Mickey and Bailey love their Cheerios so much they make little grunting piggie noises as they inhale the tasty morsels. Bailey taught Mickey how to make this silly noise; he never really vocalized before, but Bailey has quite a repertoire. Her ravenous grunting piggie noise is one of my favorites. Another is her happy grunting purr. She likes to make this noise especially with her face pushed through the fence, even when the gate is wide open and she could easily come around for a face massage with no bars to interfere.
Bailey also growls. Really. Not as often as she used to. She's mellowed out quite a bit. But every so often, when a fur-pulling fight breaks out, Bailey brings out her impressive growl which seems to intimidate Mickey almost as much as her sharp little teeth. She employs them both effectively in battle, but sometimes I think she just likes to grumble and growl for no particular reason. At these times, Mickey discretely retreats to the third floor office. He hasn't learned to growl, or maybe he's just too much of a gentleman to be so rude.
Recently, Mickey and Bailey seem to get along most of the time. I've frequently found them stretched out side by side for an afternoon nap. And they share their food now and groom each other. Sometimes days go by with no conflicts, then suddenly a skirmish breaks out and the pair are on each other's case all day. I have to close the fence to prevent unseemly behavior, and they persist in their feuding right through the bars. While I'm downstairs, I can hear them over my head thumping and running up and down the length of the fence, nipping at each other through the bars. The next day, all is forgiven and everything is lovey-dovey again.
So far, I haven?t figured out how to anticipate an oncoming battle. Nipping and chasing are usually preceded by some tense nose touching and staring with forward-pointing ears, but this behavior is just a likely to end in mutual grooming. Bailey's stubby little tail sticking straight up is always a sure sign of hostility, but by the time she makes this statement the battle is already in progress.
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