So, active hostilities have ceased with the kittens, but there's still some ruffled fur and hissing going on - often a delayed reaction; they'll lounge near each other for a few minutes, then remember they're not supposed to like each other. Marty is doing most of the hissing. When it was just Marty and Ellie, they didn't have an alpha cat - Jeff likes to say that he's alpha cat, and really, it's true. Now that there's a third kitten, we're thinking that the cats all feel like there should be an alpha cat, but none of them know how. Marty is putting forth the greatest effort, mostly by hissing at the other cats... and then running away. We've tried telling her that that's not the most effective way of going about becoming alpha, but there's that whole language barrier thing going on (hap, I fill in those thought bubbles too. :) ) Things are settling down, it's just taking a little while.