bed... perhaps I spoke too soon >< My girls did that as well; it seemed to be a territorial thing.]

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

Oh my! Lol!

Hmmm, not sure if Sophie would do all those bad things or not. Because she refuses to walk on floors, she has segregated herself to the living room and part of the kitchen only. This may be a good thing! Thanks for sharing

 

[Sindri27]

I have a declawed cat that hangs out with my male rabbit Usagi. My rabbit behaves the same way toward him.

 

[JBun]

It sounds to me like she is mostly just interested in your cat, though the peeing thing does sound territorial unless it was just a one time thing. Just keep giving her boundaries when it comes to how she treats your cat and hopefully that will help keep things good between them.

 

[Imbrium]

Just keep giving her boundaries when it comes to how she treats your cat and hopefully that will help keep things good between them.

Nala and Gaz would like to know what these "boundary" thingies are... and they say they're pretty sure whatever it is, they don't want none!

 

[JBun]

Nala and Gaz would like to know what these "boundary" thingies are... and they say they're pretty sure whatever it is, they don't want none!

:roflmao:

 

[Imbrium]

Yeah, it's hilarious if you're not the one washing all the cat beds and furniture ><

The only boundary my girls understand is the x-pen barricade that keeps their naughtiness contained.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

Well I'm watching her closely to make sure she doesn't go in the cat bed, although I really don't know exactly when it happened. The only reason I investigated it was because my cat didn't want to sleep in her bed anymore...go figure lol. Yeah rabbits don't seem to keen on boundaries...what's mine is hers, what's hers is hers lol;p

 

[Imbrium]

What's the cat's is hers...