We dog sat this weekend. We had Jake for 3 days, and it was way harder than I thought it would be. He and our dog, Toby, got along great. Sam loved Jake. We all enjoyed the dogs' endless play. Jake is a very well-mannered dog, and learned our house rules quickly.
But I didn't think about the cat.
Our cat Jinx is a spitfire. He's the boss of the house, in many ways. It just never occured to me that he would do anything but hiss and scare the crap out of Jake and go on his merry way. But Jake chased him down the hall one time and that cat peed all over himself and then didn't come out of the closet for the rest of the weekend.
Jake was also very lonely. He normally sleeps in his crate peacefully, but I guess because he was in a new environment, he whimpered constantly if he was left alone. We would have let him sleep in our bedroom except that this was the safe-haven for the cat. So Adam actually slept on the sofa in the basement next to Jake's crate all 3 nights, and had to shush him about once every hour when Jake would start whimpering.
We are all exhausted, but I must say, it was worth it. I wouldn't do it again because the poor cat was traumatized, but 2 doggies playing is just so cute. We laughed all weekend. Adam taught them how to play tug-o-war and I managed to get it on video:
A master teacher at work!
ReplyDeleteAnd Sam's voice in the background is so sweet!