A Pet Owner's Journey (Pt. 5)

Pets will surprise you. Sometimes this can be a good thing, and sometimes this can be a terrible thing. Like those times when you come home to find your couch torn to pieces or your favourite shoes chewed up; those are not good surprises. But when you learn that your highly prey driven dog can be friends with a house cat, that's a good surprise.

When I got Roxy, I was told that I couldn't have any other pets with her. I was advised that other dogs weren't a good idea. I was told that rabbits, cats, and other small animals were definitely not a good idea. I was alright with this because I didn't have any other pets and I didn't plan on getting any other pets. So this wasn't a huge deal to me.

However, when I moved into my new house, I developed a problem with mice. This will happen in even the newest of homes, and my new house was definitely not what anyone would call new. It wasn't going to be a simple matter of putting down traps or finding where the mice were getting in. There were too many places to choose from. So we did the next logical thing.

We got a cat.

Now we didn't just introduce any cat into the household. A docile house cat likely wouldn't have stood a chance with Roxy, but the new addition definitely did.

Titten was born a barn cat and lived most of her first seven years as an outdoor/indoor pet. She was no stranger to dogs, chickens, other cats, and all assortments of wildlife. Needless to say, she took one look at Roxy and went "bring it on."

This was when we learned that Roxy, despite all of her barking and fierce appearance, is really a huge coward. She was promptly put in her place by the cat, and she has since stayed there.

The cat rules the household, and Roxy just likes to think that she is a fierce German Shepherd. They play fight and the cat puts Roxy firmly in her place with a swat of her paw. Roxy will attempt to put the cat's entire head in her mouth, and the cat will take it to a point, and then when she's done with it, she lets Roxy know.

When the two of them aren't chasing each other around the house and play fighting, they are often found curled up together on the bed or on the couch. Two creatures that are instinctually supposed to hate each other are the best sleeping companions. They even engage in social grooming. The cat chews and licks the dog's ears and the dog licks that cat.

As someone who has only ever owned a cat and dog that loathed each other, this was definitely interesting to see. We brought the cat in to catch the mice. If she didn't get along with the dog, we only planned on keeping her in the house until the mouse problem was gone, then we were going to send her back to her original home.

However, she has become a permanent resident. She is as much a part of the household and family as Roxy is, and it's hard to remember a time when she wasn't there.

Not all pets will get along. And there is no guarantee when introducing a new pet to your home that things will go smoothly. We didn't know what would happen when we brought in Titten. All we can be glad about is that things went as well as they did.

Take things slowly when you integrate new pets and be willing to accept the fact that it might fail as an overall operation. Sometimes pets just don't mix well, and if you try and force it, the outcome can be rather violent. Be watchful, be cautious, and be smart about the pets you mix in your home.

Pets are supposed to make our lives easier, happier, not make us want to rip our hair out. And we definitely don't want to lose pets, new or old, due to a failed social experiment.

Thanks again for reading "A Pet Owner's Journey" and we'll see you next time with our latest update on the shenanigans and life adventures of Roxy, the German Shepherd.