Cat Dog

The adventures of Bella and Lila

Or how to coexist with a grand cat and a grand dog for 10 days.
Bella is a small off white and grey Havanese dog and Lila the cat is of unknown pedigree. Grey and black with stripes.

My daughter and her family are out of town on vacation. My hubby and I are keeping her dog and cat, cat sitting and dog sitting.

The first day went along ok. We made a cat motel in our unfinished basement storage room complete with her litter box from home, her "tent" her food and water bowls, a small rectangular basket for claw sharpening, food and water bowls, cat food and hair ball pills and some cat toys.

The dog already has a crate bed and doggie toys here at our house so all she brought was her doggie bowls,leashes, dry food, and a small package of treats.

I had already cat proofed my house. Anything Lila could reach by jumping up that was fragile went into hiding. The dog,Bella, is easier to control so no prep was needed for her.

These two are used to each other and enjoy playing together a few times a day. But Bella is the most playful of the two and has a routine during which she brings one of her stuffed toys and stares at me until I throw it down the hall so she can "fetch." The cat carefully watched this game and thought it looked like fun. After about about 10 minutes the cat ran down the hall with Bella and tried to beat her to to the stuffed hedgehog toy. But Bella was the winner and retrieved it..

I cut a piece of white nylon rope about 42 inches and dangled it in front of the cat and she immediately started the "catch and bat the string " game that all cats seem to relish playing. Cats are a "cheap date" and will play with anything that excites them. Even a piece of rope. The dog, on the other hand likes stuffed toys that she can fetch when I throw them for her. I paid $8.95 for the stuffed hedgehog dog toy.

The first night we got ready for bed and started searching for the cat. We looked high and low. Bella helped by running around ahead of us and peering under chairs and sofas.We finally found the cat under the bed in the master bedroom. Calling "here kitty, kitty, did no good. She would not budge from under the bed. Hubby got down on his hands and knees and even took a broom to try and poke her out. Nothing worked. After about 30 minutes we were getting hot and frustrated and ready to give up when I thought "Ah Ha" I bet she is afraid of the vacuum cleaner and the loud noise it makes.
I plugged the vacuum in and positioned it as close to the bed as possible and Lila shot out from under the bed like a bat out of hell.

I had put most everything up that I thought the cat might jump up on. I left out one extra large, heavy antique bowl on the dining room side board. Guess where I found the cat? In the bowl on the sideboard with her head resting on the rim with a look of contentment on her face that suggested she was thinking "Aren't I clever and oh so cute" We turned the bowl upside down after dislodging the cat.

Bella, the dog, seems to feel responsible for Lila the cat and follows her around and reports back to me if Lila misbehaves. Bella comes to me and quietly stares and stares at me until I say" Ok What is it?" and follow her to see Lila up to some mischief. Nothing major but something Bella doesn't think is proper.

In the unfinished storage room where Lila sleeps the wall had a gap of about 10 inches all around at the ceiling which I had not noticed before.
Hubby went in to check on Lila and at first he didn't see her. Then he looked up and there, about 12 feet up on the attic side of the room sat Lila looking out at him her greenish eyes shining. She had jumped up on a shelf and then evidently took a flying leap so she could explore. He got on a step stool and pulled her out and down. We removed the shelves to thwart any future attempts by the cat playing "the flying Wallendas" of Ringling Circus Brothers fame". (The act performed without a net and the crowd gave them a standing ovation.)
We gave Lila a good dressing down.


GROSS ALERT!!!
now here comes the gross part.

Stop reading if you are squeamish.

Bella, the dog is a very finicky eater. She will totally ignore her dry food but she ADORES the cat's dry food if she can get to it. I put the cat's food up out of reach of Bella. I was in the storage room preparing to clean out the litter box when I noticed Bella chomping on something. I thought,"Oh no. I bet Bella got some of the food that the cat had dropped on the floor. Upon closer examination I discovered that the dog was


EATING CAT POOP
from inside the litter box.
BELLA. STOP IT. YOU POTTY MOUTH!!!
GROSS

I moved the litter box up onto a shelf out of the dogs reach.

(to be continued if I live until Friday when the family returns) :)

PS: We are actually enjoying the "little darlings." they are good cheap entertainment.