Freya and Siggy at 12 weeks displayed a social bond that will last for their lifetimes, grooming, otherwise known as allogrooming.

Cats in feral colonies groom each other as a sign of membership; in other words, they don’t groom cats who haven’t been accepted into the clan. With indoor cats, allogrooming is a sign of bonding, and that’s essential when you have kittens from different breeders.

Typically the dominant cat is the groomer; but if you are familiar with Freya and Siggy, our rambunctious white and tan Maine Coon/Ragdoll mix Siggy seems like the alpha cat. So we were surprised when Freya, our Maine Coon, began regular grooming of Siggy.

Then there was another surprise. A few days later, Siggy started grooming Freya.

We were excited to see this development. It’s a sign not only of bonding but of sisterhood. Both were born in the first week of May. Siggy came to us first very young, only 6 1/2 weeks. She didn’t have enough time with her mother. Freya came to us at 12 weeks. So Siggy had several weeks alone with us.

They were going to have a fun life together, and we will document that here.

We feel that the grooming came about because we engaged often in play time with both cats, stimulated them physically with leash training and treat-time, and gave them lots of hugs and kisses.