One cat suddenly doesn't like another

[kehorner]

I have three cats: Pat, Spike, and Captain Hook. Pat and Spike are brothers, Captain Hook is about 6 months younger. Captain Hook has been in the family since he was about 6-8 weeks old. He took to Spike, and actually "nursed" on Spike for quite a long time. Other than the usual play fighting and such, the three of them haven't had any issues with each other.

This morning, Captain Hook is doing this growly hiss any time Spike comes near him, and he's backing away from Spike to get out of his way when Spike walks by. Captain Hook is acting just fine with Pat, and with Bear (the dog). He's also acting fine with me and my roommate, letting us pick him up and cuddle with him like usual (although he's not purring, like he usually does).

I checked Captain Hook all over for injuries, and I didn't see anything. He acts perfectly normal, as long as Spike isn't coming close to him. As soon as Spike comes near, he gets all agitated and hisses and backs away. Spike seems to be ignoring him.

It's times like these when I really wish cats could talk... Anything that I can do to smooth things over, or should I just give them time?

[Traci]

Are you sure neither is sick? MUST rule that out first.

It's entirely possible something occured while you were gone, like a fight or some other incident (did you find anything amiss, like tuffs of fur, items toppled or askew etc). I would only give this 3 days to see if they start warming up to each other again, if not, I'd get them both checked by your vet.

[kehorner]

I guess they worked everything out. They were fine by last night. It's hard to tell if there was a fight or not... nothing was knocked over, and I need to vacuum, so it's really hard to tell if there's extra fur on the ground!

But everybody was just fine by dinner last night. So I guess it was just a little fight.