How We Became A Cat and Dog Household.

If you told me a few years ago, that I would be living with a dog, I probably would have laughed in your face and told you not to be so silly. I was terrified of them, so living with one every day was never a possibility in my mind. Due to family circumstances at the end of 2020, we found ourselves adopting my fiancé's’ Dad’s dog, Gizmo and I wanted to talk about that process in today’s blog post.

Having lived together for a few years now, Scott and I along with Audrey, were a three person (and cat) household. It was perfect for her because she could roam almost anywhere she wanted with no limits, and we knew that she can sometimes be a sneaky little thing so we knew where to cut her off from, but the majority of the house was hers to have.

The thought of getting a dog had been brought up in conversation before but I had always turned it down because I was too afraid of them.

I just couldn’t imagine sharing my house with a dog if I was that scared. I had started to see Gizmo more and more, as we would visit Scott’s Dad, and he would always be really excited to see me. I gradually got better at petting him but when he would try to jump up on me, I froze.

Sadly, Scott’s Dad suddenly got very ill in November 2020 and passed away a few weeks later. We had discussed on whether we would adopt him into our own family or whether his Dad’s partner would take him instead. We both knew what I was like around Gizmo, and I had warmed to him, but I didn’t know if I was ready to live with a dog. Scott said that it was okay if we didn’t adopt him because we knew we would still see him regularly, but I knew that adding him to our little family was the only, and the right option.

I won’t lie; I was terrified. When I had to put a lead on him, when he would growl at me and even when he got really close to me the first few weeks, I was still really scared but I knew something had to change, and I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to get there. Before I knew it, I was inviting him to jump up on the sofa with me, I was putting his lead on without a hassle and I would even let him play fight with me.

So how did we transition them?

In order to keep them both separate for parts of the day, we installed a baby gate between our kitchen and living room space. This really helped when they were eating or when Gizmo would get too excited and think it’s time for a chase with his sister. After a few weeks though, Audrey decided it would be fun to jump over the gate to get to her usual comfort spots, and while we knew this would happen eventually, it meant having to keep an extra eye on them both. They slept in separate areas too, and at the beginning, we closed the door (between the kitchen and living room) at night, but as we started to progress, we would leave the door open but the baby gate closed.

In the early days, we had Gizmo’s bowls in the kitchen and Audrey’s in her usual spot in the living room, on the floor. After a few days, we noticed that Gizmo would go over to Audrey’s bowl and start eating her leftovers, so we had to move her bowl to somewhere higher, that she could jump to, and he could get nowhere near, just in case.

I know this sounds fairly obvious but in the beginning, I didn’t realise how unfair it was giving Gizmo a treat after a walk, and Audrey wouldn’t get anything. Obviously Audrey can’t go for a walk and that’s no one’s fault so it wasn’t too long until they were both getting food and snacks at the exact same time. It makes the most logical sense, and it’s pretty adorable watching them both sit there nicely beside each other waiting on their food.

How’s it going so far?

We’re almost a year and a half in (we can’t believe it either) and things are coming together very nicely. We don’t think they’ll ever be best friends snuggling up into each other like you see on Instagram, but that’s okay. They can share a sofa together, they can sit beside each other and wait for their food and we know that anytime we lift Audrey (whether that’s to give her a brush or give her a cuddle), he’s up within seconds making sure she’s okay. For a big brother, he’s very protective and that’s all we could ask for.

We no longer have the baby gate up, and it still feels quite strange not having to step over it every time you want to go into the kitchen. We do still have their food bowls in different places though; Audrey has zero interest in Gizmo’s food but the same can’t be said for Gizmo with Audrey’s food, so we will always have a little pre-caution with her food up higher, just in case.

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We’re really fortunate that we got to grow our little family more, and while it wasn’t easy at the beginning, it was all worth it. Audrey still winds Gizmo up, and Gizmo will still growl at Audrey sometimes, but that’s part of the cat and dog life. Thank you for reading; if you have any articles or good informational articles you think I should read about having a cat and dog household, please feel free to get in touch via my socials, I’d love to read them.

Have a great week! 🐾