How I Ended Up With Three Dogs And A Cat

We are a family of animal lovers. My husband and I have owned many pets, mostly dogs and a few cats. My children have always had their critters, especially my daughter. As a child she had turtles, hamsters, fish, lizards, frogs, guinea pigs, and at times an assortment of most of these at once. We’ve never been without a dog for any good length of time. In our 40+ years of marriage we started out with a Manchester Terrier, then a Chihuahua, a Great Dane, a Pomeranian mixed with something else, a West Highland Terrier and at the present a long hair Chihuahua, a short hair Chihuahua and a Miniature Pinscher. This present three dog situation, however, didn’t exactly happen by choice.

As the story goes, we bought our little long hair Chihuahua, Bertha, after losing our Westie to a long illness. My daughter, who was now ready to move out of our house, 100 miles away, fell hopelessly in love with Bertha. She would come home to visit every weekend and hated saying good-bye to the dog more than to us. She decided to buy her own Chihuahua but neglected to check with her landlord. Keeping a dog a secret in an apartment is no easy task. She would smuggle Lola in and out of the apartment in a bushel basket full of clothes but keeping her quiet was another problem. When the landlord found out he told her she could not keep her dog. She couldn’t bear to give her up so Lola came to stay at our house. Eventually my daughter moved back home and her and Lola were united again.

At this time we also had a cat. We took him in years ago as a kitten. He was a stray but turned out to be one of the sweetest, most loveable cats you could ever want. We had a couple cats before, some years ago, but it never worked out. Spookie lived to be over 13 years old. He became very ill and we had to put him down. We all cried our eyes out and I swore I would never have another cat.

A few years before we put Spookie down we bought a Miniature Pinscher. My daughter was thinking of getting her own apartment again, this time close to home and this time making sure she could have her dog. We thought it would be a good idea to get a friend for our Chihuahua, Bertha. She did find an apartment and she did take her dog. However, Lola would not stay at the apartment alone. She would cry and whine, bark and scratch at the door every time my daughter would step one foot out. The only solution was that Lola would get dropped off every AM at our house when my daughter went to work and get picked up in the evening, just like a baby. When my daughter would go out with her friends Lola would come over and sometimes stay overnight. Since Lola liked our cat Spookie my daughter thought it would be a good idea to get a cat to keep Lola company when she was not home. Maybe this would cure Lola’s separation anxiety. I actually went with her to buy the cat. We found a cute, little, fuzzy gray furball. He was adorable and we couldn’t believe it when the store owner told us he was eight weeks old. He was so tiny. She named him Rembrandt. Lola didn’t know what to make of Rembrandt. She still would not stay at the apartment and within two months the cat outgrew her and would attack her. This made matters even worse so Lola stayed the majority of the time at our house.

One day my daughter’s apartment was broken into when she was at work so she decided she would move….again. She found another place, bigger and nicer but guess what, no dogs. By this time Lola had become a permanent fixture here. She is attached to our dogs and we’re attached to her. She’s not going anywhere but the story does not end here…oh no.

One day my daughter’s boyfriend asked her to move into his condo with him. She said yes but he already had a cat. Since Rembrandt was somewhat aggressive and his cat was a bit timid he was a little hesitant about her bringing the cat with. Rembrandt has a habit of biting people and other animals and he has grown to a huge black cat. The day before moving day Rembrandt had to come to our house to stay out of the mover’s way. I think you know where this story is going.

It’s been almost six months now and yep, Rembrandt is still here. He has gotten better with the biting and attacking since the dogs keep him in line, especially little Bertha who is about half his size. She never liked Spookie, our other cat for some reason. Rembrandt is actually afraid of her. I guess it’s good therapy because Rembrandt has become a much better behaved cat. He seems to realize that this is not just his domain and cannot take control like he did at the apartment. I do wait for the day though when my daughter walks in with the cat carrier.

It’s ironic but my husband just made a comment to me that he can’t believe how Rembrandt has changed. He was snuggled up on the couch with him. He said he’s actually getting attached to him…..Here we go again!