[u]Life Lessons From the Family Dog[/u]
I miss my dog.
Sounds like you need another one.
Yeah. But we have an easily-stressed geriatric cat, so we’ve decided to wait until she’s gone to get another dog. Luckily for us, a cat is also good for those “live in the moment” reminders.
We crate train our dogs. For the puppy this has allowed the cats time and space to adjust to her. I have a crate upstairs in our bedroom next to my wife’s side of the bed and a crate in the family room. The cats sleep under our bed most of the time as the dogs take up too much room on the bed. I have been finding cat hair wrapped around some of the crate wire so I suspect the puppy and the cats are getting along fine when we are asleep. I also use kiddie gates to cordon off portions of the house at times for the dogs. The cats can slip under the gates and the dogs honor the gates even though they likely could clear them easily, our puppy can clear five vertical feet currently.
Years ago my late dog attracted my attention barking the ‘I have found something’ bark over in a snowy field near my schoolhouse in the coutry. It turned out to be a (sick) barn-kitten. I went and got a pair of gardening gloves, because only a fool picks up an unknown barn cat barehanded. The dog was OK with the cat in the house on sunday, apart from trying to chase it every time it moved, but I wasn’t sure about it’s ability to survive on monday, so the dog went in his crate when we left for work. When I got home, I found the kitten in there with him, bedded down between his front paws and damp from being licked.
Sadly, it died a few days later without ever having got well, and the next kitten I tried getting him never took to dogs, so it went with my ex when we split up.
Oh, we crate train, too. But this particular cat is old, cranky, frail, and hates dogs, crate or no. Bringing in a new one would likely shorten her life significantly (due to stress). We’ll wait.
Guy movie - Marley & Me
djm
-I was just mulling over the living in the present thing in the groggy half-sleep before dawn today, Slude. Not dog-specific but was kicking myself for dwelling too much on the past and on things which still “need” to happen. Memory and aspiration make good servants & lousy masters.
Very true.
One of the (many) things I love about hiking is that my mind effortlessly stays in the moment, focused on the natural world around me. Playing music is similar. I find it very rejuvenating.
One hesitates to speak ill of the dying, but seriously: Life Lessons from the Family Dog is like getting leg-humped by a fully-engorged cliche.