Dogs and Cats Living Together: Six Month Update

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

29 Jun 2009 11:25 AM

Wow, has it been six months already? By my calendar, it has. Back in January, the dogs and I moved in with roommates who have two cats.

Want to catch up on the story?

• Introducing the roommates' kitties, Shiro and Kachiko
• The first meeting (before we actually moved in)
• Dogs in residence!
• Animal body language translates between cats and dogs
• How each of the animals reacted to the stress of living together
• Animal behavior isn't what we expected.

I don't know if the dogs and cats are ever going to be friends -- as we'd hoped. Moose and Lally still like to camp at the baby gate that separates dogland from cat-topia and bark at the kitties. They're pretty relentless when it comes to chasing cats outside (or flushing them out of the landscaping), and all the treats in the world haven't made much difference in that urge while indoors.

But while the dogs haven't changed much in terms of behavior, the cats have.

Kachiko has gotten quite brave about exploring the apartment when the dogs are behind closed doors -- we corral the dogs every few days and let the cats wander for a bit. They usually do a circuit of the apartment and then head back to the master bedroom, their safe zone. On more than one occasion, she's jumped the baby gate and gone wandering! I encountered her coming down the hall one night when I woke up for a potty break; she was happy to have me turn on the faucet so she could drink the running water.

Shiro will sit in the doorway and watch the dogs -- sometimes even if they're camping at the gate. He's not as brave about outings into the rest of the apartment. We did have a minor incident the other day where the bedroom door blew closed, trapping Shiro in the hallway between master bedroom and baby gate. He was reasonably calm about the whole thing, despite the dogs barking and carrying on.

I'm glad the cats aren't TOO traumatized by the dogs being dogs. But now I've got a new worry -- what happens if Kachiko jumps the gate and runs into the dogs? Will she know to jump back over and into the bedroom to safety? Or will the dogs corner her somewhere? Thankfully, there are lots of high bookcases and shelves where an adventurous kitty can hide from annoying dogs.

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Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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