The POWER of play
TENSION IS RISING
Another way to determine whether your cats are playing or fighting is to remember that adult cats only play in social contexts. In order for the behaviour to be classed as play, the feline parties have to have a social relationship.
To understand this, you can observe how your cats act around each other when they’re not playing. Are they showing friendly behaviour and relaxed body language? Do they groom each other, sleep in physical contact with each other, and generally live peacefully together? If so, they are likely to share a bond and what looks like playing will be just that.
However, if your cats have a hostile relationship, are normally tense in each other’s presence, avoid each other, hiss and growl if they accidentally touch each other, or if one comes too near, they will view each other as opponents. Then, any wrestling and rolling probably isn’t friendly. It’s more likely to be fighting either in competition for resources or territory, bullying, or simply as a result of being fearful of each other.
Sadly, in such cases you might start noticing other behaviours occurring in one or both cats which result from the stress associated with the poor relationship, such as hiding, inappropriate urination, urine-spraying, and over-grooming. They might even lash out at you.
In situations where there is an obvious fight occurring, your first instinct might be to put yourself inbetween the warring cats with the intention of physically separating them with your bare hands. This is not only likely to result in your hands and arms being shredded, but one or both cats might associate your presence with all the negative emotions that they are experiencing in the moment, and this could change your relationship one or both ways beyond the end of the fight. A safer way to separate two cats fighting is to distract them by throwing a toy or treat and if this doesn’t work, use a large cushion, towel, or pillow.
Unfamiliar cats won’t typically engage in play together. When new cats are introduced there usually follows a period of checking each other out to determine whether they can form a relationship within their particular environment. If they do develop a friendly relationship, they might eventually start playing with each other, something which, happily, many of my clients have reported.