Felines vs. Canines

My early morning rising, my peaceful mornings of quiet tap-tap-tapping on my laptop, latte in hand listening to the sounds of the morning - garbage truck rumbling down the street; birds waking up; sprinklers coming on - have been anything but quiet lately.

Klink - our huge gray cat who has been an 'indoor' cat all his life - has started coming downstairs regularly in the morning. First it was once in a while. Now, it's daily. And he now ventures outside. Instead of sitting and watching from the safety of the kitchen, one day he jumped through the railing (our family room is two steps 'down' from the kitchen and there's a rail near the sliding door between the kitchen and family room to keep people from falling about a foot and a half) and outside. Just like that. Like he'd been going outside every day - only he hasn't. Ever. It's now a daily thing - he'll hang outside for awhile, exploring the yard. Sniffing everything....

And Chloe 'defers' to the cat - she loves him and so wants to play with him. She tries to get him to play - but he's a cat and he's having none of that 'interspecies interaction'. Chloe turns on her doggy charm and rolls on the floor, wriggles across the carpet and BEGS Klink to play....he's having none of it. He's a cat.....I try to reassure Chloe that it's not personal....So now it's trying to wrestle getting Chloe in and out to do her thing(s) - twice 'cuz she has to have her bite of biscuit to get her ready for #2 - and Chloe will 'wait' for Klink to go outside first. Or 'wait' for Klink to move away from the door. Or 'wait' for Klink to move 2 inches to the left so Chloe can walk by him without bothering him. It's nuts. It's like herding 'cattle' - only it's a cat and a dog.

My peaceful mornings are anything but lately....I'm up at 4:30 for a little 'quiet' time and Chloe immediately wants up and out of her kennel...and then Klink realizes 'yippee, we're going outside again'.....and that's the morning.....herding them in and out; keeping an eye on Klink to make sure he doesn't attempt to make a break over the fence into the neighbors yard or into the front yard. He's done that before, years ago - and spent 2 nights outside stuck under a wire 'plant containment' fence until J. rescued him. I'm hoping he learned his lesson but even if he did, he's a cat and he'll do what he likes, thank you very much.

It's been an hour of this 'orchestrated chaos' and now I'm heading upstairs to shower and dress for work. Never a dull moment around here. Either it's kids or pets making me nuts....

Same stuff, different day.