It's probably the vet visit and surgery. They smell different to the one who remained home. One of my cats had dental surgery earlier this year. Our other cat, who normally grooms the other, and is protective of her, hissed and growled at her for a longer period of time than I'd have expected. Probably the fact that the cat who had had the surgery came home with stitches in her mouth caused her to continue to smell different for days after she returned home. We went through something similar when one of our previous cats had major surgery to remove a fibrosarcoma. Until her fur started to grow back in after she was shaved for a very long incision down her back, our other cat would have nothing to do with her besides hissing and growling at her. Give it time, and things should return to normal on its own. Good luck!

I've had cats all my life, too, and I currently have five. Even tho it's been a year for Amy, and that seems like a long time, given all that's happened in her little life, as well as in the other cats' lives, I'd just give it more time and I think they'll work it out. One of my cats, a rescue, that I've had for years, is still making progress in not being scared and being around everyone. A couple of my cats still spit spat from time to time. I yell "NO" to them also, and they get it. Another cat that I adopted is a big male that was my neighbors' cat. Before I adopted him, he used to come over and chase my girls (other four cats) around. Even after many years, he still occasionally chases the littlest girl sometimes; but for the most part, he's stopped chasing. I brought two dogs into the household two years ago, and I still see the relationships b/t the dogs and the cats evolving. Even with my pigs (yes, I have potbellies), their relationship seemed to evolve into a more friendly one over time. IMHO, animals, like us, have different personalities and, therefore, interact differently at different times, depending on their moods, energy levels, etc. That's one of the things I like about having multiple cats, is that they hang out with each other at different times. It's been really interesting to see their relationships develop. Cali may be trying to assert herself as dominant, and once she feels that's accomplished, back off a bit. There still may be some jealousy involved. Amy is still very young. I think that they all have to understand that YOU are the boss and you are the dominant one. I really like Lukki's idea above. If it is a territorial issue, they will see that you are in control, not them. Good luck, Betsy

Is it possible that you are separating them too much? When we added a new kitty recently I was a little nervous because the office I got him from said he was found (trapped) in an abandoned house situation (probably feral). He hid in the back of the cage when we visited several times before deciding to take him and taking on the issues with the feral personality possibilities. He has been with us for 6 mos now. Still a little skittish,but he relates well with the other 2 male neutered cats and is attached at the hip to my daughter. He usually runs from me but I think that's because she was able to build a relationship with him since she got him during the summer when she had big blocks of time to spend with him in her room while he was first isolated from the rest of the animals. It was so funny the first few days. He kept approaching our middle cat, Handsome (under supervision, of course) Well, Handsome wanted nothing to do with this new addition. He was a little more than angry that this new kitty appeared at the house. Actually we got the kitty to be Handsome's buddy because the oldest cat is kind of antisocial and doesn't play much with Handsome. Any way, when Louie (new kitten) came anywhere near Handsome he freaked out. Hissed, spit ran from the upstairs. That was the first couple of days. Then Handsome took to laying on a dresser in the upstairs hall and watching Louie and every time we would allow the new kitty out Handsome would spit and hiss but keep his post on the dresser to watch him closely. BTW during this time Handsome hissed and spit at everyone in the house, cats, dogs, people. He was just plain miserable. We were floored because Handsome is such a lovey kitty thought for sure he would just love having a new bud. My daughter was in tears for fear it wouldn't work out but we told her just give it time. Have had plenty of cats over the years and it always does. Haven't ever had a situation where it didn't. It did. After a few weeks of angry Handsome behavior they made friends. Now they are inseparable. I am so surprised that things aren't working out differently for you. Handsome used Louie's box of course to mark it but he didn't spray. I don't know about the male/female thing since I've always had males. I hope somebody has a solution. The only thing I can think of is just bringing them together more. As for the peeing thing. Did you have her checked for any type of urinary infection. Cats that are litter trained usually don't go outside of their box unless they have a medical issue or I guess a behavioral one. My SIL cat started going out of the box once but that was because she has 3 cats and one box and wasn't the best at scooping frequently. Hope you don't have to give the kitty up.

A quick update on our progress, for anyone else in the same situation. The cat has been here for 7 months, truly a lovely cat who enjoys sitting on laps, purring and chasing strings. He spends most of his time upstairs with occasional supervised visits downstairs. We put a gate across the landing to keep the dogs from going up. The gate slides open and closed, and we keep it open just enough for the cat to get through if he wants to. Just recently, he's been venturing downstairs on his own. He usually only does this when someone is in the living room, that he can see from the top of the stairs. The Shiba dog is most curious about the cat, but she keeps her distance and is not at all threatening. What's funny is that it's the cat who's more in-your-face than the dog. For example, last night the dog was snoozing peacefully by the couch. The cat jumped up on the sofa table and perched on the side by the dog (think Snoopy in his vulture mode). When the dog looked up, the cat hissed as if the dog had offended him somehow. The dog slunk away. My other dog spends most of her day sleeping in my home office, so doesn't really interact with the cat at all. So we're slowly integrating all animals. It's taken 7 months to get this far, but even so I think we're on the right track.