Pirate Alert! Merlin reveals his true colors

So our "peaceful" and seemingly benign senior Coonie is not who we thought he was. He's been terrorizing our other male, Sampson. Poor DH had to clean up the aftermath of Sampson's panic attacks. Merlin will stalk him and chase him, and Sampson screams like a demon because he's so scared. So far there's not been any physical altercations between them, but I worry. We cleaned the mess with an enzyme cleaner and I sprayed Sampson's "bad kitty" area with Feliway.
But yeah, the proverbial cat is out of the bag: old Merlin is a pirate!!

oh dear! :-S well, you were worried HE would be the one being bullied....
hope Sampson is ok though... not nice if they don't get on...

Sampson is an anxious cat. He may be a 24lb orange giant but he's gentle and hates conflict. He scares easily: if there's a storm, Sampson hides under the bed and cries or growls. If he gets a bath he goes to the basement and relieves himself in a corner. When we adopted him, he cowered when we petted him, as if he was expecting to be hit :-( I know he will calm down eventually, but it's hard to see him suffer. Catnip and extra playtime helps, but the weather here is bitterly cold and his outdoor time has been limited.
Merlin is purring on my lap, acting all innocent...Pirate!!

yeah Pirates do that - cuddle after doing pirate things that is - and the worst thing is you HAVE to cuddle, the alternative is unthinkable!
hey have you thought a Feliway plug-in? it seems to have done wonders for my pirate when she was at her piratest... it does take a lot of time to act, about 3 weeks, but it's good especially for anxious cats like Sampson...

I have not tried the plug-in, perhaps when $$ isn't so tight I will get one. Merlin's food needs are rather expensive!
He's a healthy pirate, had his checkup this morning. When the vet first saw him he only weighed 6.5lbs :-( He's up to 10lbs now and everything looks great! He's definitely got some hip issues and arthritis but he doesn't seem to be in pain, so the vet said he doesn't need anything else unless it seems like Merlin is uncomfortable.

I wonder if we can give them fish oil, same as humans, to help with joints...
if you want to try the plug in, they have cheaper alternatives to feliway on amazon - I tried them for Neevie when she was extra-piraty and it SEEMED to have an effect (hard to tell, I don't think the issue was anxiety but more hormones so... I think it is supposed to work much better on the anxiety thing)