How to Drive a Pup Nuts Without Even Trying

My inlaws have 5 cats. Ok, so one of them is a dog, but I don't think anybody's ever actually TOLD Molly that she's a dog, so I usually just group her with the rest of the cats. Anway, the matriarch of the family is Pooh. Any time the inlaws are going to be gone for more than a couple of days we usually keep her. The other cats can fend pretty well just being checked up on at the house, but Pooh is different. For starters, she's pretty close to blind. She can see enough to get around with bonking herself in the head if she moves real slow, but rearranging the furniture really confuses her. Also, she doesn't eat the regular dry cat food that they leave for the others. She has to have soft food, or fresh chicken, tuna, beef, etc. In short, she's old enough to legally walk into a bar and order a margarita. She's earned a little special care.

This is the third time we've kept her and Casper is getting a little less obnoxious each time. The first visit was difficult. He's very accustomed to being an only pup and has an extreme fear of cats in general. They weren't fast friends. But Casper is a smart pup and soon learned that her food was better than his, so his priorities changed from stalking her (then running away if she looked at him) to sneaking her food. And her water. Because of course the water in her bowl is much better than his, despite the fact they are identical.

The second visit was during the middle of summer, and included Molly since it was too hot for her to stay outside the entire time. Casper only attempted to approach Pooh once, and it ended with a hiss and a swat, followed by Casper's immediate retreat. He turned his attention to Molly for the rest of the week and left Pooh alone.

When we brought her home last night he was pretty focused on obtaining the food and pretending Pooh wasn't there. Except he completely freaked out and ran around the house acting like the world was turned upside down. It's pretty funny to watch, so long as he doesn't actually go after the cat. Then we'll have to make an emergency vet visit. For Casper. There is no doubt in my mind that she can take him, fair fight or not.