Cats Will Be Kitties - Haiku - On Tolerance, Family, and Allowing Everyone To Be Their Authentic Selves

Cats will be kitties.
No matter what beds we give . . .
they will lie elsewhere.
;-)

For the record, what is sprinkled in the middle of the kitty bed is catnip, meant to make it more attractive to them.

Clearly a big hit so far, lol!

Truffle, our kitten to the right, is clearly smitten with Musica, and considers her to be her adopted mom, which Musica sometimes tolerates and sometimes seems completely exasperated by.

That said, they are mostly friends, the hissing we experienced in the beginning has largely subsided, and their companionship is mostly peaceful, as evidenced by these photos, taken in the past couple of days.

That said, we still have our challenges, including a nest of yellow jackets that have made their home on our covered front porch, within three feet of our front door. I wish I was kidding.

So far, I've been nailed badly twice, Lolo has been nailed at least twice, and Marek was nailed once that I know of, but he got it the worst of all - the yellow jacket stung him deeply enough that it left it's stinger embedded in his skin, which at least means that that young lady will never sting again, but that is small comfort with the rest of the nest ready, willing and able.

And, unfortunately, the gentleman who cut out our bee hive, who promised to come back and finish the job, who I trusted on our property and in close contact with our animals, has since failed to respond to texts and phone calls, leading me to believe that he may well be blowing me off, and not the sort of person I thought he was.

Which is interesting, as Marek was suspicious from the start.

In any case, I am seeking advice from the @naturalmedicine community, as I was advised by our vet to give Lolo Benadryl for his allergies to fleas and other biting insects, which has worked to improve the quality of his life, as he can now sleep through the night without biting himself constantly.

At the same time, he is now less tolerant of the cats, which is not a good change, and when our kitten Truffle cuddles up close to him, because he was first to befriend her and she sees him as her protector, he gives a low growl when she gets too close.

I have been reading that Benadryl, taken over time, can change the personality of a dog, and I am hoping that this is not what we're seeing.

But, even though we have made it clear that the growling is unacceptable, I am now not home during the day, and the growling continues. So far I am not seeing overt aggression, but I am concerned.

So if anyone knows of effective alternatives, particularly herbal alternatives that do not involve laboratory-derived medications, I would love to know about them.

Because, although Lolo has not become actually aggressive, the growliness is not a good change, and after my experience with our Newfy-mix Sprinkles, it makes me especially wary.

I am the first to acknowledge that I may be overly concerned, but having been attacked without warning, by a dog I previously trusted completely, I don't think that my caution is unreasonable.

If I can lessen any risk, to myself and to our animals, particularly after what happened with our rabbit, I choose to do so.

In any case, I would love for Lolo have a better quality of life, without the need for chemical intervention, and for all of our animals to be more peaceful and loving toward one another.

If anyone has information that would get us further toward that aim, I'd love to hear from you.

Life is good, and it's getting better, better and better. ;-)

This post, and all those from now until the end of 2018, I am dedicating to the work of #tarc and #yah, aka @rhondak's nonprofit dog rescue and @sircork's charity @youarehope.

Half the liquid proceeds earned from my posts will be evenly split between the two organizations.

The photo above was taken by me, using my Samsung Note 8 smartphone camera.

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