Currently, our home is also home to two cats and a dog.
He and the little Pit Bull female next door are in lust. She occasionally comes over and whines at our back door, asking whether Hank can come out and play. Hank, on the inside of the door, keeps saying: yes, I can! I can!! Tell her yes! But we don’t want her getting pregnant, and we don’t want him hurting his spine again in the throes of passion, and his human, Fred, doesn’t want him to be de-nutted. I don’t know what the thinking is, there, but it means we have to be very careful that Hankie does not service any fertile female, simply on principle.
A photo of Hank doesn’t do him justice, because a lot of his charm is how he looks at you, and wags his tail, and rockets up and down the ramp with his ears flapping! In many ways, he’s the archetype of an old-time family dog. He isn’t a big slobberer, though he certainly is very food-focused, and doesn’t leave the dining room when a meal is in progress. If we toss him a viand, he is likely to take off from the ground and catch the morsel in mid-air, as if he were grabbing a low-flying bird.
He’s mostly a spectator of the passing scene, but he is such a grand-looking cat that it is rather intimidating just to be peacefully observed by him. He’s totally harmless, and is sort of resigned to being picked up (if you’re strong enough), and being carried around for a while, after which he tires of it and wants to be put back on the floor.
After several months spent as a classic scaredy-cat, Lolz (as I called her) began to explore the house, and the outside. She finally got up the courage to hiss at Bigfoot, and take over the bed of Hank on occasion. (I just can’t figure out why dogs allow cats to annex their beds as needed. It defies reason.)
Now, Lolz has discovered the upper floor. At present, her most favorite thing in the world is to zip upstairs when she finds the stairs door open for even a second, and settle down on our bed, my wife’s and mine, and go to sleep. She has also found out how to use the toilet. We’ve caught her squatting down on the seat and taking a peaceful dump. But she also drinks from the toilet. I sincerely hope she knows when it is safe to drink out of.
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