Like cats and dogs

Over the past 5 days now, I have gotten a really good sense of what it takes to own both a cat and a medium-to-large size dog.  And forking fork is it exhausting sometimes.  It's brought out the best and the worst in my, and in the pets, too.  For instance, Beckham has NEVER hissed at a soul, until the night Geneva walked into our lives.  Ammon and I were pretty shocked when he did it.  What happened to our sweet, docile kitty that will let anyone and everyone mess with him?

 Yeah, he looks all nice and stuff, but it turns out his inner cat sometimes channels something a little more tough, Like a big cat protecting one of their young.  Except that Ammon and I are his young to protect.

Geneva has decided that she likes Beckham... from a distance.  After the initial "I'm going to his and take swipes at you" phase Beckham went through, he's settled down quite a bit around her, but tries to maintain a cautious distance.  However, Geneva really wants to be his friend, so she will just charge up and start performing grooming on Beckham.  It's pretty hilarious, I wish the two of them would allow me to capture it on video.

Then there's food.  Beckham is a total grazer, and since we've lived in this place, we've only ever kept his food in one spot.  That is, until Geneva came into our lives.  She had scarfed down nearly half a cup of ridiculously expensive cat food in the time it takes to do a slow-mo "Nooooooooo" on her first evening of residence.  We thought the simple solution was to move the food to a place accessible by the cat, but not the dog.  Wrong.  Even though the cat knew where his food was, he went all Ghandi on us and didn't eat for two days, and then kept us up all night with his yowling and scratching at the door to the closet where the extra food is stored.  So now we have to oh so carefully set out Beckham's food when Genenva is in her crate, and make sure it is put up again before we let her out.  And did I mention that because we now do this, the cat will eat his food, no matter where we put it???  Or the fact that the dog thinks that the all natural hulled wheat cat litter we use is food, and thus spends a good part of her day trying to eat it???

Overall, this whole experience could be MUCH worse.  They are both really good pets, and very loving.  Hence why they follow me around the house, everywhere I go.  It's like an animal parade.  I understand when moms talk about getting no peace in the bathroom.  Beckham has always followed me in there for attention, it's as if he knows he has a captive audience with nothing better to do than pet him.  But Geneva totally does it too, which is somewhat problematic, given the size of our tiny bathroom, and how disconcerting it is to have a dog plop her head on your knee while you're trying to get some business done.  Our next place must have a bigger bathroom, if only to accommodate my ability to be in there with a dog and a cat.  No exceptions.

I wouldn't trade this time for the world, though.  It's so sweet to lay on the couch doing homework, and have the dog peacefully napping on the floor at my feet, and the cat laying on top of the sofa just above my head.  I wish I had any pictures of it, because it is so sweet, but that means that Geneva would have seen someone moving around, and so then she would move too, and the peace is broken.  So instead, you will just have to take my word that it's precious.  And while Geneva isn't the ideal dog for us, instead of quenching our dog desires with a part-time foster, it makes us realize that this is do-able, even though it requires some extra maneuvering and patience.  So no permanent dog for us yet, but sooner rather than later, that will become our reality.

Anyone out there with cats and dogs:  do yours get along?  Politely ignore each other?  Play together?  Fight?  Hide in terror?