Buttons started to act strange today, he would try to nip Nova through the pen fence and press his paws against the wall and push to get closer. He sometimes reached her through the gaps in the pen fence (which are about 2cm²). She wouldn’t react. She would wait until he was finished and he would turn his back. She would then start licking his back through the fence. He wasn’t being mean, he was just jealous and a little frustrated.

I got sick of him acting stupid like that, and I waited until he did it again and I went to Nova’s side of the pen and waited with a water-squirty bottle in hand. He pounced at Nova, I squirted him… He did it again, I squired again. I ended up squirting him 6 times all up. He then stopped and was perplexed. He thought Nova squirted him somehow. During the Buttons-onslaught, Nova had turned towards me to see where the water was coming from. Afterwards, she just stared at me with a “I know what you did” look on her face.

Buttons went to the other side of his pen and sat there sniffing a bit, because he got a few droplets of water up his nose. Nothing too drastic. But I raced over to him and patted him, and picked him up for a cuddle, changing the environment completely. He settled down for a long cuddle. Later on, Buttons was sitting with his back against Nova’s fence and she started licking him again. He noticed, and turned around with a “I’ll bite you” look in his eye. He then remembered the water squirts and actually stopped himself from nipping. He turned away and let her finish licking him. He then moved away to the opposite corner and sat there thinking about it. I praised him for his good behaviour.

According to Buttons, Nova squirted him and he doesn’t know how. It was shocking. So many questions…

According to Nova, she sat proudly that I stuck up for her, not that she was bothered about Buttons in the first place. She wouldn’t move too far away from him when he pounced at her. But I’m sure she didn’t know how to get him to stop being stupid.

For me, it was good to see Buttons remember and think about it. He clearly needed something to snap him out of the behaviour, and the squirty-bottle did the trick. The squirty-bottle started making him mad and frustrated. I decided to not use it any more.