Today's my 53rd birthday. So I thought I'd write a domestic post. The RSI family includes a mom, dad, two girls ages 12 and 9, and four pets. Since this post is about one of the pets, I'll go into more detail about them. We have a dog, Missy, who is an Australian blue heeler mix. Actually, she's about as blue as Kentucky blue grass which means not blue at all. Now, Missie weighs about 50 pounds, and has the herding instincts you'd expect from a blue heeler. She likes chasing the deer as well. The three cats include two indoor cats and an outdoor cat--"Big B" who came to live with us as a stray kitten.
At a trim 8 pounds and black with some white markings, "Big B" is all business. As the biggest of our admittedly runty group of cats, "Big B" is the boss cat and lets the other cats know it as soon as they venture outside. But "Big B" has ambitions. For the last year, "Big B's" also taken the initiative with the dog as well, often swatting her with a paw as the dog is coming out the door. Missy will chase "Bib B" and often catch him if she can get behind him. She refers to this as her "catch and release" program for chasing cats. However, "Big B's" swatting is extremely annoying to our canine, annoying enough that Missy sometimes backs up from going outside if she sees her nemesis on the porch.
Over the last week, "Big B" has started to go after even bigger game. Now, our courageous cat is swatting our 12 year old daughter when he wants to be fed. Even though she weigh at least 10 times as much as the cat, our daughter doesn't seem to intimidate "Big B" at all. It's like he's working his way up what he sees as the family hierarchy, targeting first the dog then taking on one of the girls.
Unfortunately for our no 1 daughter, we parental units have decided at least temporarily to back the cat. It's just too funny not to. When our daughter complains about being swatted, we just tell her to feed the cat before we fall all over ourselves laughing.
But maybe we shouldn't feel so smug. We could be giving "Big B" even bigger ideas.
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2 comments:
My 12+Year-old Doberman, who has never taken any sh*t from a cat, expects me to point out in every appropriate opportunity, the old adage:
All dogs want is to have a master; all cats want is slaves.
I'm firmly on the side of your 12 year-old.
She needs the support. I'm afraid her mom and I expect her to solve this problem herself.
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