Well, it's been a week since the whole thing with Smiley and Fynn. Fynn is doing very well. The swelling has gone down considerably. He's still on antibiotics because a couple of the puncture wounds did become infected. He's been milking this for all it's worth and I've been indulging him, spoon feeding him canned food several times a day, etc. Now, remember, I'm already doing this for a senior cat who's doing poorly, so it's not as big a deal as it sounds. We went to see the vet yesterday and when I said Fynn wasn't eating much, he gave me a mild steroid to give him and that has really helped stimulate his appetite. This morning, he ate half a can all by himself, no spoon!
I have been keeping Fynn and Smiley apart completely, which wasn't hard since Smiley was hanging out in the buck pen where Angel, the other female is (it was her turn for being in heat) and that pen is as far from the house as you can get and still be in the yard. Till this morning.
For simplicity, I've been putting Fynn in the kennel here by the house to do his business. Yesterday, Harry (the pup) was in the dog house here by the house and greeted us when we went out for Fynn's morning constitutional. This morning, I saw a white dog butt in the dog house and assumed it was Harry. I let Fynn out and he went straight to the kennel door; he's used to the routine by now. As he went in, the other dog came out of the dog house (it's not in the kennel, it's beside it) and low and behold, it was Smiley. Fynn was already safely in the kennel, so I called Smiley over to me. He glanced at Fynn and looked away quickly in a classic move of avoidance...like he knew he'd done something wrong.
Smiley is extremely submissive to me and ended up on his back, right by the kennel door. At first, Fynn avoided him too, but I left them alone while I brought some wood in the house. I could see them at all times and the kennel wire was between them. Smiley just laid at the kennel door with his back to Fynn and Fynn just sniffed around in the kennel. In other words, they completely avoided each other. This is good, in a way, but it's not the normal behavior for them, either.
When the time came to take Fynn in the house, I put a collar and lead on Smiley and just let him drag it. I moved him away from the kennel door and let Fynn loose. He went straight to the house door and Smiley never moved. I left Smiley, went and let Fynn in and then took the lead off Smiley. A few more supervised visits and I'll be able to assess things a little better, but so far, so good.