I am nothing but a pawn in her rise to domination

Life is rarely dull in a house filled with cats, especially when 2 of those cats have strong personalities and are constantly vying for the role as head of the house.  For the longest time, Samantha, cat #2, was queen of the house and everyone knew their place. But the balance was upset 6 years ago with the arrival of cat #4, Olivia. In April 2006, a feral cat gave birth to kittens in our backyard. I rescued the litter of 2 and set to taming the kittens when they were around 4 weeks old. I found a home for one of the kittens but when the home for Olivia fell through, we decided to keep her.

Olivia is a little spitfire and from day one she has challenged my authority and Samantha's role as queen. But when Olivia pushed for Samantha's top spot she quickly retreated when the older cat put her in her place. The fragile balance was upset with Amelia's (the oldest cat) death. It's an upset I don't understand because Amelia was an easy going cat and Olivia more-or-less ignored her. But there has been a noticeable shift in the cat family and I've become a pawn in Olivia's game.

Both Samantha and Romeo (cat #3) became a little more clingy after Amelia died and were constantly underfoot or on my lap. Olivia is a smart little cat. Too smart for her own good. When I'm in the office, she sits behind my chair or in the doorway so the other cats have to pass her to get to me and when they try to pass, she tries to start a fight. When she sees Samantha or Romeo near me, she jumps on my lap. The domination game between Samantha and Olivia is near constant now and I've noticed she's back to challenging my authority again.

She's not a bad cat. She has her moments of being adorable, funny and sweet. She's just a cat with a very strong personality and it seems like no matter what I do, she refuses to see me as an authority figure. I'm just one of the cats...and a pawn in her game of household domination.