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For many reasons, life has taught me that you should never say never. When I first met my wife, her dog had passed away a few months ago and she was in such a pain that said, “I will never ever have another dog”, and now we have two. Then we said, “we will never ever have more than two cats”… And, now we have 5. We couldn’t deny our animal lover label.
A lot of people ask us, “how do your cats and dogs get along?”, “don’t they fight all the time?”, “did you teach them not to fight?”, “what did you do?”, “how did you do it?”.
Well, certainly, it was a loooong journey full of patience, willing and love. If you are lack of one of those main ingredients, maybe having pets is not your thing and it’s ok. Maybe your are not an animal lover at all. Maybe you are most like a plant lover or food lover. What would I know! Every person has his or her purpose in life and mine, for sure, are animals. Actually I guess is the best heritage I can get. My grandma used to help a lot of animals and my mom still is so, I’ll continue with the big mission.
By the way, in another article I’ll tell you the cool adoption story of each of our 7 animals but for now, let’s focus on how my 5 cats and 2 dogs get along.
Everything was so okay with our first and second cat because they made chemistry right away. Actually Pixel, the first cat we got, kind of adopted Nodo, our second one. She was like his mommy. They got along so well that we thought that was how it was gonna be.
Then, our third cat arrived. What a story Trigo has! Right there, the complications started a little bit… Pixel, which is the dominator in the herd, wasn’t happy at all with this Trigo’s arrival. She’s such a hater like her mommies when she doesn’t like something.
Remember, cats are not like dogs! Even some dogs act like nothing happens when they see each other on the street but everything changes when they are home. Always have in mind that they are on their territory and things can get tense. So, try to use a cloth in which the new cat has slept or maybe some blanket that has its smell and put it in a place the other or others cats can smell it as much as they can. You will have tons of laughs cuz they sometimes get angry at the clothes! They can get really nuts about “welcoming” a new member of the family.
Be patient! Don’t rush things and don’t get frustrated. When we had three cats already, my wife was ready to adopt a dog. That’s how we got Nico, our first dog together. There, things got intense! I was used to have cats and dogs at my parent’s but they kind of deal with it and I didn’t even notice but this time, my wife and I were all by ourselves. In one side, there was me that was used to be kind of spoiled and her parents did everything for her and on the other side, there was my wife which had never in her life had a cat and much less a cat with a dog.
So, back to the point, after we had Nico one week, we had a lot of fights. Between cats and the dog and between me and my wife. Why? Because we weren’t being patient! We even thought about giving Nico back to the shelter! Can you imagine that!?
So, believe me, it can be a struggling path but totally worth it when you see your cats and your dogs being okay with each other’s company.
When we started to plan our animal lover family, the first numbers were two cats and one dog so, three animals max… Guess what? We totally failed because of our weakness to animals. Don’t! Seriously, you’ll thank me because if you don’t stick to the plan, it’ll be so hard to stop and then you’ll kind of regret a little tiny bit… And that gets us to my fourth advice…
If you’re such a big-hearted and you are such an animal lover, think about your budget. That will so going to help you to stop and also think about the quality life you want to give to your animals. A warm home is a dreamed place to them but they also have so many other cares that you may not be able to cover.
I can tell you that our apartment isn’t a small one but definitely not that big to have five cats and two dogs in the same space. I’m being as honest as I can. So, you should think about the dimension of your space. Of course, if you have a big house, you can help more animals but think about the tips I’ve given you so far because this goes beyond space.
Do you like to clean up, sweep, vacuum, mop, etc. all the mess your animals do? Well, welcome to my life! The more animals we have, the cleaner we must be. We sweep and mop everyday and sometimes even twice a day and it is never enough! Sometimes, it can be a little bit annoying… We love our animals but we never thought about this tips I’m telling you.
So, now you already know that you can have cats and dogs at the same time in the same space, yes! It IS POSSIBLE! But besides that, I wanted you to be conscious about it.
Taking care of a living being, even though it is a plant or a fish takes time, money and effort and you have to be willing about it.
And if you are an animal lover like me, why don’t you take a glance at my website at some pet illustrations I’ve created and fall in love with some lovely creatures.
