Sofie on the floor & Kitty in the dog bed

Sofie & Kitty

I do not know who decided that dogs and cats could not be friends.  Miss Constance Kitty has always loved the dogs.  She was wild about Squash and now she sticks to Sofie like glue.  Sofie and Nine, the kitten, have become really good friends too since he joined us (Little Stella kitten is somewhat shy and gives the dogs a good scratch and hiss still on occasion).  Louise tolerates the cats but doesn’t really want to play with them.  They tolerate her too.

The only dogs that my cats know are the residents.  None of my cats go outside, so they do not know ‘outside’ dogs, and it is rare we have a guest dog inside because of…. well… having 5 cats. We have a strict, “dogs not chasing cats” rule around here, which works 90% of the time, but it doesn’t work at all with strange dogs.

I find it interesting that Louise & Sofie meet many a neighborhood cat when we are walking but that they clearly do not relate the fact that their friends at home are the same species as these furry things behind the trees.  I think they think they are just another kind of squirrel.

Sofie & Nine playing

(Just an aside: As I am sitting her blogging this with Sofie and Louise under the desk, Muffin just came in the office and Sofie started to charge him.  Noel was already on my desk so there was a little fur flying for a moment… so we still do get a little tet-a-tet here at the zoo from time to time.)  Anyway….  they all (sort of) know their place and they all seem to work it out.  I know that many a dog would kill a cat if it had the chance and we have had some trouble fostering dogs because of that .  You just can’t allow the dogs to chase or get aggressive from the start with the cats or it won’t work.  Around here it does work and I really enjoy seeing the dance that the cats do with the dogs.  I remember years ago my Alice cat doing that with Nikki dog, Kitty did the dance with Squash E Bear, and now both Kitty and Nine do the dance with Sofie.    A long tradition of Cats loving dogs and doing that rub in the dog’s face dance thing that cats do.  Just another dogdaz morning at the zoo. ❤