First Major Dog-Cat Disagreement

[erastes]

I was in the bath, and Sasha now feels confident enough to wander around the house—or plays ball by herself. However there was suddenly a huge crash from downstairs and The Snucius fled up the stairs being chased by Sasha. She does love to chase them when they run. I don’t think she would ever hurt them, but she’s desperate for them to play with her and a running fur ball is quite irresistible.

Anyway, we had a nasty impasse. Severus was behind Sasha yeowling to LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!! and Sasha was trapped by Lucius who was all fluffed out and angry. I had to get out of the bath, chase Sevvie away and get Sasha to come.  The thing that upset me was that she would not come. She was literally cowering—as if if she DID come, I’d hit her. It confirms something that I’d suspected that she has been mistreated at some point. Of course you can’t (or you really SHOULDN’T) tell an animal off when it finally comes, because they live in the moment and they think “I did what she said and she punished me!” Eventually she did come, poor thing—and I just made a fuss of her. We then went to the cats and made up, although Sevvie took a while to calm down (he worries more than Lucius) and he’s lost some of the trust he had with her.

So I’m going to work on recall and pleasure and reward today.  I never want her to think that I’m going to wallop her again. I think she learned her own lesson about not chasing cats, though!