my boys are fighting, help stat!!!

[spirit3]

I have 2 males: Butters appr 6 (who has a headcold or allergies right now, may or may not be relevant) and Bob appr 4. Both neutered. They've always gotten along just fine, never fought. Suddenly this am they've been fighting like alley cats, very upsetting!! I have a 3rd: Spirit, who they aren't fighting with-behaving normally with her. This started when Butters was looking at the box in the closet that Bob likes to sleep in we don't know who started with who but they've been at eachother tooth and nail all am to the point one had to be locked in the bathroom twice. Right now Butters is sleeping and Bob is downstairs looking out the window. What could have caused this completely out of character behavior and how should we handle if it continues? We tried to keep calm and not yell or anything-we were shocked and upset. please help soonest!!! We love our little guys and hate seeing them fighting or unhappy in any way.

[spirit3]

We've had another incident or too, I noticed Bob just randomly picking on Butters for absolutely NO apparent reason-i tossed a bit of water on him the last time and that cooled his jets. He sat in the corner and sulked for a while and so far he's been ok; they were playing nicely a few minutes ago. I've also been making sure to give Bob plenty of extra attention; Butters has been getting some unusual attention due to not feeling well and Spirit's been getting nightly massages for her arthritic shoulder-Bob tends to get "Bob! Get out of the garbage!  Bob!! Get down!! Bob! BOB-NO NONONO!!!" so i've been trying to make sure to play with just him, brush him extra and make admiring comments when he's passing by and he seems to be settling down. Cats have feelings too-esp. when they're as smart as Bob! (We don't yell @ Bob all the live long day, only when he's  about to get knocked in the head by the ceiling fan or such)

[margypops]

just in a cranky mood ...lol .cats are interesting arent they I think Tweety sulks ,

[spirit3]

They weren't interacting w/us when it happened. What I understand is they recognise eachother by smell and Butters is clogged right now, he was in the closet when Bob approached him-possibly Bob perceived Butters was getting in "his" box and got territorial while Butters felt cornered in the closet by a cat he couldn't smell and got overly defensive. What was odd was the level it escalated to and the way they kept at it for a few hours. Happily by the evening we were able to go out to eat w/out incident and this am everyone is normal. Hopefully, it was a one time thing...

[margypops]

Could it be hormones as they are both guys  maybe spring time ? I did hear sometime that being fixed made no difference to how they feel it only meant they cant breed , I may be wrong as I am a learner were cats are concerned , could they be jealous of you ,does one get more petting ?