Sundays vary around our house. Some Sundays are very busy. This Sunday seems to be shaping up as a very lazy day. As I write this, all of the puppies are asleep- all three of the girls are snoring away on the couch. Kitty B is curled up asleep in her crate beside the couch, and the big cats are sleeping upstairs. I would get Kitty B back out and let her sleep on the couch too, but if I open the door to her crate, everyone is going to wake up. So I am just letting them all sleep.
​A Costco opened up recently not too far away. I had never been too interested in Costco before- I figured it was basically just another Sam's... Then I went into the Costco during the grand opening. Now we end up going there almost every week. They have really good puppy treats, among other things. Last time we were in there, they had kitty trees. Our big cats like their kitty trees and use them a lot, so we decided to get another one for in the living room. I didn't think that Kitty B was big enough to really use it. Boy, was I wrong. She can go all the way to the top, which is impressive because it is 5 1/2 feet tall! Kitty P and Kitty S have decided that they like Kitty B and play with her every chance they get. They even clean her. I really wasn't expecting them to accept her like that, but I am glad that they have. Here are some pictures of their kitty tree antics.

The puppies still really like her, but sometimes they have more important things to do than to pay attention to kitties- like tearing up boxes. Kitty B is smart. She has realized that if the puppies are out, she can climb up the kitty tree and they can't reach to slobber on her. She likes the puppies, but they do tend to slobber on her a lot while licking her. 

Yesterday, Mom and Dad went to visit Mom's niece and her kids. It was a nice visit, and I just had to post this picture of one of the boys having a meaningful conversation with his dog.

Have a happy lazy Sunday.

Our zoo has been doing well the last few days. It's mostly been more of the same. The weather has been too cold/ drizzly to go for walks on the beach. So we have just been taking it easy with the new kitties. We leave the door to the hallway open more now, while keeping the child gate in place. That way the puppies and kitties can see each other more. I think there may be something slightly off with the kitties though. The puppies will chase them slowly down the hall until they are cornered and have no where to go to avoid eager puppy tongues. We take all of the dogs back toward the kitchen and close the hall door, but within a few minutes, the kitties are right by the door, playing with the puppies through the opening again. I'm convinced that they really just like teasing the puppies. The puppies have been really frustrated with the kittens lately. They don't understand why the kitties don't want to be slobbered all over first thing in the morning. "They are just good morning kisses," protested Mr. M when we wouldn't let him chase Kitty S down to lick her. 

For the most part, the puppies respect the baby gate (apparently there is a first time for everything), but a couple of days ago, one of them realized that they could pull the gate down. We heard all kinds of commotions coming from the bathroom. Dad started thinking the worst. When I went to check, the commotion had been the cats moving the trash can to hide behind it, and the dogs pushing the cat dishes around with their noses as they ate all of the cat food. Luckily, they don't understand what the litter box is yet! When I came in, Miss S just knew she was going to be in trouble and cuddled up on the cat bed with Kitty P. Kitty P didn't know what to think about having a dog in her bed but didn't even growl! Progress! Today, Kitty P even let Mr. C smell her without growling, hissing or swatting at him. Double progress!

Kitty S decided she wanted to hang out in Dad's office. Miss M kept a close eye on her.

This morning we made a wonderful discovery. We have several of the grated dividers that came with our puppy crates. They have just been sitting in a spare room. We really didn't want to throw them away because they seemed useful. We discovered that we can use the grated divider in the doorway to the hall instead of closing the door. That way the animals can all see each other and the cats don't have to feel closed off in the hall. We left an opening big enough for the cats to come through if they want to be in the kitchen and so that they could escape if they felt the need. So far it has been a lot calmer since we put up the grate. The puppies seem to get more worked up if they can hear the cats but not see them than they do when they can still see the cats, even if they can't actually get to them.

Miss B has been avoiding the kittens for the most part unless we are in the room. I think she knows that if she messes with the cats she'll be in trouble. She is extremely talented at finding ways to get herself and the others in trouble and has apparently decided that she doesn't want anything to do with cat trouble on top of her usual antics. Plus, she's pretty sure that Santa would put her on the naughty list if she roughed up the cats.
We gave her some individual time with the cats the other day, and we were surprised at how well she did. She is normally our barker, but she is surprisingly timid around the kittens. She did a lot of watching from a distance, and a lot of laying down on the ground being submissive. She really wanted them to play with her, but cats are scary!

Kitty S and Kitty P have been making themselves at home. They really like having their own safe space in the bathroom, and really like exploring in the house. The puppies are practically beside themselves. Every morning now, they run straight to the bathroom door to see if we will open it so that they can play with the kitties. Kitty S is really warming up to the puppies and loves the opportunity to play with them under the dining room table. Kitty P is warming up a little. She doesn't mind being in the same room with the dogs, or even inches away- as long as they don't try to lick her or play with her at all. She's not that kind of cat...
Today, Mr. M got to play with Kitty S for a little while. This was his first time really up close with the kitties, so Mom wanted to give them her full attention in case he got a little too excited- hence the lack of pictures. He did surprisingly well. Then Miss M got to visit with them again. She really didn't understand why Kitty S didn't appreciate all of her puppy kisses. After all, they hadn't seen each other all night. Miss M did the logical puppy thing, seeing Kitty S first thing in the morning- she chased her under something and then licked her, tail going wild. She was soooo excited to see her kitty friend. 
A little later in the morning, Mr. C was allowed to play with the kitties for a while. This time, we got out the camera since we were convinced that he wasn't going to eat the cats.

We decided that the cats were doing well enough to go ahead and put collars on them. So, they are now officially part of the family. They didn't even mind us putting the collars on, which surprised us, and haven't tried to take them off at all. 
In the afternoon, we decided to go ahead and let Miss S meet the cats. Up until this point, she had only seen them through the baby gate because she was just too excited. We were really surprised at how well she did with them. Kitty P even came out to see her. When Miss S got too close, Kitty P just growled at her and she backed off. After that, she would look at Kitty P but give her plenty of room whenever she walked by. Miss S was content to play with Kitty S, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.

Once the introductions were out of the way, it was time to get down to the important stuff: PLAYTIME.

If you weren't paying attention, you would think that the dogs were harassing the kitties, but as soon as the puppies try to back away from the chair, or walk away, Kitty S goes after them to play some more. She is either a very brave cat, or a little slow in the head. We aren't sure which it is.

Miss S didn't really know what to think about this next pose and just stood there for a minute. I think she was expecting the cat to get stuck.

In true cat fashion, after a few minutes of fast paced fun, she collapsed on the floor under a bar stool. Miss S didn't really know what to think about that and sat on Mom's knee trying to figure out what the cat was doing.

I think we are making definite progress. The kitties are still not comfortable with having more than one puppy out at once- it gets a little too rambunctious, but they are very comfortable with one at a time. This whole cat thing just may work. Tomorrow we may try Miss B. Her first meeting with the kittens involved her chasing Kitty P across the neighbor's yard, so we'll see how that goes.

Okay. So we used to think that you never know what you are going to find at the beach. I would like to amend that. Apparently, you never know what you are going to find when you get back home from the beach either. This week we are having winter again, so on Saturday in anticipation of the cold weather, we took the puppies to the beach. When we got back home, there were two little kittens hiding under our parked car. They didn't look like they wanted to run away. When we got Miss M out, she tried to go under the car to visit with them- all we saw was a little gray butt sticking out from under the car with her whole back end wiggling along with her tail. She would have been all of the way under the car had she not been on the leash. 
Miss B and Mr. C have been wanting to make friends with cats since they were small. Grandma and Grandpa's cats really disagreed and wanted nothing to do with them. We don't really want dogs that can't get along well with small animals. Pit bulls have enough of a bad reputation already. When other dogs catch and eat cats, people just brush it off by saying that dogs just don't get along with cats, but if a pit bull catches a cat, all of a sudden it's a mindless killing machine that must be stopped. So, we decided it would be a good idea to try to get our puppies used to cats.
We haven't been rushing it at all. We want the cats and the dogs to get along, and we don't want any of them traumatized along the way. The first night, we kept the cats in a bathroom completely separated from the dogs. Yesterday, we only let the cats out when the dogs were in their crates and kept them all separated for most of the day. We put a baby gate in the open doorway of the bathroom and took the puppies one at a time back and forth in front of the door with the cats in plain sight. Today, we let Miss M spend a little time by herself out of the crate in the same room with the cats. It went really well. One of the cats seems to like dogs better than she likes people. The other cat isn't completely comfortable with the puppies yet. It went so well with Miss M that we decided to try it with the other dogs too. While I was making a batch of puppy treats in the evening, we decided to leave Miss B and Mr. C out with the cats free to roam but with the baby gate still in place so that the cats had an escape route if they needed it. Miss B was just happy to be out without the little puppies to bother her, and she happily chewed on a box and a toy in peace. One of the kitties was bored with the dogs and went back to the bathroom to curl up in her kitty bed. Mr. C was sooo happy that there was a cat in the house. He could hardly sit still and kept trying to lick the other one on the ears. The cat just laid there and let him smell her and lick her. We could hear her purring the whole time. He was so excited and was trying really hard to be gentle. We didn't let him play with her very long because he's big enough to hurt her on accident.
Miss S liked the friendly cat too, but was way too excited to stay out very long. When the cat would get up and walk anywhere, Miss S would get bouncy and try to follow her. She was way too focused on the cat, so I put her back up. Mr. M was definitely not ready to play with the cats- he was just way to high energy this evening. We decided to bring Miss M back out and let her play with the cats some more. 
She absolutely loves the cats. She doesn't understand why Kitty P doesn't want to play but really gets along with Kitty S. They visited with each other for about 30 minutes (under close supervision of course). Miss M followed the cat wherever she went, and any time Miss M would walk away, the cat would follow her. She wasn't very happy when it was bedtime and she had to leave the kitty. Here are some pictures of them together.