Well, I am very proud to announce that Buster, Tina, Georgia and Queenie have now been inducted into the "Friends of Kitties" Hall of Fame! Yes folks - all 4 of these incredible dogs passed their "cat-scan" without incident!
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| Tina passes the cat test! |
We started off our testing yesterday with Tina - who we figured would handle the whole experience the best. Strangely, she ended up being the most freaked out by the little fuzzie monsters. I think she might also have been worried about being inside a house, and trying to walk on the wood floors. Remember, all of this inside stuff is new to these dogs and it will take some getting used to. To make matters a little more daunting for her, the home that we were at isn't your regular cat home. It was the home of the cat coordinator for a local animal rescue - so suffice to say, there were a LOT of test subjects running around the place. And believe me - they knew exactly how to put a big German Shepherd Dog in its place! After walking Tina around the cats for a while it was very clear that she had no interest in them (and actually preferred to stay away from them if possible!) and so we took her outside to recover and brought in Queenie. Queenie did a lot better than we expected. We figured she would have been the most wigged out as, well, pretty much everything wigs her out :) A funny side story though on her, before we loaded the dogs up to take the to the "House of Feline Terror", we were standing outside the kennel at their place and Tina was just ambling around off leash. She has NO interest in going far from us, she just likes to hang out, like one of the girls, and listen while Angie and I chit-chat. Angie also had Queenie outside and at one point dropped her leash. Well, sweet, timid, scaredy-pants Queenie saw the opportunity and BOLTED!!!! A few heart palpitations later though I realized all she wanted to do was run around the outside of the kennel. I forget sometimes that these dogs (well most certainly the young ones like Queenie and Gunner) have never had the chance to just stretch out their legs and zoom - like all young dogs should be able to do. So, given the opportunity, Queenie just wanted to run and run and run and run. You should have seen the ridiculous grin on her face and the way her tongue was lolling out the side of her mouth as she tore around the kennel. Sadly, as soon as we caught her, we had to kill her buzz by turning the hose on and washing the copious amounts of mud off her feet that she had accumulated by running through the quagmire at the back of the kennels. Don't worry Queenie - very, very soon now you will be able to run to your hearts content...and not worry about getting the dreaded hose at the end of it!
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| Queenie and one of the fluffy terrorists. Queenie refuses to make eye contact - probably hoping it will go away!! |
Anyway, back to the testing. Queenie popped into the house with very little trembling and quickly came face to face with a cat. She sniffed - it sniffed and that was pretty much it! We brought a selection of different colors, sizes and sexes of cats to her but none seemed even remotely interesting to her and so, with that, we took her back to the kennel with a score of A+ for cat friendliness.
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| Sweet Georgia - wouldn't hurt a fly or a cat, or a kid. |
Next on the agenda was Buster and Georgia-Mae. As expected, Georgia was as sweet and as gentle with the kitties as she is with everyone else. She also got to meet some little humans in the house and she really seemed to like them. However, the thing that REALLY got her interest was the TV. Some cartoon was playing and she kept walking into the living room and just staring at the TV. I am picturing her settling into her new foster home, with an open box of dog cookies by her side (and not the low fat variety either!!) watching the soaps with her new foster Mom. I think this would be a perfect retirement scenario for Miss Georgia-Mae!
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| Buster listens to the cat jury. |
Last but not least, we tested our Buster boy with the cats. For some reason, I was expecting that he would be the one to show a less than healthy interest in the cats. He has been feeling his oats more and more lately, showing his sense of humor and his renewed zest in life. I get the impression that he is going to be a lot of fun once he settles in his foster home. Anyway, we brought him in and immediately he zoned in on one of the cats that was sitting on the staircase. He walked right up to it and stuck his nose through the railings of the bannister while the cat stuck its nose back. Some mutual sniffing ensued and then the cat decided that the big dog was not very cool and so it raced up stairs. Buster thought he'd follow...all 105lbs of him...with me on the end of the leash! I don't think so Buster! So I redirected him to one of the other cats that was nearby and he made the fatal error of trying to sniff its butt. I don't know how familiar you are with kitty etiquette, but this is not considered a "polite gesture" and so Buster got a "whack" on his face with a full set of claws! This was a test in itself - i.e. would Buster react aggressively if the cat was aggressive to him?? Nope - Buster just sat down a little perplexed and I think made a mental note of what size and color that cat was and vowed never to go near it again!!! Instead he turned his attention to a creamy colored cat. He seemed most intrigued by the lighter colored cats - maybe he could see them better? He actually got under the dining room table to get a closer look at that one. He sniffed it, seemed satisfied and then came out from under the table. Then it was time for him to explore the house. We set off down the hall and, much to everyone's delight, a little trail of cats followed us. It was like they were curious where the big oaf was going. At one point they cornered him in the kitchen - some in front of him, some behind him it was enough to stop him in his tracks! I tried urging him to come to me but he was as still as a statue, not daring to move until someone picked up one of the cats and cleared his way. Mind you, on the way out of the house, he spied his little orange friend on the stair case and made as if he wanted to charge up the stairs at it. I think maybe he liked seeing it run :)I've no doubt that if the cat had turned and raised its paw Buster would have turned tail and run for the hills!
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