Coexistence

Some of you might remember me mentioning how, when I first brought my girl Eddy home last July, I quickly learned that she was not a fan of the resident pup Astrid. Although disheartening, this was not really all that surprising. Eddy and her apparent litter mates had been captured out in the country at roughly 10 weeks of age. Then, for the few days before I adopted and brought her home, Eddy been fostered in a cat-only home. As far as I knew, she had never been around or even seen a dog before she met Astrid.

For the sake of safe introductions, and because Eddy had just been spayed and was also still struggling with her head tilt and facial nerve paralysis, when I first brought Eddy home I kept her in a large wire cage. This allowed for everyone in the house to get to know each other without direct physical contact. Remember this picture?

Baby Eddy on her first night home! (The little lady had just been spayed, so she was a bit doped at this point.)

While Eddy immediately loved watching and interacting with the other cats in the house, she felt far differently about poor Astrid. I remember when cat-loving Astrid first tried to introduce herself, and I remember even more so the devastated look on her face when the meet-and-greet ended in a plenitude of hisses and spits. After a couple weeks of unrelenting hissing and spitting on Eddy's part any time Astrid would come into sight, I feared that she would simply never warm up to the idea of even being in the same room as Astrid.

Well, I was wrong. Now, are Astrid and Eddy best friends? No. But, even though they still have fleeting moments of tension (essentially always caused by Eddy's disdain for larger-than-average Astrid's larger-than-life playtime shenanigans), they have learned to share space pretty well. In other words, Astrid does her best to give Eddy space, and Eddy does her best to tolerate Astrid's existence.

Take this sequence of events, for example:

Eddy approaches the open window occupied by the dog, all while donning a perfect glare. Astrid plays it cool.

Eddy tries to determine if the view is good enough to warrant sharing space with the mutt. Astrid avoids eye contact.

Then Eddy tries to determine if the smells are good enough to warrant sniffing the same air as that mongrel. Astrid continues to play it cool and avert her eyes.

Eddy decides that, yes, it is worth it, and settles in. Astrid has deep thoughts on the matter.

See? We have ourselves here a perfectly functional love-hate relationship between two perfectly good frenemies. I'll call this one a win.

Happy Tuesday, furiends!

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Our Tip of the Day:

Yesterday I mentioned how it is wise to be cautious when using topical medications, as some of these can be toxic to cats and dogs. In this same line of thought, be cautious where you keep any pills or other human oral medications, as many of these are also toxic to cats and dogs. Pain killers, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen, are some the most common human medications that can be dangerous to your furbabies. Others include decongestants (such as pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine), sleep aids (such as Ambien), and cardiac medications (such as ACE-inhibitors). To avoid risk to your cats and dogs, keep all human medications in a safe and out-of-reach place, and keep them separate from any medications your furabies might be taking.