I forgot to tell you about the experience of having a small and yappy dog in the house for three days with my two obnoxious cats!

I had guessed that Myu would go into hiding and Ronin would cause some kind of incident. It did not go down like that at all. Pixie had been in the house for about 15 minutes when Myu got interested in the only furry creature she’s ever seen that was smaller than herself. She followed the poor dog everywhere. She didn’t do anything but follow the dog around and sniff at her when she wasn’t looking. Until dinnertime on Monday night, that is. We were all sitting at the table eating (a rarity for us to be sitting at the table eating). Mom had Pixie on one of the chairs beside her, because the dog only wants to eat human food and only eats when my mom eats (uh huh — spoiled). Myu camped out right under the dog’s chair, and whenever Pixie looked down at her, she batted at the poor little thing. No claws extended, but definitely a few good paw whacks. She then spent the rest of Pixie’s time with us following her around pestering her.

On the other hand, Ronin was the invisible cat until late on Tuesday when he finally got hungry enough and curious enough to crawl out of his hiding place under Lin’s workbench. Ronin continued to be utterly terrified of the tiny little doggy, puffing up and running away any time the dog so much as looked at him from across the room … though he did finally agree to lay down in the same room as Pixie by the last night. Also this morning, when we were all getting ready go, Mom had the leash on her dog and letting it drag its leash around, which naturally attracted Ronin. He seemed to think it was the height of entertainment to hold onto the end of the leash as the dog ran after Mom and stop Pixie dead in her tiny little tracks. I’ll admit … it was pretty entertaining.

So the cats and dog situation actually went really well. No fights broke out, and there was only the one paw whacking incident with Myu and one small hissing fit with Ronin. No one’s eye got put out, and I think had Pixie been here a few more days, the cats would have eventually just ignored her completely. Phew.

The cats are much happier today sans the doggy visitor, mostly because no one is raiding their food bowl. My mom may think her dog, the pickiest eater on the planet, would never eat cat food, but I know how much my cats eat in a day, and the last few days I had to feed them twice as much. Methinks the non-cat food-eating dog does, in fact, eat cat food … and a lot of it too!

I think if and when Mom and dog come to stay a few days again, we will progress to the next stage of mutual cohabitation: not keeping the cats out of the bedroom at night. We didn’t try it this time, because I did not want to be awakened from a drugged stupor by cats and dog fighting over bed space. Instead, I was awakened from my drugged stupor each night by angry cats clawing at the door off and on all night. I haven’t let them into the bedroom yet today, because I actually just forgot to open the door all day. I bet they are going to be thrilled to get in there. They haven’t gotten to laze around on the bed for a whole four days. The horror! I bet the first thing they do is break into the closet and pull out something I didn’t even know I owned. That’s one of their other favorite bedroom activities.

I’m with the cats. I’m sort of glad the dog is gone. I don’t really dislike dogs, but I don’t like being around the nervous little yappy kind for too long. They start to drive me insane after a while with all that hopping around, barking and face-licking. My home is much more peaceful sans dog … just the way I like it.