Driving me Crazy

Annie is driving me crazy!  What happened to that sweet, mild little girl that I brought home from the shelter almost two years ago?  That Annie was eager for attention yet frightened of it at the same time, so would dart up to you for a little bit of petting, but then run away after a moment or two.

Not that I want my cats to be frightened of me.

But THIS Annie demands attention nearly constantly, and it getting more and more insistent on it.

I think that it's the new cat in the house.  If forced to guess, I'm going to say that she needs to be reassured of her place in the house, and part of that is to reassure herself that she is still in favor with me.

Well.

How this translates into real life, is that she is never very far away from me if I'm in the house.  She wakes me up every couple of hours.  She insists on being petted, and if I stop for any reason, she bats at my fingers - with claws.  She never draws blood, but I think puts just enough into it to let me know that no, seriously, she wants me to keep petting her now.

She also hisses at the other cats if they try to get too close to me, even Charlotte, who she was always at the very least leery of, if not completely terrified of.  Now, Charlotte gives her that "look" that she has, and Annie usually backs right down, but that she hisses to begin with is a surprise to me.

Yesterday I was getting dressed and she jumped up on the bed to be near me.  This happens every day, so nothing unusual there.  But Argos walked around the footboard of the bed to stand next to me, and Annie hissed at HIM, and then started smacking him in the face before I could stop her!

Argos didn't even react to it, darling boy.  I'm assuming that Annie wasn't  using claws.  Still...  not a great habit to start.  I did yell at her about it, and she ran off sulking.  Oi.

Last night, she wanted me to pet her all night long...  and sleeping was no excuse!  She even went so far as to go behind me (I sleep on my side) and smack me on the back to wake me up.  She was rather upset that I sat up and scolded her instead of giving her the petting that she wanted.  She kept insisting on being petted, and eventually got herself banished from the room.

I'm hoping that she settles down once she realizes that Romeo isn't going to take her place.  I think that it's a good thing that we're at our maximum legally when it comes to animals... I'm not sure that I could handle this inter-cat political situation again, at least any time soon!