There’s a new kid on the block
Feral cats are so unfazed by situations that we think will stress them out.
Mike and I went to the animal shelter last week and brought back a dog. The pedigree is questionable. I do not believe this is a breed specific dog, I believe he is breed inspecific!
I had to laugh at the woman when she released him to me. She said to remember to make the introductions to the cats gradual. I had told her that we would test drive “dave” until Monday. If he was aggressive to the cats or the horses, we would bring him back. She agreed to this. I also told her that with over a dozen cats, a gradual introduction of this puppy was not going to happen. It was going to be a baptism of fire, because the cats would surround him the minute we got home. When you have only one or two cats, that is another story.
We took our leave and came home. I was correct, the minute we walked in “Quincy” was surrounded by five very inquistive and nervous kitties. To this dog’s credit, he handled the investigation quite well. There was hissing and spitting and some circling going on, but we had Quincy on the lead and he held himself in check, although he was quite nervous.
Things were progressing well until snot-nose (also known as Matuse) came into the room. He ran up and swatted Quincy square on the head several times, and then the gloves came off. Quincy was not having any of this nonsense and he went to lunge at Mateuse. Stupid me reached down to stop him and got bit in the process, but the bite was doggy mistake and I didn’t correct Quincy. I did shoo Mateuse into the other room and shut him in for a 10 second time-out.
It took some working with both the cats and dogs, but today- Monday, everyone is getting along just fine. There is clear evidence that this charming dog has been severly abused, and so we are working with him gently and calmly and he is responding well. We took him to the coast yesterday and let him run on the beach. He loved it and it was so windy when I threw his ball, I thought the darn thing would never stop. The tide was way out and so Quincy met his first real sea creature (a crab) and he got all sandy and wet. But we had a ball.
One thing I don’t appreciate about him, is we can spend hours brushing him. He gets brushed twice a day. And the minute we are finished and he looks so sleek and shiny, he shakes and looks unkempt again! The little scamp!
We took him to the vet, and other than kennel cough he appears healthy.The vet puts him at one year old and says he is part English Sheepdog, Lhasa Apso and Terrier. His photo is below. And yes, he is a keeper-