The Dish by Darcie

Alyssa’s cats, Princess Fiona and Meela, wanted to go out so I opened the door. They have always been house cats and have never ventured outside before. And may never again….Frankie was outside, too.

Frankie did not bark at all. Fiona growled and hissed a bit.

The moral of the story is:

“Stand your ground” OR “Not everyone knows what a play bow is“. Enjoy!

When I woke up this morning, Oliver was sleeping beside me with his head tucked under my chin. He’s around 80 pounds now, I think. I can’t lift him any more so I haven’t had him on the scales at home. How does a dog that big sneak into bed without waking a person? It was so sweet! He’s such a doll.

Ollie was over 6 months old when he came to live with us. He’d already been rescued once and needed a forever home. He is working hard to catch up with life’s lessons, learning all the things he should have learned from his mother and siblings.

Puppies should be socialized, learn appropriate body language, how to calm themselves, and bite inhibition before they are four months old. I started teaching Oliver all of this after 6 months. He’s done really well. We continue working on the fact that not everything is his. “Ollie, it’s not yours unless I give it to you and when I want it back, give it to me. Good Boy!”

It’s so important that anybody, even a child, can grab a dog’s chews, food, ears, and even fall on the dog, without the dog turning and biting. Oliver already has great bite inhibition. See me proofing Frankie and Oliver for Bite Inhibition.  (I had the flu when we recorded that so don’t look at me. It’s a good puppy video.)

Here’s a video of the first time I grabbed something from Oliver, it was a chew, so a wonderful test of who he is and who he will become…a good dog. I’ve been working with him since he came to us to insure that if someone in a high pitched, excited voice, grabs food or anything from him, he will give it up easily and will not bite. Watch his body language, it’s very telling for a rescue puppy who had such a hard start in life. Keep in mind, that Oliver gave up the stick quickly and did not bite.

Hugs to your Dogs!

Darcie

Meela

Kent went to Canada early this week and brought home two cats and a daughter. Yes, our daughter is back in Nebraska for a while and then on her way to Australia. She asked us if we would take in her kids, she couldn’t leave them behind, she can’t take them with her, and she knows we’ll love them as much as she does. Of course we said yes. The cats have come to live with us.

The airlines wouldn’t let her bring both cats, she could only travel with one. So Kent, dear Dad that he is, jumped on a plane and offered to carry the second cat back. They had an uneventful trip and the cats traveled well.

Princess Fiona

They came home to the Dome Home. Two cats, Princess Fiona and Meela, have come to live with DC, our country cat, and three dogs. Tilli, Oliver, and Frankie.

Meela is a calico and a lover of all people, this is her first experience with dogs and she’s not sure what to think about that yet. She’s a little fatty from eating a corn based cat food diet, we’ve started working on that already. Her new food is grain free, she should have her girlish figure back soon. She’s always been a house cat but shows signs of wanting to go outside. I guess we’ll see how that goes.

Fiona is a long haired, dark gray who isn’t sure if she loves to cuddle or not, she does make some great hissing sounds when the dogs come by. DC and Fiona have had a few half hearted slap fights way up high on the cat tree, no blood was let. Fiona is a princess so hasn’t let her food get to her too badly, she does have a few pounds to lose.

Oliver is afraid of Fiona, he keeps clear of her so far. He and Meela sit on the floor and stare at each other, nobody moves. Tilli stays out of the way. She’ll leave it to the rest of them to sort things out.

It’s been a parade of cats and dogs getting to know each other for the past three days. Cats hiding in out of the way places during the day, becoming explorers by night. Frankie isn’t sure if squirrels have invaded the house or if they are rabbits. She barks like she thinks we have intruders. We’re working on that and it’s going pretty good.

The guest room has two doorways so the relays can be run all the way around, out, and back into the room again. Alyssa was stretched out on her bed with Meela and a laptop when the two puppies came running through, Fiona heading that little chase. Fiona went up and over the bed, over the laptop, over Alyssa and Meela, and over the lamp. The puppies slid into and under the bed as they tried to put on the brakes. The dogs were called off and Fiona was found tucked away, hiding, safe and sound. We’re working on leaving the cats alone, we do not chase cats. The lamp survived.

Remember when we were concerned about Dancer and DC the new cat who strolled through and decided to live with us? That all worked out just fine. And so will this. It’s really kind of fun for me to have a new training problem to solve. It will be over much too soon and we’ll all be living quietly together again.

Alyssa leaves for Australia soon to go get her Master’s Degree. We are so proud of her. She’s leaving her cats with us, their Nana and Papa. These beautiful cats are everything to Alyssa, they’re just like her kids. They can’t travel with her so she’s making the best decision she can. They’ll stay with us. We’ll be taking pictures and posting here at The Dish so she can see them whenever she wants and you can follow the saga of the Dome Home, too.

And you know what this means now, don’t you? We have to add more cat stuff to SitStay.com! We knew it would happen some day and we were looking forward to it. We just didn’t think it would be this soon or because we took in two more cats. Now we have three cats. And an old dog. And two new puppies. And maybe another puppy coming. When will the madness end?!

I hope never. There are days all I do is smile. Or is that hysteria being held inside? LOL