Claudius, our oldest and first furry kid, a black cat, has never been fond of our dogs. He can sort of deal with Panda because she’s generally more scared of him than he is of her. She just has a really bad, annoying habit of NEEDING to stare at him constantly. And she doesn’t stare at Claudius from a safe distance, no. She has to get right in his face and stare at him.
Now Mimi, she loved to be stared at by Panda. For her, it was an invitation to walk under Panda and rub the top of her head against Panda’s sides and belly.
I think Claudius would like to push Panda off a cliff while she’s staring at him.
As for Marcus and Claudius, well Claudius is scared of Marcus. Marcus has chased him around the backyard, cornered him in the house and has even tried to snap Claudius up into his jaws at least twice. The second time that happened, Marcus received a bloody nose. Marcus’ bad habit is to jerk to attention, or leap toward Claudius as soon as he tries to step beyond the little gate we have separating dogs from cats.
Since Mimi’s passing, Claudius seems to be getting real tired of having to compete for my attention with the dogs. He wants to sit on my desk or sleep in the living room just as they get to. (Ok, the dogs do NOT sit on my desk, just near it.) He’s been taking a real risk this past week coming on the other side of the cat and doing his best to stand his ground.
I’m hoping that eventually the dogs, especially Marcus, will get used to him being on the other side of the gate and will stop acting in a threatening manner toward him. It would be nice to get rid of that damn gate.
I love the way cats and dogs work out ways of cohabitating and establishing territories around each other. It’s more fun to watch them than most sitcoms. No, ALL sitcoms.