Fur Babies

I couldn't resist sharing some photos.

Josie was on my bed, and when I lay down next to her we were snuggled up pretty close together. Then as I was fiddling with my phone, Kokopelle decided that he wanted in on the cuddles. And not only did he lay down on top of me, he also got on top of Josie.

Sweet kitten and puppy

Gotta love them.

Ditto

It was difficult to get a good photo, but you can see that he's lying across her rear end. And she just lay there allowing it. I was pretty amazed.

He has also claimed my desk

After some time of my desk (and bedroom...) being really messy I finally did some cleaning. This has resulted in Kokopelle finding my desk a very comfortable place to hang out now, despite there being a perfectly good cat tree next to it. A cat tree which, as it happens, he's sitting on as I write this.

So, yeah, just wanted to share some photos.

Conversations with Josie

"It's only the mailman, hush up."

"Ok, that's the USP guy."

"I've really no idea what you're barking at this time..."

"It's only me! Stop barking!"

"Yes, it's the scary mailman. He's terrifying and horrible, but you've scared him off. Thank you, you've kept us safe."

"Yes, I hear the sirens, there's no need to howl..."

"Fine, your howling is cute."

"Are you barking at a squirrel? You're barking at a squirrel."

"I know other dogs are barking, but there's no need for you to join in."

"Oh my gosh you're so cute! Yes you are, yes you are!"

Josie likes to bark. A lot. Talking to her can sometimes calm her down though, which is why I discuss her barking habits so often with her. On the up side, at least her howls are cute.

Josie

She has this bit of fur on the top of her head that can be turned into a mohawk of sorts, it's kind of fun to play with on occasion. And dangit, my bed just had to be unmade when I took this photo...oh well.

Josie's Generous Offer

Josie still needs some training. Ok, a lot of training. Turns out terriers can be difficult to train. One thing she's learning, sort of, is to not beg at the table.

Or, maybe she's just learning how to beg in a different and interesting way.

There's a sliding door to our dining room that wasn't used often before Josie came along, but lately it's been used frequently to keep her out of the way at dinner time. This evening was an exception, but even though Josie was underfoot she wasn't making much of a nuisance of herself. Or, not as much of a nuisance of herself, so far as I was concerned. Still, she did manage to surprise me.

After I explained to Josie that I wasn't going to give her any food (or any more food...she'd already gotten one scrap from me as the table was being set) she vanished from the dining room briefly. Then, what did she come back with? A new rawhide bone that she'd just gotten less than an hour before. And what did she do with that rawhide bone?

She put that rawhide bone next to my chair, and looked up at me with the most adorable eyes.

All I can conclude is that Josie was offering her bone in exchange for the yumminess that was on my plate.

It was a generous offer on her part, but I'm afraid I had to turn the bargain down.

Josie and a rat, I'm not sure which one

My rats were mildly traumatized by Josie at first. This was perhaps not helped by the fact that she started excitedly barking, loudly, when she first good a good look at them. Oh, yeah, it turns out that some terriers are ratters...

By now she's calmer, though still excited (she's pretty excitable in general) when she sees them, and they've relaxed enough to more or less go nose to nose with her through the wires of their cage.

Cats and the Dog

Having a new dog in the house has really changed some dynamics.

For one thing, the two cats are treating each other differently. Historically Kokopelle has bothered Saphira a lot, leading to squabbles. ("Bothered" as in, he doesn't know he's neutered.) When Josie came along they had a common...not enemy, but a common source of uncertainty to be cautious of. This united the two for a while, and even though Kokopelle is perfectly fine with Josie now he's still getting along with Saphira better than he had been before.

Kokopelle and Josie

What's really amazing to me is that Kokopelle and Josie actually get along great now, as you can see in the above photo where they're happily relaxing next to each other. They even play together! This is a major change from when Kokopelle was a kitten and clawed me up to escape when he glimpsed a friend's dog one evening. That was a somewhat unpleasant experience.

Kokopelle has also started changing some of his habits, in some delightful but also annoying ways that I'm sure are Josie's fault.

First of all, Josie has taken to sleeping under the blankets with my mom. (Except for when she decides to sleep on my bed...not sure how she decides who to sleep with.) Despite Kokopelle seeing Saphira sleep under the blankets with dad for years, he's apparently finally figured out that it might be fun to snuggle with a human friend (me) under the blankets from watching Josie. So, he was asking to get under the blankets with me for about a week. Which was sweet, except for when it wasn't.

Yeah, it's difficult to find it sweet when Kokopelle wakes me up to request that I allow him under my blankets. Can't he figure out how to get under them by himself? Or at least climb right in rather than gaze at them thoughtfully when I hold the blanket up for him?

When I got tired of waiting for a decision on his part and decided to go back to sleep one night, Kokopelle decided to bat at my head. And when I pulled the blanket over my head, would you care to guess what he did? If you guessed crawl up on top of my head and bathe himself, you guessed correctly. I still can't quite believe he did that.

Josie escaping

Not only is Josie settling in, but she also finds way to get into...trouble. As pictured, Josie managed to chew a large enough hole in the crate that mom bought for the car to stick her head out of it. She also keeps escaping from harnesses that mom buys her. When Josie isn't teaching my cat new tricks she spends her time trying to outwit my mom, and so far the dog seems to have a knack for winning those contests if mom isn't careful.

A Pagan Terrier?

"Did either of you put Josie's toy on my altar?"

This question was addressed to my mom and brother. Of course I knew that the answer was no, but I still wanted to ask. But let's back up just a bit.

You can imagine my surprise when I was laboring over an essay and happened to glance over at my altar to see something odd on it. At first I thought that my oil warmer was somehow broken, since it's black and the toy next to it was also black. When I realized that the warmer wasn't damaged I stared at the toy trying to figure out what it was. Hey, it was facing me at an odd angle, and it wasn't where I expected a toy to be.

But, sure enough, Josie had put one of her toys on my altar.

Not just on my altar, but at the very back and more or less center of the altar. Sure it's only at knee level, but being a terrier mix Josie is a smaller dog. She must have gotten on her hind legs to reach back there. Which would be easy enough for her to do, but it would have been less effort to put it on the edge of the altar. Or, you know, drop the toy on the floor. Like I'm pretty sure most normal dogs do.

Maybe Josie was making offerings to the gods? Should I be worried? What god was she petitioning, and what for?

Josie getting tummy rubs from me

Josie

I've said before that mom needs a dog, and I wasn't the only one who thought that. So I was delighted when mom started talking last month about getting one, and even happier when she brought home Josie this evening. Josie's a small white dog, mixed breed, but we know she's part Cairn Terrier.

Meeting Josie

This was my first photo of Josie. I tried to get a photo of mom holding her, but by the time I was ready to take a photo Josie was already on the floor and trying to meet me. She's a very friendly dog. She's also adorable when she stands on her hind legs.

Standing up

Josie has really taken to mom, and already gets separation anxiety when mom steps outside momentarily or is otherwise out of her sight. I actually heard her bark before mom did (she's mostly a quiet dog) because Josie objected to mom stepping outside to get dog supplies from the car. I guess she's decided that mom should be her person. I also wonder if the separation anxiety could be in part because this is Josie's fourth (fifth?) home, and she isn't even two years old yet.

She's already settling in nicely though, seems happy and she likes everyone. Josie has also decided that there's one spot of the floor that's hers, as you can see in the photo below. And yes, she's also got a sweater. She'd had one before, so mom bought her a purple one with hearts. I'm pretty sure that mom will be knitting another sweater for Josie soon.

So cute, with eyes closed and a sweater

Now, as for the cats...

The cats aren't sure what to make of Josie. We're keeping them fairly separate for now, but already started introductions with Kokopelle. And we only did that because if we didn't, he'd slip past us to meet her when he have little control over the situation. We'd rather things go as well as possible.

Kokopelle isn't sure what to think of Josie. Keeping her on the leash, we let Kokopelle into the kitchen/dining room where she's staying for now. Once they got a good look at each other she tried to get to him with lots of enthusiasm. I thought it was really cute, but Kokopelle disagreed. We let him in a second time when she was tired and sitting on mom's lap, and they actually went nose to nose before Kokopelle decided to leave. Both times he had control over how close he got to her, which I think was the important thing for introductions.

I don't know if Kokopelle will ever be a fan of dogs, but I think he'll at least learn to live with one without much fuss.

Saphira still hasn't met Josie yet. But for some reason she did let me pick her up so I could show her where we moved the cat food to. (It had been in the dining room, which is now occupied by puppy.) Saphira really sticks only to dad, and for her to let me pet her is unusual. For her to let me pick her up is somewhat shocking. She's also been hiding under my bed, and I have to wonder if Saphira blames Josie's presence on my dad somehow and is making a statement by hanging out near me. She does things like that when she's ticked off at him.

Saphira under my bed

And, before anyone asks, no we aren't introducing her to the rats. Not sure why anyone would ask, but people ask about how I handle having rats and cats, so I guess some might wonder about this as well.